August 7 Saturday – Robert Thornton Lowery (1859-1921) wrote from Petreola, Ontario to Sam:

August 6 Friday – Lilly G. Warner wrote to Sam, thanking him for his letter from baby Jean, and very concerned after hearing Livy was worse [MTP].

August 5 Thursday – Lucy Adams Perkins wrote to Sam with congratulations and concern for Livy. She related their house being burgled “again…at the same parlor window.” A policeman heard the window slide and came to find the burglar in the parlor; he fired a shot at him as he fled into the bushes, but missed him [MTP].

August 3 Tuesday – What Fishkin calls “noisy hoopla that engulfed Elmira” was the arrival and speech of Frederick Douglass. “The event drew delegations from virtually every city and town within a hundred miles. Sixty-three guns were fired at 11 A.M. Well before the parade began, the ‘excitement reached the white folks, and the streets were thronged with expectant people.’” At least four bands provided music. The parade route went around the Langdon home.

August 2 Monday – Jane Clemens wrote from Van Buren to baby Jean.

August 1 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Howells asking him to locate a book at a Boston store for him. He added a short paragraph on the new baby’s progress, saying they’d hoped for twins [MTLE 5: 139].

Sam also wrote to Frank E. Bliss, forwarding a letter and enclosures intended for the American Publishing Co.

August – Sam’s sketch, “Edward Mills and George Benton: A Tale” ran in the August issue of the Atlantic Monthly [Wells 23]. Wilson calls this “a humorless moral tale that satirizes several aspects of nineteenth-century American culture” [68]. $50 check from Houghton, Mifflin & Co. dated Aug. 2 and deposited Aug. 6 for this article is in the MTP, 1880 financial file.

July 31 Saturday – Charles E. Perkins wrote an accounting of Sam’s bank account having deposited $18,392.12 from American Publishing Co. and $386.66 from interest. He paid out $906 to Geo. Warner’s note & interest, 619.54 to Taxes for city town & school; church debt subscription 101.50; Insurance on home 234.25; Mrs. Jane Clemens $50 and Orion $50, for total outgoing of $2,961.29 [MTP].

July 30 Friday – Mary Keily wrote from the Lancaster Insane Asylum, Penn. “I have written to you at one time by the influence of the stars & now I am writing to you by the influence of the thunder.” Another very long, rambling, often incoherent letter from “the lunatic” as Twain called her [MTP].

July 29 Thursday – Susan L. Warner (Mrs. Charles Dudley Warner) (1831?-1921) sent congratulations on the birth of Jean [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Mrs. Warner re Jean’s birth”.

Roger Marvin Griswold, M.D. (1852-1935) wrote from North Manchester, Conn.

Samuel L. Clements [sic], / Hartford, Conn, / Dear Sir: