Day By Day Dates

January 27 Friday – Worden, Webb & Co. advised sale 100 shares Western Union @ 82 [MTP].

John Russell Young wrote: “I send you a copy of my work by express” [MTP]. Note: see Jan 26.

January 28 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells about the Whitelaw Reid “persecutions” of the New York Herald, which Sam had thoroughly investigated after Livy suggested he do so (See Jan. 21 entry to Webster).

January 29 Sunday – Joe Goodman wrote from Fresno, Calif. to Sam offering his opinion on P&P.

January 30 Monday – Edward “Ned” House and his adopted Japanese daughter, Koto, evidently returned for what was intended to be a brief visit, because Sam wrote on Jan. 28 to Howells that “House & Koto are coming Monday. They leave again Tuesday.” House and daughter may have traveled somewhere and returned to spend another day with Sam. An attack of gout would keep House abed at Sam’s for three weeks. House wouldn’t leave until Feb.

January 31 Tuesday – The Canadian poet laureate, Louis Honoré Fréchette of Quebec, was a big fan of Sam’s and met him during the Montreal dinner. Fréchette was also William Dean Howells’ brother-in-law, husband of Anne Howells. Fréchette soon came to the U.S.; Sam spoke at a dinner in his honor at the Hotel Windsor, in Holyoke, Mass. His subject: “On After-Dinner Speaking”:

February – Sam’s notebook: “Get Kellogg’s Andersonville experiences through a short-hand reporter,” referring to Robert H. Kellogg’s Life and Death in Rebel Prisons (1865). Kellogg was an agent for the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Hartford at this time [Gribben 366].

February 1 Wednesday – Joe Twichell wrote: “Your remembrance of dear Alex Holley, and your liking for him will give the enclosed eulogy and notice of the works he wrought some interest to you….Hope Jean and House are better this morning…” [MTP]. Note: Alexander Lyman Holley died on Jan. 29; he was the foremost steel engineer of his time.

February 2 Thursday – The Clemenses entertained Louis Fréchette at their Hartford home [MTHL 1: 389].

Kate D. Barstow wrote from Wash. DC to request additional $50 from Sam for her medical training [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Request complied with.”

February 3 Friday – Sam’s 6 PM Friday Evening Club (drinking, smoking, billiards for men) included: Charles Hopkins Clark, asst. editor of the Hartford Courant; Joe Twichell; Edwin Pond Parker, Congregationalist clergyman; Samuel C. Dunham and Henry C. Robinson attorneys; and William T.

February 4 Saturday – Wm. H. Jackson,  mfr. grates, New York, billed $17 for “1 large Brass wire Fireguard, special mesh, boxing” paid Mar. 2 [MTP].

Charles H. Clark for Hartford Courant wrote to thank Sam for the prior evening at his home [MTP].

February 5 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Moncure Conway.

February 6 Monday – Sam cabled Karl Gerhardt that the idea of him taking private lessons from “The Master” was an excellent idea [MTP, see Mar. 21 letter to Gerhardt].

Lillie Edmunds wrote from NYC, a begging letter for help with her design schooling [MTP].

February 7 Tuesday – Estes & Lauriat, bookseller wrote to Sam; letter not extant [MTP].

Charles Webster wrote: “We are to have 500 of the new books this afternoon.” He included various ad rates. Part of the letter is torn and missing [MTP].

Worden & Co. wrote advice selling 100 shares Western Union @ 81 &3/4 [MTP].

February 9 Thursday – S.B. Wheeler, “looking glass and picture frames” New York, billed Sam $32 for “1 picture frame 19×24½ $25; relining picture, box & packing” [MTP].

February 10 Friday – In Hartford, Sam declined an invitation from Lt. Charles E. Wood to come up to West Point for an Officers Hop (see Feb. 3 entry). Wood had been post adjutant in 1881 and now served as the post librarian. Sam declined due to illnesses in his and Twichell’s families. Wood wrote again on Feb. 11.

February 11 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to E.B. Peck, to decline an invitation for a dinner at a gathering that called itself “Tom Sawyer’s Gang.” Sam was too busy “crowding his work forward” in order to take his trip up the Mississippi [MTP]. See also The Twainian, Jan-Feb 1957 p.4 for more on this club.

February 12 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood. Unwilling to admit that publishing by subscription was no longer the viable method it once was, Sam found every other possible reason for the failure of P&P to generate sales in line with his past successes.

February 13 Monday – Dan Slote died. The New York Times obituary of Feb. 14:

February 14 Tuesday – Sam and Livy probably took the trip to New York this day that Sam had mentioned in several previous letters. The Gilsey House bill of Feb. 21 specified nights from Feb. 15 through Feb. 18, plus other purchases, and sets the timeframe for this trip.

February 15 Wednesday – Worden & Co. wrote advising 200 shs of Wabash bought @ 30 ½ [MTP].

February 16 Thursday – William Dowson wrote from Chloride, N.M. to praise RI [MTP].

David M. Drury wrote from Brooklyn to follow up a request for an autograph [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “No answer”

February 17 Friday – A.A. Vantine & Co., New York, billed Livy $29.75 for “1 set tea toys[?], 2 trays, 5 boxes magic flowers”; paid same day [MTP]. Note: This purchase by Livy and the Feb. 18 Times notation (see entry) support the idea that Sam and Livy made another trip to New York sometime after Feb. 12, (at least by the Feb. 14 purchase of glass case) and returned by Feb. 19.

February 18 Saturday – According to the New York Times, page 8 under “PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE,” Sam was staying at the Hotel Brunswick. Note: Sam may have thrown off the Times by some sort of ruse—the Clemens family stayed at the Gilsey House; see bill at end of this entry.

February 19 Sunday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to an unidentified person:

“The expression of the reverence & admiration which I feel for our great poet could not be compressed into the narrow limits of a toast or a ‘sentiment;’ so I will not make the attempt. / Ys Truly / Mark Twain” [MTP]. Note: in what appears to be another hand, in pencil at the top: “Re: Longfellow.”

February 20 Monday – M.B. Bennett wrote from Cleveland to ask Sam “events of his life” for their club [MTP].