Day By Day Dates

December 14 Sunday – Sam and Cable gave a reading in Muskegon, Mich. on Dec. 14. Previously reported as Dec. 4. See SLC to Andrew Chatto on Dec. 14, also from Muskegon. Mark Twain Journal misreported the date.

December 15 Monday – Sam wrote two letters from Toledo, Ohio to Livy. After remarking on the “prettiest furniture” of the hotel the night before in Jackson, Mich., Sam told of his day:

“We got up at 5 & took the train. All the way, in the cars, was a mother with her first child—the proudest & silliest fool I have struck this year. She beat the new brides that one sees on the trains” [MTP].

December 16 Tuesday – Sam and Cable gave a reading in Whitney’s Grand Opera House, Detroit, Michigan. The Detroit Post featured the Toledo visit, observing that Sam’s gait:

…resembled the motion of a tall boy on short stilts, [with] one of the oddest looking faces ever worn by man…his neck swan-like and white, but much thicker than a swan’s [Cardwell 29].

December 17 Wednesday – Sam and Cable gave a reading in Case Hall, Cleveland, Ohio [MTPO]. Clemens included: readings from HF, “A Ghost Story,” “Personal Anecdote” [MTPO].

A review of Sam and Cable’s readings ran in the Detroit Post and included the following “interview”:

A “POST” REPORTER DISTURBS TWAIN AND INTERVIEWS CABLE.

December 18 Thursday – Sam and Cable took a Christmas break, this day being a travel day. Sam headed for New York where he spent the night at the Everett House, where he’d asked Webster to call on the morning of Dec. 19 [Dec. 15 to Webster, MTP]. Cable headed to his home in Simsbury, Conn., but stopped in New York where he appeared alone on Dec.

December 19 Friday – Sam, after meeting with Charles Webster, probably headed straight home for Hartford, although no documentation for this date has been found. Upon reaching home, Sam was in store for a surprise.

December 20 Saturday – The Dec. 20, 1884 article by H.B. Stephens, “Mark Twain’s ‘Dorg’,” which ran in Every Other Saturday, is available in The Twainian (July-Aug. 1953) p.3-4, and contains a letter from Sam to Stephens, as well as a reference to a prior incoming letter from Stephens, both letters undated and unlisted by MTP. The article (which seems to have had much input from Mark Twain) plus Sam’s letter with poem, “My Dog Burns” are given here in full:

MARK TWAIN’S “DORG”

December 22 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Laurence Hutton, congratulating Miss Eleanor Varnum Mitchell, soon to be Mrs. Laurence Hutton.

“And now I am relieved of a burden which has long been secretly oppressing my heart. Months ago, fully aware of the relations existing between you & my daughter, I was shocked & grieved to discover that she had transferred her affections to a horse kitten” [MTP].

December 23 Tuesday – Sam wrote two letters from Hartford to Charles Webster. Sam enclosed an advertisement by Estes & Lauriat of Boston for “Just ready” copies of HF, reduced from $2.75 to $2.25; Sam was infuriated.

      Charley, if this is a lie, let Alexander & Green sue them for damages instantly. And if we have no chance at them in law, tell me at once & I will publish them as thieves & swindlers.

December 24 Wednesday – Edward Zane Carroll Judson (Ned Buntline) wrote to Clemens:

My Dear—Two Fathoms—/ A Merry Christmas / to you—merrier than when / we met in Cal. & Nevada / years—long years ago, / in 67—& 68. / Will you / Kindly tell me the names / of the Subscription / Book Publishers / in your town. I have / a job for some one / of ‘em. / Resp. & Truly / E Z C Judson / “Ned” [MTP].

December 25 Thursday – Christmas – Sam inscribed a copy of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to Livy: “To / Livy L. Clemens / with the matured & perfect love of / The Author. / Xmas, 1884” [MTP].

Sam also inscribed a copy of Parts of Speech to Clara Clemens: “Merry Christmas / to / Clara Clemens / 1884. / From Papa” [MTP].

