July 4 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to his attorney Charles Perkins, restating the value of his house and goods for insurance purposes. Sam’s brother-in-law, Theodore Crane, suffered loss of a building insured for $12,000 that the “consultation-gang of insurance-thieves” had said was only worth $8,000 [MTLE 2: 88].
July 3 Tuesday – Frank Fuller finished his June 30: “Bowers sent his regular little dft for 3100 yestrdy, a proof that he still survives.” Fuller intended to leave town should Bowers show up, lying around, “stunning me with steam pressures & tables of expansion” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env “No answer”; H.C. Bowers; see June 11 listing.
July – To an unidentified person:
“Always acknowledge a fault frankly. This will throw those in authority off their guard & give you opportunity to commit more” [MTLE 2: 87].
June 30 Saturday – In Conanicut, R.I., Howells wrote to Sam, perhaps answering his of June 29. Howells wrote of his recent trip to Quebec and of breakfasting with President Hayes during his recent to Boston and Newport. Howells loved Sam’s pieces about the Bermuda trip:
June 29 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Howells. Only the envelope survives [MTLE 2: 86].
June 28 Thursday – Charles T. Parsloe wrote to ask for a $50 check, and to say, “I am afraid nothing can be done with Mr Abby, Park Theatre So I am trying what can be done with Mr. O.R. Thorne of the Lyceum” [MTP].
Charles E. Perkins sent Clemens a list of insurances on his house and furniture [MTP].
June 27 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Howells about finishing part four of the Bermuda travelogue article, “Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion.” As always, Sam deferred to Howells on matters of editing or appropriateness:
“Do not hesitate to squelch them, even with derision & insult.”
June 25 Monday – Joe Twichell wrote to Sam that he was sending a novel by Sabine Baring Gould (1824-1924), “In Exitu Issail.” (In Exitu Israel; 1870). He thanked for the Bermuda trip and valued it, a “splendid time,” enjoyed as “few things in all my life….more like a boy in my feelings than I remember being for many a year” [MTP].
June 21 Thursday – Sam wrote two letters from Elmira to Howells. Sam had read in the newspapers that Bret Harte was trying to get a consulship.
June 20 Wednesday – Frank Fuller wrote a postcard from NYC. “I don’t know ‘Pitkins,’ but I have written Bowers to send me the bill for payment. Who overcharged? Pitkins? I’ll warrant it! ‘Tis true ‘tis Pitkins: Pitkins ‘tis, ‘tis true. If I am seem to see an overcharge in that bill when it comes, I’ll render Pitkins sad at heart” [MTP].