Day By Day Dates

July 24 Sunday – Sam wrote from Branford, Conn. to the Australian public, a letter which was printed in the Adelaide Observer on Oct. 15. After discussing that someone had been “scattered all over Australia pretending to be him,” Sam informed Australians that he’d never been in any part of the country and that he suspected the man to be “a pretty shabby sort of rascal.” He closed with:

July 25 Monday – Hubbard & Farmer, bankers & brokers, telegraphed Sam that they’d purchased 100 shares of Omaha Pfd. And 100 of Denver & Rio Grande for a total of $20,200 [MTP]

July 26 Tuesday – Jean Clemens’ first birthday.

Hubbard & Farmer brokers wrote they’d purchased 100 shares of Omaha at 39 & 1/4 [MTP].

Charles Webster wrote he could not come up this week. “Would next Monday do?” [MTP]

July 27 Wednesday – On or about this day Sam wrote to Charles Webster with Kaolatype business and a request to ask the William H. Jackson & Co. about “offensive odors sent out by the gas-logs…when they are burning” [MTP]. Charley handled all sorts of professional, business and personal matters for the Clemens family

July 29 Friday – Sam sent a correspondence card from Branford, Conn. to G. Brandford Dudman of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, saying that he had “quitted the platform permanently” but thanked him for the compliment of an invitation [MTP]

July 30 Saturday – Sam received proofs of 150 of the engravings for P&P [MTP letter July 31 to Gerhardt].

Charles E. Norton wrote to Sam: “The village rejoices at the news of your coming; the people are reckless of the consequences. The day fixed for the festival is August 25th”. He gave directions [MTP]

July 31 Sunday – Sam wrote from Branford to Karl and Hattie Gerhardt, encouraging the couple to “climb along & enjoy” the “upgrade” of life, while “the morning is fair & the landscape gracious before you” [MTP].

Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers sent a statement of acct., $24,159.81 credit [MTP].

Charles Dudley Warner wrote to Sam that he was sending him an agent, Mr. Lester’s sister [MTP]

August – Sam followed with interest the debate in the August issue of North American Review between Jeremiah S. Black and Robert Green Ingersoll, titled “The Christian Religion.” Ingersoll held views Sam admired privately, but was unable to proclaim publicly. Sam wrote to Ingersoll:

“I have been well entertained by your theological article in the magazine, and Judge Black’s ludicrous ‘reply’ to it” [Schwartz 185]

August 1 Monday – Sam wrote from Branford to Benjamin H. Ticknor, partner along with his brother Thomas Ticknor in J. Osgood & Co.

“We go hence to Elmira, N.Y., three days from now, and that will be my address for the following six weeks.”

August 2 Tuesday – Sam wrote to Herbert M. Laurence in Venice, letter not extant but referred to in Laurence’s Aug. 26 reply

August 4 Thursday – The Clemens family left the Montowese House in Branford, Conn. headed to  Elmira with a stop in Hartford to do a few errands [MTNJ 2: 396n135]. Likely the day the Clemens family went to New York City. As was their custom, they probably stayed the night in a good hotel and continued on to Elmira the next day.

August 5 Friday – Based on Sam’s telegram of Aug. 6, this is the likely day for the 10-hour train trip from New York to Elmira, this time taking an extra two hours

August 6 Saturday – Sam telegraphed from Elmira to Franklin Whitmore.

“BROKE AN AXLE EIGHT HOURS FROM NEW YORK AND TWENTY FIVE MILES FROM HOME LAY STILL & ROASTED TWO HOURS REACHED HOME AT NINE, PM EVERYBODY IS BRIGHT AND WELL TODAY” [MTP]

August 7 Sunday Livy wrote from Elmira to Hattie Gerhardt, and Sam added “God be wi’ ye!” at the end. The letter was about their “long and very tiresome trip from the sea side to Quarry Farm; of baby Jean and her preference for her father; and admonitions for Karl Gerhardt not to work too hard; and an inquiry if they’d seen Mrs. Warner, who evidently was visiting the Continent [MTP].

August 8 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Franklin Whitmore. He complained of lumbago from “Carrying Jean up & down in the car, on that red-hot 12 hour trip.” He told of Jean’s whimpering and of Susy and Clara’s stoicism during the ordeal.

August 9 Tuesday – Marie A. Brown wrote from Chicago to Sam: “Your advice to authors—to publish themselves and to give a commission to instead of receiving it from publishers—is invaluable, and I long to follow it.” She asked his further advice about her six historical novels from the Swedish [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “A Curiosity"

August 10 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Joel Chandler Harris in Atlanta, who wrote Sam on Aug. 4 [MTLP 401].

August 11 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Benjamin H. Ticknor, enclosing a check for $850.26 for publishing costs, probably for P&P and its circular. Ticknor had requested sales points for a circular and Sam replied that he wasn’t the best man to give them, that he should “leave it alone ten days & then get the points from Osgood & Anthony, & a suggestion or two from Howells…” [MTP]. (See Aug.14.)

August 12 Friday – Sam wrote twice from Elmira to Charles Webster. The longest letter asked him to negotiate with the remodelers William & Robert Garvie and James Ahern on work in progress at the Farmington Avenue house, principally a remodel of the kitchen. Sam gave quite a long laundry list of things to check, recheck, prove and consider.

August 13 Saturday – A.W. Johnson wrote from Salisbury, Mo. to tell Clemens of his wife’s connections to Florida, Mo. and of his love of Sam’s books [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “From a fellow native’s husband”

Mark Twain Club per Phil Hannagan sent a voluminous paper, “Twain Club Papers No 1” to Clemens [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Introduced by that lunatic Irishman of Carlow Castle”

August 14 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Benjamin H. Ticknor about the advertising circular for P&P, and the illustrations he’d chosen for a run of 20 special books. Frank T. Merrill was the principal illustrator of the book and Sam wrote:

August 15 Monday – Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to Benjamin H. Ticknor, agreeing with Ticknor’s processing an engraving cut down to the required reduction. Sam would wait for Chapter 1 of P&P to evaluate the book fully illustrated consecutively [MTP].

August 16 Tuesday – In Belmont, Mass., Howells wrote to Sam:

Your Ashfield audience will be the farmer-folks of the region, quiet and dull on top, but full of grit and fun; they’re fond of speaking, and rather cultivated, but not spoiled. They know you, like a book, and you can trust all your points to them. Their life is one of deadly solitude and suffocating frugality; but they are smart. They will stand lots of human nature from you [MTHL 1: 365].

August 17 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster. Evidently Webster had recommending closing up the Kaolatype business, but Sam poured good money after bad.

You wish to know when I shall “close up?” When the business pays me $5,000 a year clear profit. Not before. The brass alone shall pay me more than that, before I am done with it….

August 18 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Franklin Whitmore who had spent some vacation time with the Clemenses at Branford, Conn. earlier in the summer. Sam squared accounts with Whitmore on his share of the meals. He also enclosed a: