March 16 Thursday – After meeting with Sam, Roswell H. Phelps, after conferring with his boss at the Continental Ins. Co., Hartford, outlined in a letter his acceptable conditions for his employment as a stenographer. “Suppose we make it at the rate of $100. per month and all expenses for the time I am actually absent from this office?” [MTP]. These must have been acceptable because Sam quickly agreed and wrote Webster on Mar. 20 of his choice [MTNJ 2: 517].

March 15 Wednesday – Hartford schoolteacher, Roswell H. Phelps, visited Sam to apply for stenographer on the upcoming trip to the Mississippi. Negotiations for salary took place. Phelps may have shown Sam some fundamentals of shorthand, because there are several practice pages of shorthand from this period in Sam’s notebook [MTNJ 2: 453n59].

In Boston, Howells wrote Sam:

March 14 Tuesday – Sam typed a note from Hartford to Frank Fuller, about missing him in New York on his recent trip. Their relationship had been rather vacant since the “steam-generator” fiasco of 1877, when Sam lost $5,000. It’s not clear who re-initiated contact. (See also Mar. 23 entry.)

March 13 Monday – Sam’s mother, Jane Clemens, and his sister, Pamela Moffett, arrived in Hartford to visit Sam, Livy and the children. They stayed until Apr. 8 [MTHL 1: 393]. Note: MTNJ 2: 457n81 puts the end of the visit at Apr. 7.

March 11 Saturday – Arnold, Constable & Co., New York, billed Sam $19.78 for “blankets, gloves, lace, ruffling”; paid Mar. 16 [MTP].

James R. Osgood wrote (Edward B. Dickinson to Osgood Mar. 10 enclosed): “You see by the enclosed that Dickinson cannot go. I have written asking him if he can recommend any one” [MTP]. Note: Sam was looking for a stenographer to go on the Miss. River trip.

March 10 Friday – At noon, Sam saw Ulysses S. Grant at 2 Wall Street in New York, hoping to prevent President Arthur from replacing William Dean Howells’ father, William Cooper Howells as U.S. consul at Toronto. Shortly after this day, Grant assured Sam that Howells would keep the post [MTNJ 2: 450n47].

March 9 Thursday – Sam took a train to New York, where he met Howells. The two men checked into the Hotel Brunswick [MTNJ 2: 451n54; N.Y. Times Mar. 10 p.8].

Clarence E. Ash (ca. 1861-1897) in Sioux City, Ia. sent a pre-printed autograph seeking card, spelling Clemens with two ‘m’s [MTP].

March 8 Wednesday – George P. Bissell wrote with a Bradstreet’s report on the Am. Bank Note Co., which he highly recommended [MTP].

Hooker & Co. wrote a short Note: “Your telegram just received. We will put the carriage in the works immediately and push it forward to completion as fast as possible” [MTP].

March 7 Tuesday – Karl & Hattie J. Gerhardt wrote to Sam and Livy, thrilled with a letter just rec’d from the Clemenses. More about progress on their studies [MTP]. Note: dated Mar. 8 but postmarked 7th.

March 6 Monday – William Dean Howells returned to Boston [MTHL 1: 392n1].

Sam telegraphed from Hartford to John Russell Young. Sam had written to General Grant for a favor of keeping Howells’ father in his Toronto consulate position. He asked Young to get Grant’s answer and write or send him a telegram, saving Grant the bother [MTP].