April 23 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Mary Mason Fairbanks who chided him for not writing. Sam gave it back in spades for her not visiting when she was “3 or 4 hours” by train from them. Sam was still talking about a Mississippi River trip, now he hoped in May or June, and then he’d “try to stop a night in Cleveland en route.” He told of going to Boston to see the Concord Centennial but not seeing it; and the Beecher trial.

April 22 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Dean Sage to thank him for the visit and to explain why his thanks were somewhat delayed. “Howells & I fooled around all day & never got to the Centennial at all, though we made forty idiotic attempts to accomplish it” [MTL 6: 452].

April 21 Wednesday – Sam wrote a $23.00 check to F. Bubser [MTP].

April 20 Tuesday – Sam returned home to Hartford.

April 19 through May 1 Saturday – The Gilded Age play was performed at Boston’s Globe Theater, John T. Raymond in the lead role as Colonel Mayberry Sellers of Hawkeye, Missouri. Howells attended on May 1 [MTL 6: 475n2].

April 18 Sunday – Sam wrote from Cambridge to Livy and enclosed a poem from 11-year-old Winny Howells. Sam & Joe’s trip to Concord for the Apr. 19 centennial celebration was thwarted by packed trains. Sam had a bad case of indigestion, so the pair returned home and tried unsuccessfully to con Elinor Howells that the trip had been a success [MTL 6: 449].

April 17 Saturday – Sam left for Cambridge, Mass. without Livy to visit William and Elinor Howells [MTL 6: 449]. Livy wrote on Apr. 23 to Elinor Howells that her wet-nurse got drunk when Livy was away, which explained her absence [MTL 6: 451n2]. Note: Livy had been ill recently.

April 16 Friday – Sam was in NYC, where 0.17 inch of rain fell on the NYC area [NOAA.gov].

April 15 Thursday – The New York Sun, “Ragged Edge in Earnest,” reported on Sam attending the Beecher trial of the previous day:

Mark Twain shambled in loose of coat and joints and got a seat near the plaintiff’s table. He closely resembled Mr. Moulton, and was mistaken by many for that much-watched attendant.

Twichell’s journal:

April 14 Wednesday – In Brooklyn, Sam and Twichell sat in on a session of the Henry Ward Beecher trial. Dean’s father, Henry W. Sage, had been a trustee of Beecher’s church for nearly 20 years and employed Beecher’s son in his lumber business. Dean Sage came at noon and the trio lunched at some club, then all three went back to watch the trial.