March 29 Saturday – Sam’s article “Making a Fortune,” appeared in the Jackson, California Amador Dispatch. As the “Moralist of the Main”, Sam could make his points about an issue by standing the moral order on its head. This was a funny sketch about a bank watchman robbing a bank of a million dollars, then refusing offers to return half and living on as an honored and respected man and a lesson that “even the poor may rise to affluence and respectability” [Fatout, MT Speaks 78].

March 28 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Will Bowen, sending Routledge’s London address for Will to write [MTL 5: 323].

March 26 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Elisha Bliss, vowing to finish The Gilded Age before leaving for England in May. Sam enclosed a letter from William Gouverneur Morris (1832-1884), who had approached Sam about publishing a book.

March 24 Monday – Bill for glass paid to Chas. Wright & Co., Hartford, $21.43 [MTP].

March 22 Saturday – Sam purchased a small wedge of land along the eastern side of their lot and 40 feet on the south for $1,000, which increased his frontage on Farmington Avenue by twenty feet [MTL 5: 271n6; Salsbury 17].

March 21 Friday – Sam paid $3 to Hawley, Goodrich & Co. for special notebooks of his design [MTP].

March 20 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Will Bowen, who had sent Sam an article about polar currents from Silas Bent, an oceanographer and formal naval officer. Sam thanked Will, and also explained his wife would not let him lecture anywhere.

“We sail for England May 17 & return in October—meantime we hope the most aggravating part of the house will be built & off our minds” [MTL 5: 320].

March 19 Wednesday – Susy Clemens’ first birthday.

March 18 Tuesday – Bill and receipt for $3 to Hawley & Goodrich & Co. for lost pocketbook [MTP].

March 11 Tuesday – Bill paid to Geo. W. Ford 395 Main St. Hartford; for 12 fire extinguishers charged $12 [MTP].