Day By Day Dates

December 11 Thursday – Robert Green Ingersoll sent Sam a copy of his The Ghosts and Other Lectures (1879) inscribed: “Saml Clemens Esq / from his friend / R.G. Ingersoll / Dec 11, 79” [Gribben 344]. (See Dec. 13 entry). Note: Sam had asked for a good copy of Ingersoll’s recent Chicago speech, and read the speech to the young ladies at the Saturday Morning Club on Dec. 13, so this book must have included the speech.

December 12 Friday – Charles W. Sackville wrote from Wash. D.C. to thank Sam for his “killing” letter to Thomas B. Kirby about the post office mess. He sketched a “monument” of Sam killing Kirby. “…you are his destroyer, but while he shall rot and perish in oblivion, you shall have a monument, erected by a grateful country, before which the Pyramids of Egypt will appear as molehills.” See insert [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Picture of Monument”.

December 13 Saturday – Sam read Robert Green Ingersoll’s Chicago speech to the young ladies at the Saturday Morning Club of Hartford [MTLE 4: 180].

Irving S. Upson wrote from Rutgers College to honor Sam with membership in their Literary Society [MTP].

December 14 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Robert Howland in San Francisco, old friend from Carson City days, thanking him for the pictures and reminding him to “put in an appearance here when you come east” [MTLE 4: 179].

Sam also wrote to Gen. William E. Strong, letter not extant but referred to in Strong’s Dec. 19 reply.

December 15 Monday – William Gray Thomas wrote from Oakland, Calif. to ask Sam if he’d read a novel Thomas had written. Thomas grew up in Florida, Mo., Sam’s birthplace and was known then as “Willie Gray Thomas,” and remembered Sam well. “…you have made such a noise in the world that I could not well help it” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the back of the letter., “Can’t do it.”

December 16 Tuesday – Joseph N. Verey wrote from London to Sam, answering his of Nov. 5, which he’d rec’d at Florence. Verey was grateful for Sam’s recommendations, as it had made a great difference in being able to support his invalid mother by hiring as a guide [MTP]. Note: Sam’s Nov. 5 to Very not extant.

December 18 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Frank B. Earnest (suspected pseudonym of a journalist, probably from the Knoxville Tribune, where this reply was first printed, then reprinted in the New York Times on Jan. 2, 1880.)

December 19 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Frank Fuller at the Windsor Hotel in New York. Sam wrote he would drop having the music box fixed until he was “out of this awful press of work.” Elisha Bliss had regained control after his son Frank Bliss had confessed his ambition was beyond his ability.

December 20 Saturday – John Munro wrote from Bathurst, N. Brunswick to Sam. “I note by the papers that you are troubled with twins and I now enclose you how to raise them successfully this like Mr Toodles…Wishing you the compliments of the season..” [MTP]. File note: see Fuller to SLC 23 Feb 80 & SLC to Fuller 24 80

December 21 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Mary Mason Fairbanks. Sam gave the usual excuses and apologies for not writing. Evidently, Mary’s last letter said that her financial crisis was over. Sam blamed “confound speculation, anyway!” Sam was beginning his days by writing and ending it the same way, and had “to be dragged to dinner by the hair” [MTLE 4: 183]. 

December 22 Monday – Andrew H.H. Dawson wrote to Sam, enclosing a printed invitation to a festival and banquet at Delmonico’s on Jan 26, 1880 [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “I didn’t answer or go to his banquet. S.L.C.”

December 23 Tuesday – Sam ordered the Nov. 1879 St. Nicholas: A Magazine for Boys and Girls and a Jan. to Dec. 1880 subscription to Scribner’s Monthly, both  from Scribner & Co. of New York [Gribben 599, 619; Receipt at MTP dated Dec. 29].

December 24 Wednesday – Livy recited “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” for Susy and Clara.  Sam, wearing a Santa Claus beard, rushed into the room and told the girls stories about his old times and travels [Powers, MT A Life 433].

December 25 Thursday – Christmas ­– Susy Clemens received a copy of Alvan Bond’s Young People’s Illustrated Bible History (1878) from her grandmother, Olivia Lewis Langdon [Gribben 77]. Sam received a copy of Moritz Busch’s Bismark in the Franco-German War 1870-1871 from his nephew, Samuel Moffett [Gribben 119].

December 26 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to his nephew, Samuel Moffett, who was in Atlanta and had sent his uncle “the very book” he had “been wanting & intending to buy, ever since it was published.” (The title of the book is unknown.)

December 27 Saturday – Andrew H.H. Dawson wrote from NYC to advise Sam he was glad Sam would attend a dinner he’d been working on but if he didn’t show Dawson would be in “a fix.” The more he wrote the more illegible his hand became [MTP]. See Dec. 22 from Dawson.

December 29 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Robert Howland, trying to arrange a planned visit for “the early part of next week,” because Livy “succumbed this afternoon & took to her bed…” [MTLE 4: 186].

Scribner’s & Sons receipted Sam for subscriptions purchased Dec. 23 (see entry).

[Continue on to January 1880]

Hartford & Elmira – Investments: Kaolatype, Paige – Tile Club – A Tramp Abroad - Jane Lampton Clemens (Jean) born – “Wattie” – Boston Getaway - Frederick Douglass Speech – Grant Speaks in Hartford - Elisha Bliss Dead – Political Speeches for Garfield – Slote & Sneider - Grant Saves Chinese Mission – 1880 Income $250,000

1880 – Sam began using more facsimile correspondence cards of his handwriting to decline lecture invitations [MTLE 5: 6]

January – Sam was reading Robert Green Ingersoll’s Ghosts and Other Lectures, which the writer had sent him in Dec. 1879. Sam used an incident from Ingersoll’s book in The Prince and the Pauper about a woman and her nine-year-old daughter “selling their souls to the Devil” and “raising a storm by pulling off their stockings” [Schwartz 187].

Sam inscribed Memoirs of Madame de Remusat, 1802-1808 (1880) for his library [Gribben 574].

January 1-7? Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Andrew Dawson about being interrupted from attending “at the honors of the 26th.” This is the same “stranger” whose invites Sam had expressed frustration with late in 1879.

January 7 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to his mother, Jane Clemens, who had not been well. This was a serious, comforting letter. He wrote that Livy had “been running down & getting weak, in consequence of overwork in re-arranging the house.” Sam planned to take Livy to Elmira to let Livy’s mother nurse her back to health.

January 8 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells.

January 9 Friday – William Hooker Gillette (1853-1937) was back in Hartford in a play he’d written, which Andrews calls “miserable” [99]. The play was “The Professor” and Gillette lost all the money that Sam had lent him [257n56]. Though by 1880 it was no longer considered shameful to attend the theater in Hartford, Joe Twichell retained reservations about acting and faith mixing. From his journal:

January 13 Tuesday – William Mackay Laffan (1848-1909) wrote to invite Sam to dine with the NYC Tile Club on the 24th, at 3.30 in the studio of Mr. Chase, 51 West 10th. Laffan had tiny handwriting [MTP].

January 15 Thursday – William Mackay Laffan wrote again to ask Sam if he’d not just attend but “participate” in the Tile Club dinner on the 24th [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote the date, place & time on the env.