September 23 Thursday – In Elmira, Sam wrote to David Gray, about his plans to visit Buffalo being dashed by Clara’s throat inflammation, about Livy’s health and his lumbago, about growing older, and about the wonders of the telephone and telegraph. He’d planned to take his P&P manuscript to discuss it with Gray, who now would have to visit him [MTLE 5: 165].
September 21 Tuesday – David Gray wrote to Sam expressing the “wretched disappointment” that Sam’s telegram brought of Sam’s canceled visit over Clara’s illness; and he hoped “nothing serious is referred to in it, & that you plan for coming will only be postponed a little…Come! Come !! Come !!!” [MTP].
September 20 Monday – Sam packed a satchel and ordered a place in the sleeper car for by telephone, and prepared to leave the next morning for Buffalo and possibly Fredonia. He would visit family and the David Gray family. Six-year-old Clara came down with a very bad throat and the doctor was called. Sam canceled the trip [MTLE 5: 164].
September 17 Friday – Charles E. Perkins wrote to Clemens with the Bissell Bank balance and other financial information. Dan Slote had not answered requests for a statement [MTP].
September 16 Thursday – Sam’s letter to the New York Evening Post, dated Sept. 14, ran in the paper [MTLE 5: 159]. Camfield and Budd list this as “Millions In It” [bibliog.; “Collected” 1019].
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].