April 29 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Captain John E. Mouland, sending Samuel Chalmers Thompson with the letter.
“The bearer is my friend and London helpmeet…He would like to sail with us, May 17 in the ‘Batavia’ & I would exceedingly like it myself. I hope that the ship is not so full but that a shelf can be found for him to dispose himself upon.”
April 28 Monday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to his sister, Pamela Moffett, about checks sent, her St. Louis letter received, and sending Orion some English newspapers he wanted. Sam observed about Orion’s late employment to Bliss:
Dear Sister:
April 27 Sunday – In Hartford, Sam had lunch with Joe Twichell [Letter to Livy, Apr. 26].
April 26 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Colton Greene, a passenger on the Batavia during the rescue at sea. In relating a visit by Captain John E. Mouland earlier that month, Sam wrote:
“We talked a deal about you & your disheartening habit of cursing & swearing at the table while the ladies & the ministers needed quiet & silence wherein to coax their sustenance to go down—& stay.”
April 25 and 26 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Livy in Elmira.
April 24 Thursday – Livy and baby Susy accompanied Livy’s mother and cousin Hattie Lewis to Elmira. Sam remained in Hartford to finish The Gilded Age [MTL 5: 354]. What valuables did he place in his Hartford bank vault? A receipt in Sam’s financials for the year reads:
April 22 Tuesday – Sam’s letter dated Apr. 17 to David G. Croly, editor of the New York Daily Graphic ran in that paper [MTL 5: 343n1]. The headings Sam pointed to: “solemn peacefulness” and “general stagnation, the profound lethargy that broods over the land” included:
April 21 Monday – Sam and Charles Dudley Warner wrote a note and the title page from The Gilded Age with fees for copyright to the Librarian of Congress, Ainsworth R. Spofford (1825-1908) [MTL 5: 350].
Whitelaw Reid wrote two notes to Sam. The first asking him to come to the Lotos Club for the closing dinner of the season on Saturday. The second note advising enclosed check for his “life-raft letter” [MTP].
April 20 Sunday – Sam wrote a long “screed” from Hartford to Whitelaw Reid. Sam was upset by the short review in small type that appeared in the Tribune on Apr. 19.
April 17 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to David G. Croly (1829-1889), editor of the New York Daily Graphic. Sam included a list of telegraph headings to show how “dull” things had become, leading him to “get the fidgets” and want to travel. He included news of his collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner. The letter was published in the Graphic on Apr.