March 28 Sunday – In Hartford Sam wrote to David Gray, his old friend and editor from Buffalo Courier, sorry that the Grays had been forced to sell their home due to financial difficulties. He related the visit of the Howellses and asked David to come visit in the spring.
March 27 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Orion, who again had asked that his brother buy the farm that he and Mollie lived in. Sam declined, suggesting “Mr. Stotts sell Mollie a life interest in the place for an annual sum…”. Responding to Orion’s switching political allegiance to the democrats, Sam wrote:
March 26 Friday – “The most notable feature of the furniture” for Sam’s study arrived, “& the place looked almost complete.” Sam planned on moving his “inkstand permanently into a corner of the billiard room,” as the noise from the nursery in the room adjoining his study made it difficult to write [MTL 6: 430 letter to Gray]. Note: He did his best writing in quiet surroundings, which is why he did most of the writing for HF at Quarry Farm, not at the Hartford house, as the tour guide
March 24 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Elisha Bliss, recommending Bliss write Dan De Quille (William Wright) about a possible book on the story of the Comstock Lode. Sam claimed:
“The first big compliment I ever received was that I was ‘almost worthy to write in the same column with Dan de Quille’ ” [MTL 6: 424-5].
March 23 Tuesday – Phineas T. Barnum wrote to Sam.
March 22 Monday – Reginald Cholmondeley wrote from Funchal, Madiera.
March 20 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to his old childhood friend, Will Bowen, who returned the $20 check Sam sent on or about Feb. 6 for Sam Bowen. Will felt his brother would never repay the loan. Sam insisted that it was for Sam Bowen to say whether or not he needed the check and to accept or return it. So Sam asked Will simply to give it to his brother and explain.
March 19 Friday – Susy Clemens’ third birthday; in a letter to her mother, Livy told of the presents that Susy shared with her baby sister “Bay” (Clara): dolls, candy, a silver setting, a gold ring, silver thimble, a Bible from the servants, and from her father a Noah’s ark with 200 wooden animals [Willis 97].
March 18 Thursday – Sam had a large maple cut down in the yard, “five steps from the house,” thinking it was dead. He wrote in a letter to David Gray ten days later that only one limb was dead and that he found “himself keeping away from the windows on that side because that stump is such a reproach…” [MTL 6: 429].
March 17 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Charles Warren Stoddard, the day after receiving a reply to his letter of Feb. 1. Stoddard dislocated and broken his left arm in a riding accident. Sam answered that he’d never before been:
“…bodily hurt…But I had 8 cousins in one family [Lamptons] every devil of whom had enjoyed from one to two broken arms before reaching puberty. Think of it!”