February 2 Thursday – The Clemenses entertained Louis Fréchette at their Hartford home [MTHL 1: 389].
Kate D. Barstow wrote from Wash. DC to request additional $50 from Sam for her medical training [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Request complied with.”
February 1 Wednesday – Joe Twichell wrote: “Your remembrance of dear Alex Holley, and your liking for him will give the enclosed eulogy and notice of the works he wrought some interest to you….Hope Jean and House are better this morning…” [MTP]. Note: Alexander Lyman Holley died on Jan. 29; he was the foremost steel engineer of his time.
February – Sam’s notebook: “Get Kellogg’s Andersonville experiences through a short-hand reporter,” referring to Robert H. Kellogg’s Life and Death in Rebel Prisons (1865). Kellogg was an agent for the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Hartford at this time [Gribben 366].
January 31 Tuesday – The Canadian poet laureate, Louis Honoré Fréchette of Quebec, was a big fan of Sam’s and met him during the Montreal dinner. Fréchette was also William Dean Howells’ brother-in-law, husband of Anne Howells. Fréchette soon came to the U.S.; Sam spoke at a dinner in his honor at the Hotel Windsor, in Holyoke, Mass. His subject: “On After-Dinner Speaking”:
January 30 Monday – Edward “Ned” House and his adopted Japanese daughter, Koto, evidently returned for what was intended to be a brief visit, because Sam wrote on Jan. 28 to Howells that “House & Koto are coming Monday. They leave again Tuesday.” House and daughter may have traveled somewhere and returned to spend another day with Sam. An attack of gout would keep House abed at Sam’s for three weeks. House wouldn’t leave until Feb.
January 29 Sunday – Joe Goodman wrote from Fresno, Calif. to Sam offering his opinion on P&P.
January 28 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells about the Whitelaw Reid “persecutions” of the New York Herald, which Sam had thoroughly investigated after Livy suggested he do so (See Jan. 21 entry to Webster).
January 27 Friday – Worden, Webb & Co. advised sale 100 shares Western Union @ 82 [MTP].
John Russell Young wrote: “I send you a copy of my work by express” [MTP]. Note: see Jan 26.
January 26 Thursday – John Russell Young of the New York Herald inscribed a copy of his Around the World with General Grant in 1877, 1878, 1879 (1879): “To Mark Twain, honoring his genius; and remembering the friendship of many, many years. Jno Russell Young, N.Y., January 26, 1882” [Gribben 795].
January 25 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood:
“If you and Roswell Smith are proposing a new magazine & Howell’s won’t take the editorship, why don’t you offer it to House?…Of course I have said nothing to him of the matter, & don’t know if he could drop his Japanese interests & his Japanese Consul-Generalship…” [MTP]. Note: Roswell Smith (1829-1892).