September 30 Saturday – Following a noisy torchlight parade with a band and Civil War veteran marchers, Sam gave his first political speech. He spoke for Rutherford B. Hayes at Allyn Hall in Hartford. Though the city was Republican, there was some mud-slinging by supporters of Tilden.
September 29 Friday – In the evening, Sam and Livy entertained Hartford friends in their “big, long talked of party,” that “went off well.” (See Sept. 27 entry.)
Peter Henderson, Seedsman and Florist, New York City receipted $2.50 [MTP].
September 27 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to John and Alice Hooker Day that he and Livy would be happy to see them on “Friday evening from 7 till 11” [MTLE 1: 119]. Note: Sam & Livy had attended the 1869 Hooker-Day wedding in New York. This note from MTPO:
September 25 Monday – Henry W. Shaw (Josh Billings) wrote a note from NYC. He advised sending Sam one of his books: Josh Billings: His Works, Complete. If Sam should “be seized with a longing to say something tender” then Shaw would be very much pleased. In the book he wrote this inscription:
September 24 Sunday – Gertrude Kellogg wrote to thank Sam for his help “in speaking a good word for me to the Bureau people in Boston, as I have heard you did” [MTPO]. Notes from source: Kellogg had won critical praise in 1874 as Laura Hawkins in the original New York production of Clemens’s Gilded Age play, Colonel Sellers and was returning to the stage.
September 22 Friday – In Pepperell, Mass., Howells wrote, agreeing to Sam’s idea of promoting Stoddard, adding, “C.W.S. shall be inspector of consulates. He’s in too good repair for a resident consul. Epilepsy or softening of the brain is requisite: a game arm will not do.” (Stoddard had badly broken his arm falling from a horse in Feb. 1875.) Howells wrote he had a “long letter to write you from Cambridge” [MTHL 1: 155].
September 21 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, promoting Charles Warren Stoddard for a consulship, something Sam expressed was the only thing the man was good for. Sam knew that Hayes would win because of Orion’s “desertion” of the Republican Party. Orion’s choice made:
September 20 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Warren Stoddard, his personal secretary on the first trip to England. Stoddard had written to ask if Sam or his publisher could publish a book of his. Sam advised Stoddard to write to him or Howells and say he wanted a consulship somewhere. Sam reasoned that Hayes would win the election, and since Mrs.
September 16 Saturday – Sam declined another invitation, the Sept. 15 from William A. Seaver, who wrote the “Editor’s Drawer” and the “Personal” column for Harper’s. Seaver was “one of the New York boys.”
“My Dear Boy, I can’t. You know me; you know I travel with none but the salt of the earth—never with old salts of the sea, like you. Besides, these parties drink, whom you mention. Therefore there might not be enough for me” [MTLE 1: 115].
September 15 Friday – William A. Seaver wrote from NYC.