September 15 Wednesday – In Elmira, Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich, who had sent him a copy of his book to read—already read by Sam (The Stillwater Tragedy, serialized in the Atlantic Monthly, Apr.-Sept.1880). He wrote about Livy and the baby Jean, and about finishing a story (Prince and the Pauper) the day before.
September 14 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to the editors of the New York Evening Post. It was a humorous letter about mining gold in water. The letter ran in the newspaper Sept. 16 [MTLE 5: 159]. Note: it was reprinted in the Sept. 20 Hartford Courant, page 1 as “Mark Twain on the Goldsprings.”
Sam finished The Prince and the Pauper. (See Sept. 15 entry.)
September 13 Monday – In Elmira, Sam wrote to Harriet Whitmore (Mrs. Franklin Whitmore), responding to her letter about her husband’s recent illness. Frank was better and Sam offered that he would “hurry up Whitmore’s health in the billiard room” when both families returned to Hartford in the fall. He wrote for Livy, who still wasn’t up to writing. The Whitmores were staying in Branford, Conn. [MTLE 5: 158].
September 11 Saturday – In Elmira, Sam sent a telegraph to George Griffin, his butler in Hartford. He directed the telegram to be exchanged with his attorney Charles Perkins for twenty dollars [MTLE 5: 157]. John J. Lawler, Hartford merchant, billed Sam $2.60 for glass pane and the labor to replace [MTP].
September 8 Wednesday – Sam paid $6.60 to A.S. Fitch at 112 Baldwin Street, Elmira for German books [MTP].
September 3 Friday – Sam wrote a postcard from Quarry Farm, Elmira to T.W.M. Boone of Ft. Smith, Arkansas, thanking him for an honorary membership in their “Young Folks’ Literary Guild” [MTLE 5: 153].
September 2–16 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Tiffany & Co. in New York, enclosing their Sept. 1 invoice and a draft for $418 for nineteen badges [MTLE 5: 152].
September 1 Wednesday – Park & Tilford billed Sam for “1 doz Glen Whisky” total $14; Sam ordered nineteen badges from Tiffany & Co. These badges were made for the young women of the Saturday Morning Club, and receipted for on Sept. 17 [MTNJ 2: 371-2n49; MTP].
September – Sam wrote a parody of the poem by James Leigh Hunt, “About Ben Adhem”. See Sam’s parody “Abou Ben Butler” [MTNJ 2: 372-3]. Sam’s second of three McWilliams sketches, “Mrs. McWilliams and the Lightning” ran in the September issue of the Atlantic Monthly [Wells 23]. Sam copied in his notebook John Sheffield’s famous quatrain:
Read Homer once, & you can read no more;
For all books else appear so mean, so poor;
August 31 Tuesday – Mary Keily finished her July 30 letter to Sam [MTP].