Day By Day Dates

September 10 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Franklin Whitmore acknowledging receipt of his telegram on the matter of selling stock; he would follow Whitmore’s lead. Sam affected a cockney accent:

“It as been orrible weather ere, otter then we’ve ever seen it before on the summit of this hill. But we shan’t complain, as long as it isn’t killing the President” [Note: Garfield died Sept. 19].

September 11 Sunday – In Belmont, Mass., Howells wrote to Sam:

“That is a famous idea about the Hamlet, and I should like ever so much to see your play when it’s done. Of course, you’ll put it on the stage, and I prophesy a great triumph for it.”

Howells also wrote about Sam’s “very generous willingness” to pay in advance for his “Library of Humor” work. Daughter Winny was still “trying the rest cure” [MTHL 1: 373].

September 12 Monday – Sam went alone to pay his mother, Jane Clemens, and sister, Pamela Moffett, a visit in Fredonia. Livy could not coordinate a nursemaid for the trip. After four hours he stopped in Rochester to rest and spent the night [Sept. 18 Fairbanks letter].

September 13 Tuesday – Sam left Rochester at 10 A.M. and got to Fredonia at 3 PM. While there he checked up on one of his investments. From the Fredonia Censor, Sept. 21, 1881:

September 14 Wednesday – Jane Augspurg wrote from Hartford to ask Sam if she might translate some of his works into German [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “From a translator”

September 15 Thursday – When Sam left Fredonia his mother accompanied him the three miles to the station at Dunkirk, then returned home. Sam waited at Dunkirk until 3 A.M. for a train to take him the 45 miles to Buffalo, where he stayed overnight at David Gray’s [Sept. 18, 19 letters to Fairbanks, Jane Clemens].

September 16 Friday – Sam left Buffalo and reached Elmira in the evening [Sept. 18 Fairbanks letter].

September 17 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster.

September 18 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Mary Mason Fairbanks. After relating his trip to Fredonia and back, Sam’s fatigue led him to declare, “I am an old man at 45—older than some men are at 80.” He urged Mary to visit them in Hartford, that he didn’t think he could stand a trip to “that remote region” (Cleveland) where she lived. He expected to be able to send her a copy of P&P by Dec. 1.

September 19 Monday – James A. Garfield lost his long struggle. He was the second U.S. President to be assassinated. Chester A. Arthur would be sworn in as the new President on Sept. 20.

Sam wrote from Elmira to his mother, that it “took me two days to get rested again” from the trip to Fredonia, the return trip through Buffalo, and home. He was glad Livy and the children had not been along, but:

September 20 Tuesday – The Clemens family left Elmira and traveled overnight to New York. (See Sept. 17 to Webster).

September 21 Wednesday – The Clemens family checked into the Gilsey House (see Sept. 17 to Webster). They spent “a day or two” in New York. Their stay was spent looking after the Kaolatype business and arranging for the redecoration of the Farmington Avenue house, which had been under renovation since March [MTNJ 2: 399n148].

New York weather: 73 to 62 degrees F. No precipitation [NOAA.gov].

September 22–23 Friday – The Clemens family returned to Hartford, where they found the house in disarray:

September 23 Friday – Hattie J. Gerhardt wrote again to Sam and Livy about details of their artwork and their life in Paris [MTP].

Charles Webster to Sam: “I delay writing to Nealy for fear of stirring up Joyce & Goff it seems to me on reflection that we want to buy them out on K. & English patent before we seem to enlarge by employing Nealy.” Two pages on Kaolatype details [MTP].

September 24 Saturday – Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers wrote to advise selling 100 shares of Omaha Common at $45 [MTP].

September 28 Wednesday – Thomas Bailey Aldrich for Atlantic Monthly wrote to Sam: “I have just rec’d a telegram message from that girl in Chattanooga. She says it was a shame to inflict the death penalty on [illegible word], as he only outraged her in the ‘second degree.’…Did the typhoon and the maelstrom hit you the other day?” [MTP].

September 29 Thursday – Moncure Conway wrote to Clemens that he had a statement from Chatto & Windus of Sam’s account up to July 1 [MTP].

James R. Osgood wrote to Clemens, clarifying many points on Canadian copyright law and advising it would be necessary for Clemens to go to Canada “four or five days preceding and four or five days following the date of publication” [MTP].

September 30 Friday – Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers sent a statement showing a credit balance to Oct. 1 of $13,679.32 [MTP].

October – On a Saturday, Sam spoke on “mental telegraphy” as a guest of William D. Whitney, a Yale professor, at Whitney’s home in New Haven. Sam gave his talk at a meeting of the New Haven Saturday Morning Club, a young ladies’ social and cultural group much like Hartford’s. Whitney’s daughter, Marian, was twenty [MTNJ 2: 359n12].

October 1 Saturday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam, “working steadily on my revising.”  He noted Sam was no longer writing for the Atlantic. He was going to subscribe to Scribner’s [MTP].

October 2 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Webster, mentioning his hope of interesting William W. Ellsworth of Scribner’s in the Kaolatype engraving process. Ellsworth was “the nephew of the business manager & chief owner of Scribner’s” and would become head manager of the Century magazine in 1882 [MTNJ 2: 358n5; MTP].

October 4 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Edward House, announcing they had all reached home and were living in a couple of rooms while the workmen finished remodeling.

“O never revamp a house! Leave it just as it was, & then you can economise in profanity” [MTP].

Sam’s notebook: entries for amounts due, deposits made with his banker, Bissell & Co. [MTNJ 2: 401]. 

October 5 Wednesday – Sam was well acquainted with frustration from contractors. In his notebook:

“Sent Patrick for Ahern 10 days ago.— He didn’t come. Sent for him yesterday by Dr Hooker, to mend up a hot water leak & other things. He didn’t come. Sent for Robt. Garvie this morning, the necessity being pressing. He came, & did the work” [MTNJ 2: 401-2].

October 6 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Elisabeth Fairchild, wife of Charles Fairchild, neighbors of the Howellses in Belmont, Mass. A dog of Sam’s had been killed, perhaps chasing a carriage or a horse. The dog was named Rab, after Dr. John Brown’s famous book. Another “pup of Rab’s exact breed” was wanted.

October 7 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Chatto & Windus. He acknowledged payment of £874.16.9 from Moncure Conway, for which he sent thanks. This amount was for A Tramp Abroad royalties [MTNJ 2: 401n157]. Sam added: