September 13 Saturday – David Gray wrote to Sam. “Imagine my disappointment & mortification, on getting home yesterday from Syracuse, to find your telegraph, & that I had missed you!…Did you ever write ‘The Prince & the Pauper’? How often that story has haunted me!” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Refers to ‘Prince & Pauper’ / David Gray / Answered /1879”
September 12 Friday – Charles E. Perkins wrote to Sam, complimenting them on their safe arrival, and advising that his “mizzen needs painting.” Did they wish anything done in the way of carpets or furniture before they arrived in Hartford? [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Answered”
September 11 Thursday – Sam’s article “Battle Flag Day” ran in the Hartford Courant [Camfield, bibliog.].
Orion Clemens wrote from Keokuk to Sam and Livy.
September 10 Wednesday – Sam and Livy made a quick trip to Fredonia to visit Sam’s mother, and sister Pamela Moffett. They left the children at Quarry Farm with the Cranes. (Referenced by Sam’s letter to Pamela of Sept.
September 9 Tuesday – In Boston, Howells wrote answering Clemens’ “sleepeth?” note:
Sleepeth is the matter—the sleep of a torpid conscience. I will feign that I didn’t know where to write you; but I love you and all yours, and I am tremendously glad that you are at home again. When and where shall we meet? I want to see you and talk with you. Have you come home with your pockets full of Atlanticable papers? How about the two books? [MTHL 1: 268].
September 8 Monday – Sam wrote a short note from Elmira to Mary H. Beale, who evidently was seeking employment. “…my correspondence is not voluminous enough to make a short-hand amanuensis necessary, & in my other work I am obliged to use the pen myself” [MTLE 4: 91].
September 6 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Frank Bliss. Sam sent the manuscript of A Tramp Abroad and asked when Bliss would be done with it as he was planning to visit his mother, and sister in Fredonia and wanted to know if he should wait to go or go soon. He asked that Frank telegraph him [MTLE 4: 90].
September 4 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Dan Slote, asking that a scrapbook be sent to Welch (unknown, perhaps a passenger on the voyage). Sam made no mention of the failure of Slote’s company, but evidently Dan was still handling the scrapbooks as Sam had approved [MTLE 4: 89].
September 3 Wednesday – After spending one night in New York, the Clemens family took the train for the ten-hour trip to Elmira. As was their habit, they took a hotel car.
The Royal Aquarium and Winter Garden was a place of amusement in Westminster, London. It opened in 1876, and the building was demolished in 1903. The attraction was located northwest of Westminster Abbey on Tothill Street. The building was designed by Alfred Bedborough in an ornamental style faced with Portland stone.