June 21 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Elisha Bliss, sending him three articles, “$125 for the lot,” payable to Orion at one-tenth of the $125 per week until paid. He wanted Bliss to mention his upcoming lecture and told him to say this:
June 15 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to James Redpath. Sam poured cold water on the idea of a woman reading humorous lectures or doing impersonations on stage. Possibly Redpath had received an offer from Helen Potter to tour with Sam. Helen did impersonations of well-known lecturers like John Gough, Henry Ward Beecher, and others [MTL 4: 408-9].
June 13 Tuesday – Francis P. Church of the Galaxy requested an article from Sam, and was rewarded with “About Barbers,” which first appeared in the August edition [MTL 4: 394]. It’s unclear why Sam would accede to such a request, but Church’s approach must have been less insistent than Bliss and Orion’s. Sam sold the piece for $100 [MTL 4: 410].
June 12 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to James Redpath. Sam agreed to start his lecture tour in the West if Redpath preferred. He asks what “Olive & those other dead beats” were charging (Olive Logan 1839-1909) [MTL 4: 407].
June 11 Sunday – Sam wrote a most unusual letter from Elmira to his mother, Jane Lampton Clemens—on many scraps of different kinds and colors written on both sides. This was Sam’s way of teasing his mother for writing on any old piece of paper she happened on.
June 10 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to James Redpath & George L. Fall of the Boston Lyceum Lecture Bureau. Showing that he’d given the lecture circuit a great deal of thought from his past experiences. He wrote a list of seventeen items that he would or would not like for a lecture he’d written the day before. He was finally demanding higher prices, bigger towns and cities, and could name his preferences [MTL 4: 398-400].
June 9 Friday – Sam wrote a new lecture, “An Appeal in behalf of Extending the Suffrage to Boys” [MTL 4: 398].
June 7 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Orion and Mollie.
June 6 Tuesday – Sam was back in Elmira and began work on what would be Chapter 54 of Roughing It, which began by referring to a news item of June 3 in the New York Tribune.
“As I write, news comes in that broad daylight in San Francisco, some boys have stoned an inoffensive Chinaman to death, and that although a large crowd witnessed the shameful deed, no one interfered” [Roughing It, Ch.54].
June 5 Monday – A letter sold on eBay (Sept. 18, 2007; # 270167135431) that puts the Clemens family’s departure for Elmira at June 5. Though dated only “June 5,” the letter could only fit into this date for the entire period from 1870 through 1885: