April 12 Saturday – Alexander & Mason, patent solicitors wrote to Sam: “Your models and favor of 9th instant have been received. We believe a patent can be obtained for the improvement having carefully examined the Patent Office, found nothing like it” [MTP]. Note: Sam’s patent application for the “Improvement in Scrap-Books” was filed on May 7.
April 11 Friday – Sam’s letter dated Apr. 8 “Life-Rafts. How the Atlantic’s Passengers Might Have Been Saved” ran in the New York Tribune [Camfield, bibliog.].
April 9 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Whitelaw Reid of the New York Tribune. He enclosed a letter about the necessity of securing sufficient life rafts on ships instead of lifeboats. Sam’s “crusade” on the subject was sparked by the loss of 481 passengers and crew when the Atlantic sank on the coast of Nova Scotia on Apr. 1, 1873 [MTL 5: 335-9].
April 7–11 Friday – Captain Mouland of the Batavia visited Sam sometime between these dates. It was his second visit [MTL 5: 279n6]. In a letter of Apr. 26 to Colton Greene, a passenger on the Batavia during the rescue at sea, Sam described Mouland’s visit:
April 6 Sunday – In Virginia City, Joe Goodman wrote to Sam:
April 5-15? Tuesday – William C. Cornwell (1851-1932) sent an unsigned article and asked Sam to respond. Cornwell was a banker temporarily turned journalist. Sam answered from Hartford:
April 2 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles F. Wingate (1848-1909), correspondent for the Boston Globe and the Springfield Republican. Sam responded to Wingate’s question as to Sam’s availability, probably for an interview, and Sam told him his plans were uncertain when he’d be in New York, but he would stay at the St.
April – Vol. 1, No.1 , p.6-7 of The Globe, a literary magazine in Buffalo, N.Y. published by E.L. Cornwell, ran an article just short of two pages, “Mark Twain as a Buffalo Editor” that was rather critical of Sam’s time in that city, some three years before.
March 31 Monday – Sam read his first essay for the Hartford Monday Evening Club entitled “License of the Press” [Budd,“Collected” 1014]. Sam said, “The touchy Charles Reade can sue English newspapers and get verdicts; he would soon change his tactics here” [Gribben 572].
Sam’s article, “A Horrible Tale – Fearful Calamity in Forest Street” ran in the Hartford Courant [Camfield, bibliog.].
March 30 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to the editor of the Hartford Courant, a fictitious tale about a family drowning in construction mud on Forest Avenue.
“There was a heavy sea on by this time, of mud & water mixed, & every third colossal poultice of it that rolled along made a clean breach over the wagon & left the occupants looking like the original Adam before the clay dried” [MTL 5: 325-8].