September 30 Sunday – Sol Smith Russell wrote to Sam: “Yours to Norfolk Va – was sent to me. Thank you kindly for your letter as I had about despaired of hearing from you—Depend on it I shall run up and see you as soon as possible” [MTP].
September 27 Thursday – O.W. Bromwell wrote from Jacksonville, Tenn. to Sam, clippings enclosed. “Thinking that perhaps the fate of the ‘Ocean Tramp’ described in your letter to the Hartford Courant Sept. 19 would be of some interest to you, I take the liberty to send you the enclosed clippings” [MTP]. Note: clippings about the schooner Jonas Smith, from NY Herald Sept. 20, “Mark Twain Solves the Mystery of the Bark Jonas Smith”
September 25 Tuesday – Frederick Wicks wrote on Glascow News notepaper to tell Sam about G.C. Clemens, a man people kept thinking was Mark Twain, even though his hair was jet black. Even reporters of the Evening News published the man was Twain [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env “Rather amusing & a trifle discomforting”
September 24 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote a postcard to Charles Perkins, asking if money from Edwards (unidentified) had been received [MTLE 2: 167].
H.W. Bergen wrote to Sam: “Yours of he 21st enclosing chk for $100—reached me this A.M all OK. Also the contract which I enclose signed.” He promised to hold down expenses and had hope the business would pay them both [MTP].
September 23 Sunday – Isaiah Weston wrote a postcard from St. Louis: “Friend Sam = Have just returned from the Black Hills, Rusty & Seedy = Save old Judge Morgan = also, & nearly all the old broken Pioneers , of the few who are left = If you wish to write me, — Direct to Sherman, Texas, the next 40 days = your absent friend of 11 years…” [MTP]. Note: nothing further found on Weston. 11 years would = 1866, when Clemens was in Hawaii.
September 22 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to John Sherman, Secretary of the Treasury, enclosing an excerpt from an article regarding the schooner Jonas Smith not being in trouble. Sam apologized for having caused Sherman any trouble connected with the “shameful” crew [MTLE 2: 165].
September 21 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Perkins. Sam informed Perkins that he’d told H.W. Bergen to report once a year or so, that dramatics weren’t worth the effort to do it oftener [MTLE 2: 164]. An agreement with this date temporarily transferred Sam’s interest in the Colonel Sellers play to Bergen [MTPO Notes with Oct.
September 20 Thursday – Sam’s letter about contacting the mystery vessel, the schooner Jonas Smith, with a large black crew not being mutineers as first reported, ran in the Hartford Courant under the headline “Tramp of the Sea” [MTLE 2: 154-7].
September 19 Wednesday – From Hartford, Sam wrote a letter to the editor of the Hartford Courant, which ran on page 2 on Sept. 20 as, “A Tramp of the Sea.” Sam threw some light upon the mystery of a “schooner with a black crew of thirteen and only one white man,” (the Jonas Smith). On return from Bermuda Sam’s ship had come in contact with the mystery vessel [MTLE 2:&nb