Day By Day Dates

May 8 Monday – Sam’s room was over the boilers and “some idiot had closed the transoms,” the heat waking him at 4 AM. He “went on watch”; it was foggy. He noted that George Ritchie steered by compass until the watch was over, using “his & Bixby’s patented chart for crossings & occasionally blowing the whistle” [MTNJ 2: 471]. The CBR arrived in Vicksburg, Miss at 8 AM [560].

May 9 Tuesday – From Sam’s notebook:

“30 miles below Memphis tied up to the bank while they washed out the boilers and let a hurricane, thunder & hail storm pass over. The wind snapped off several forest trees near by making sounds like reports of a rifle” [MTNJ 2: 563].

Joseph P. Smyth, customs agent wrote from NYC to bill Clemens 22.30 for a case of books [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “About books from Tauchnitz”

May 10 Wednesday – The CBR arrived in Memphis, Tenn., early in the morning. The time of 2 days 20 hours and 38 minutes out of New Orleans—even with the delay at Natchez, was the fastest time since the famous race between the Robert E. Lee and the Natchez [Loges 6]. Sam recorded that he noticed “several sheds were blown down” from the storm, “& the hail stones were nearly 3 inches in circumf.

May 11 Thursday – The CBR arrived in Cairo, Ill at 11 AM [MTNJ 2: 476]. An old friend of Sam’s, John Henton Carter (“Commodore Rollingpin”) came down from St. Louis, and went aboard the CBR to escort him to his hotel upon arrival [Budd 39].

May 12 Friday – The CBR arrived in St. Louis. John Henton Carter escorted Sam and his party to the Southern Hotel, where they spent the night. Sam shared “a couple of farewell hot scotches with Bixby” [Powers, MT A Life 461]. Carter interviewed Sam about his books, the new suspender he was inventing, complaints about his image as a mere humorist, and his ability as a steamboat pilot.

May 13 Saturday – The St. Louis Globe-Democrat ran an interview with Sam on page 8, “Mark Twain’s Travels / A Round Trip on the Mississippi in Search of Book Material.” Sam recalled his “Babies” speech and discussed his planned river book [Budd, “Interviews” 2].

The St. Louis Missouri Republican ran a descriptive article about Sam on page 5 titled, “Mark Twain / The Famous Humorist Pays a Flying Visit to St. Louis”; Sam refused to be interviewed [Budd, “Interviews” 2].

May 14 Sunday – The Gem City arrived in Hannibal, Mo. at 7 AM [Ch 53 LM]. Kaplan writes it was “a still Sunday morning. The town seemed deserted.” Sam later wrote Livy that “Everything was changed, but when I reached Third or Fourth street the tears burst forth, for I recognized the mud” [Kaplan 246].

Sam registered at the Park Hotel.

May 15 Monday – Sam was the guest at the summer home (“Woodside”) of John Garth, “A popular schoolmate of Sam’s, beginning at Mrs. Horr’s…son of a tobacconist who taught the boys at Sunday school in the Presbyterian church” [Wecter 144]. Garth had married another childhood friend, Helen Kercheval and made his fortune in New York [Rasmussen 163]. He returned in 1871 to live in Hannibal, now a town of 15,000.

May 17 Wednesday – Roswell H. Phelps left Hannibal and returned to Hartford. Sam left Hannibal alone aboard the Minneapolis, which stopped at Quincy, Ill. and stopped at Keokuk, Iowa. Sam wrote from Quincy to Livy:

May 18 Thursday – The Minneapolis arrived at Muscatine, Iowa. Osgood rejoined Sam at Davenport, Iowa.

“We had not time to go ashore in Muscatine, but had a daylight view of it from the boat. I lived there awhile, many years ago, but the place, now, had a rather unfamiliar look; so I suppose it has clear outgrown the town which I used to know” [Ch 57 LM].

May 19 Friday – The Minneapolis arrived at Dubuque, Iowa.

We noticed that above Dubuque the water of the Mississippi was olive-green—rich and beautiful and semitransparent, with the sun on it….The majestic bluffs that overlook the river, along through this region, charm one with the grace and variety of their forms, and the soft beauty of their adornment…And it is all as tranquil and reposeful as dreamland, and has nothing this-worldly about it—nothing to hang a fret or a worry upon [Ch 58 LM].

