March 3 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to A.V.S. Anthony (1835-1906), Osgood’s design director who was also an engraver.
“I don’t know what the size of the new work [P&P] will be. I suggest that it be the size & shape of ‘Sketches, Old & New’—I think Osgood approves” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Howells.
March 2 Wednesday – In the evening, Sam and Twichell returned home from West Point [MTP letter Mar. 3 to Anthony]. Twichell’s journal notes Sam and Joe “returned home charmed with our visit…” [Yale, copy at MTP].
Goertz Bros. “Sole agents for Lion Brewery,” Hartford, billed $7.90 for 10 & ½ doz. of pilsner beer @ .75; paid [MTP].
March 1 Tuesday – Sam and Twichell were still at West Point. From Twichell’s journal:
The next forenoon we spent several hours, under Gen. Howard’s kind conduct, in looking over the institution, and were impressed most favorably with every thing from the mathematical instruction to the equestrian exercise.
March – Sometime during the month Sam revived a burlesque etiquette manual he’d begun in 1879. Howells encouraged him to finish it. After nearly 100 pages, Sam abandoned the work [MTNJ 2: 398n145].
February 28 Monday – Through the efforts of Cadet Andrew G. “Beaut” Hammond, Hartford neighbor and member of Twichell’s congregation, Sam visited West Point with Twichell. Sam gave readings: “Clarence and Eugene,” “How I Escaped Being Killed in a Duel,” and “Cure for Stammering” [Leon 35-50; MTLP 394]. Twichell noted the event in his journal; he gave an address in the ceremonies, given by the literary society of the U.S. Military Academy:
February 27 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells.
February 26 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Edward F. Noyes (U.S. Minister to France), asking for a U.S. passport for Karl Gerhardt, as a “kindness” to himself, Charles Dudley Warner and Quincy Ward, the sculptor [MTP].
Sam also wrote a letter of introduction for Karl Gerhardt to Any U.S. Representative or Other Friend of Mine [MTP].
February 25 Friday – Sam gave a reading at Twichell’s Asylum Hill Congregational Church, Hartford. He wrote of this reading in his Feb. 27 letter to Howells:
“…the thing that went best of all was Uncle Remus’s Tar Baby” [MTLP 394-5].
Sam also wrote from Hartford to Charles Perkins asking if he had “Mills’s agreement for Colorado.” This was a contract for Kaolatype work. Sam requested a copy [MTP].
February 24 Thursday – Sam gave a dinner speech at the Papyrus Club Dinner, Revere House, Boston, for the annual “Ladies’ Day” [Fatout, MT Speaking 148-50]. The speech was a funny account about no vacancies on a sleeping-car. Sam was given a sleeping car berth when a colored porter recognized him as a famous man. The only problem was, the porter thought Sam was “Jennul McClellan.”
February 23 Wednesday – Sam traveled to Boston [MTHL 1: 350, 360n3].
Robert J. Burdette wrote from Syracuse, NY., stuck in a snowstorm and unable to lecture this night in Union Springs, “where ever it is to night.” He felt Twain had “abandoned the rostrum too soon,” as this was the “boss” winter. “I am going up town to hear the Jubilee Singers”. After his signature he drew a humorous sketch of a train buried by snow.