May 25 Tuesday – In Elmira, Sam wrote to James Redpath:
TK Beecher is splendid in the pulpit—splendid is the word but I have never seen him on the platform at all—never have heard him lecture.
Our people all like his lecturing, but you ask me for my opinion, & individually, & so I have to confess ignorance [MTP, drop-in letters].
May 24 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to P.T. Barnum, to thank him for another batch of “queer letters.” Sam had heard that Barnum was in the Hartford Library, but when he got there he discovered a man named Bernard was there. “I ought to have killed him, but as it was Sunday I let him go” [MTL 6: 486].
Sam wrote a $100 check to Patrick McAleer, family coachman, designating it as “house money” [MTP].
May 23 Sunday – The St. Louis Republican reprinted Sam’s remarks before the May 12 spelling match at Asylum Hill Congregational Church [Tenney 7].
May 22 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Howells about deletions of songs and a proper ending to the Atlantic articles.
“There is a world of river stuff to write about, but I find it won’t cut up into chapters, worth a cent. It needs to run right along, with no breaks but imaginary ones” [MTL 6: 482].
May 21 Friday – F.B. C. “a young man” (no fuller name given) wrote from Hartford begging for $125. “Please don’t blame me for wishing to conceal my name” [MTP].
Fred McIntosh wrote from Phila. to ask who “Gilderoy” was in Ch. 25 of IA [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Bid for autograph letter. ‘Too thin.’ ”
May 20 Thursday – In Cambridge, Mass., Howells wrote Sam, praising the seventh and last installment of “Old Times”: “This is capital—I shall hate to have you stop!” [MTHL 1: 84].
William James Lampton (1851?-1917) wrote from St. Louis.
May 19 Wednesday – Back in Hartford, Twichell came by Sam’s house and met Bret Harte. Twichell wrote in his journal he “…was a little disappointed in his looks” [Yale, copy at MTP].
May 18 Tuesday – Sam and Joe Twichell were on the way to a baseball game between the “Hartfords” and the “Bostons” (Hartford Dark Blues and the Boston Red Stockings) when they met Elisha Bliss and Bret Harte on their way to look at a house for Harte to rent [MTL 6: 483n3]. At the baseball game, Sam’s umbrella was stolen, leading him to write an announcement to
May 15 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to George Cumming, a Western Union Telegraph operator who had written an article in the Telegrapher, a union publication. George observed how ancient jokes are, tracing one back to the Greeks. Sam had read the article and it had made him think.
May 14 Friday – Rebecca Gibbons Beach (Mrs. John Sheldon Beach; 1823-1893) wrote to Sam:
Dear Sir /Altho’ I have not the honor of yr acquaintance, I, take the liberty of remonstrating against yr refusal to contribute to the “Spirit of 76.”