May 20 Saturday – The Minneapolis arrived at Lake Pepin, Minn. Sam and Osgood saw a “wretched poor family on boat going to the frontier—man on deck with wagon; woman & several little children allowed in cabin for charity’s sake. The slept on sofas & floor in glare of lamps without covering. Must have frozen last night.” Sam told how he and Osgood took pity on the family and got them hot meals and blankets [MTNJ 2: 480n164].

May 21 Sunday – The Minneapolis arrived at St. Paul, Minn. at 7 AM after a “hideous trip” where Sam and Osgood spent the night at the Metropolitan Hotel. It was cold and snowing [Kaplan 246].

May 22 Monday – “Snowed a few flakes. We left at 1.45 east” [MTNJ 2: 480].

Sam and James Osgood left St. Paul, Minn. by train, bound for home [Powers, MT A Life 462].

The St. Paul and Minneapolis Pioneer Press ran a brief article on page 7 paraphrasing Sam’s mistrust of interviewers and the reasons for his current trip. There were no direct quotations [Budd, “Interview” 3].

May 23 Tuesday – Judge Caleb F. Davis, President of Keokuk Savings Bank & Trust, wrote to Clemens:

I write to remind you of my request, and your promise to send me your photograph, and the published sketch you mentioned. … /

May 24 Wednesday – On entering Philadelphia, Sam and Osgood observed a crowd had formed to gaze at an Italian laborer whose foot had been severed by a train.

“Our tracks ought to be fenced—on the principle that the majority of human beings being fools, the laws ought to be made in the interest of the majority” [MTNJ 2: 481].

May 25 Thursday – In Hartford, Sam inscribed The Poetical Works of Robert Browning to Susy Clemens: “These volumes, (in place of a promised mud turtle,) are presented with the love of / Papa / May 25, 1882. / N.B. The turtle was to have been brought from New Orleans, but I gave up the idea because it seemed cruel” [MTP].

F.A.O. Schwartz, New York, billed Sam $1.05 for “2 nurse bottles, 2 puffbones [?]” [MTP].

May 28 Sunday – In Lexington, Mass., William Dean Howells wrote to Sam.

I hope you are safely and triumphantly at home again, and that you are bulging at the new book. I have heard from Osgood what a glorious time you had.—I suppose you got my letter at St. Louis [not extant]. We have been here for a month, and we expect to spend June at Belmont; then we go to see my father at Toronto, and we sail from Quebec July 22d….I’m going to write your life for The Century. When and why were you born? [MTHL 1: 403-4].

May 29 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to his mother, Jane Clemens, who was contemplating a trip from Fredonia to Keokuk to see Orion and Mollie. After commenting on his mother writing to an “old gentleman” and criticizing a “young man who prints the paper,” Sam encouraged her to travel part way by water for her comfort; he wanted to pay the cost [MTBus 186].

May 30 Tuesday – In Lexington, Mass. William Dean Howells wrote hoping to lure the Clemenses for a visit before they left for Elmira for the summer and before he sailed for Europe [MTHL 1: 404-5].

May 31 Wednesday – Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers sent a statement showing $4,167.05 credit in Sam’s account [MTP].

June – The Stolen White Elephant was a collection of stories published by James R. Osgood. Sam wrote the title story in 1878, and the earliest copies printed early in June [Hirst, “A Note on the Text,” Oxford Edition, 1996]. This book combined the elephant tale with all those in Punch, Brothers, Punch! (1878) as well as several others, including two on the “McWilliamses” [Rasmussen 445].

June 1 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to the son of the late Dr. John Brown, John Jr., nicknamed “Jock.” The Clemens family offered condolences. Sam asked for a picture of Dr. Brown.

“I was three thousand miles from home, at breakfast in New Orleans, when the damp morning paper revealed the sorrowful news among the cable dispatches” [MTNJ 2: 500n223]

June 2 Friday – Charles Webster wrote to Sam about possible hires and the return of Clarence E. Buckland (1851-1905), whom he thought unsuitable, too slow, and an instigator among the men to organize [MTP].

June 3 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood.

“Have written to ask Spofford [Librarian of Congress] if my copyright is perfect on my several books.”

Sam needed to know if any of his copyrights were faulty, as he considered a Chicago lawsuit against Belford and Clarke on the Sketches, New and Old (1875).