March 26 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford, again to George Haven Putnam, organizer for the Bayard Taylor farewell banquet. Sam agreed to “talk four or five minutes, or rise in my place & excuse myself…” Sam argued he got more gratitude for an excuse than a speech, which he preferred over applause [MTLE 3: 38].
March 25 Monday – Still in Hartford, Sam and Livy wrote a note of thanks to the young ladies of the Saturday Morning Club for sending flowers to wish them a bon voyage [MTLE 3: 37].
March 23 Saturday – Sam had received Orion’s manuscript, and responded from Hartford with mild scolding about learning the trade (“God requires that he learn it by slow & painful processes”) and a sort of line-by-line critique. Sam was upset that Orion had imitated Jules Verne, and not burlesqued him [MTLE 3: 32-5]. One interesting point—Sam offered that he hated what had now become conventional language:
“Next came 100 people who looked like they had just been, &c”
March 20 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Warren Stoddard of the empty Farmington Avenue house. Sam thought the family would be gone “two or three years.” Although Livy had written a loose itinerary, Sam purposely wanted to escape and not plan too much after that except to get some writing done. “We are packing trunks to-day,” Sam wrote [MTLE 3: 31].
Sam’s notebook entry included revision notes for “Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven” [MTNJ 2: 55].
March 19 Tuesday – Susy Clemens’ sixth birthday was noted in Sam’s notebook [MTNJ 2: 54].
Sam’s notebook: “Lester writes (from Washington) one of the regular Jones-Lester non-committal half-promising for the 26th” [MTNJ 2: 55]. (See Mar. 13 & 26 entries.)
Sam’s Mar. 20 notebook entry for Mar. 19:
March 17 and 18 Monday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam.
March 16 Saturday – In Cambridge, Mass., Howells wrote to Sam, answering his Mar. 15 letter and submission:
“The new thing you send me is perfectly delicious. It went right home every time. What a fancy you have got! And what sense!….It’s sickening to have you going away” [MTHL 1: 224].
Howells wasn’t certain he would attend the Bayard Taylor banquet on Apr. 4, though he did go. Note: Sam’s submission was “About Magnanimous-Incident Literature.”
March 15 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells. He sent a piece for the Atlantic and also simultane-sheets to go to the Canadian Monthly and to Chatto & Windus. He doubted he would go to the Taylor banquet (though he did go) as he would be in Elmira.
New York City -- The Rossmore Hotel, on Broadway, between Forty-first and Forty-second Streets opened February 8th, 1876
March 13 Wednesday – An entry in Sam’s notebook placed this as the possible date he met with George Lester at the Rossmore Hotel in New York about recovering $23,000 he’d invested in the failed Hartford Accident Insurance Co.. Lester and Sam had been directors, and Senator John P. Jones president of the company. John D. Slee of the Langdon Coal Co. arranged a meeting with Jones, acting as Sam’s agent (see Mar. 26 entry).