September 3 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Howells:
What I call my mind, has been in a state of fierce irruption during three successive days. The consequence is, I am on my back, burnt out, devastated, & merely smoldering. …
September 2 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, sending a design for the back & side of P&P. “Take perfect care of it, & don’t let it get injured.” Sam wanted a Kaolatype cast of it [MTP].
September – Based on Aug. 31 entry evidence, Sam probably wrote the Hamlet burlesque during this month.
August 31 Wednesday – The Clemens family waited in Elmira for most of the work to be completed on their Hartford house. Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, about locating Herbert M. Laurence a New York decorator; about a request to secure four acting copies of Hamlet from Samuel French on Nassau Street; and advised to keep back a day’s wages for the workmen.
August 30 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Eliot Norton.
August 27 to 29 Monday – Sam was possibly in Boston past Aug. 26 a day or two, but by Aug. 30 was back in Elmira [MTHL 1: 371n5]. In an Aug. 31 letter to the Gerhardts, Sam referred to seeing Augustus Saint-Gaudens “two or three days ago” on the train, which would set his return to Aug. 28 or 29 [MTP].
August 26 Friday – Sam telegraphed from Boston to Charles Webster (“at residence of S.L. Clemens”), probably about the mason and plumber, William & Robert Garvie and James Ahern. Sam wrote on Aug. 12 about problems with the kitchen remodel.
August 25 Thursday – Sam wrote in the morning from Boston to Livy about his trip from Elmira.
“I never saw Mr. Slee any more after I went to bed at midnight in the cars. I found, next morning, in Albany, that I could catch the Springfield train by rushing; so I rushed—in a hack—& was the last passenger that joined it.” Sam told of seeing a working man who’d taken the wrong train so Sam paid his fare back on a 2-day ticket.
August 24 Wednesday – Sam reached “Albany early in the morning, Hartford at noon; Boston at 6 p.m.” (See Aug. 30, Norton). He stayed in Boston and Belmont until Aug. 26, and possibly a day or two more. [MTHL 1: 371n5].
Franklin G. Whitmore wrote from Branford, Conn. to Clemens, advising Sam on various bills and memos Sam had sent for him to review [MTP].
August 23 Tuesday – Sam wrote a short note from Elmira to Charles Webster, saying he was returning the “tile patterns….They do not happen to be the right ones.” Wasn’t there a “great bound book—a multitude of designs to select from”? [MTP].