December 26 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion.

I am just starting off again. I ought to have answered you long ago, but am driven to death. We read in Hannibal the day before we read in Keokuk, & in Chicago the day after we are in Keokuk. Of course I shall strike for Keokuk by the first train from Hannibal; & after all shall get but little time with you, considering how far away Chicago is.

December 27 Saturday – Sam wrote from New York City to Livy, with news about Charles and Ida Langdon, and also the Cranes, who were in the city:

December 28 Sunday – Sam took the train from New York in the morning and traveled all day. He wrote at 9:30 P.M from Pittsburgh to Livy. Cable had arrived on Dec. 27. Sam asked that a letter he’d left at Hartford from a “Chicago poetess” be sent on to him. He told of an attempt by the railroad to “curtail his liberties” after breaking some rule (possibly smoking).

December 29 Monday – Sam and Cable gave a reading in Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Pa. Clemens included “Tragic Tale of the Fishwife,” and “Infestation of Phelps’ cabin with snakes and rats” [MTPO].

December 30 Tuesday – Through his attorney in Boston, George L. Huntress, Sam filed a “bill in equity” (complaint) against Estes and Lauriat booksellers of Boston for advertising Huckleberry Finn at the price of $2.25, below the $2.75 subscription rate [N.Y. Times, Dec. 31, 1884, p3; MTBus 318]. (See Jan. 14, 1885 entry.)

December 31 Wednesday – George Cable wrote from Dayton, Ohio to his wife Lucy:

“I told you in last night’s letter that we had a good time in Pittsburgh; & so we did. Not the best sort, however. We pleased our audience thoroughly & it was a large & cultivated audience. The newspapers, however, must have taken some grudge against us; for they made offensive reports of the affair” [Turner, MT & GWC 77].

Sanctimonious Cheapskate – Huck Finn Took Off – 1,000 Investment Opportunities
Grant’s Memoirs – Path Worn to N.Y. – Banned in Concord – Black Bunting
Fantastic Sales & Royalties – Why Not the Pope? – Paige Quicksand
Sam Honored at 50 – Susy Starts a Biography

January – A chapter from Huck Finn, “Jim’s Investments, and King Sollermun,” ran in the Century Magazine for the January issue, pages 456-8 [Camfield, bibliog.]. Perhaps more immediately of influence was George W. Cable’s controversial essay in the same issue, “The Freedman’s Case in Equity,” which argued for full civil rights for the Negro.

January 1 Thursday – George Cable wrote to his wife, Lucy, perhaps in wee hours of the morning, of the performance a few hours before in Paris, Kentucky:

We have just finished a delightful evening on the platform before a hearty, quick-witted audience that laughed to tears and groans at Mark’s fun & took my more delicate points before I could fairly reach them.

January 2 Friday – Sam wrote from Paris, Kentucky to Livy. He was sorry he’d missed going to a soldiers’ home in Cincinnati for General Franklin.

I froze to death all last night, & never once thought of Sam Dunham’s camel’s hair shirt—but I did think of it a couple of hours ago, & am very comfortable, now. I mean to lay it on the bed every night after this.

January 3 Saturday – Ozias Pond recorded in his diary that Sam was examined by a phrenologist (reading bumps on the head). Cardwell writes that Ozias, “infected with the humor of the two writers and amazed at Twain’s extravagance punned feebly: ‘There was nothing in it’” [33].

January 4 Sunday – Sam’s wrote from Cincinnati to Livy of the day’s activities:

“I breakfasted with the Halstead family at noon; spent 3 hours in the pottery [the “keramic factory” he referred to in his Jan. 3 letter to Livy]; dined (over) at Mrs. Geo. Ward Nichols’s; spent a most shouting good lovely 3 ½ hours at Pitts Burt’s fireside; & then he brought me home, & I have just now got my clothes off.”

January 5 Monday – Sam rose at 6 AM and took a train to Louisville, Kentucky (Cardwell says 8:15 AM train [34] ). They stayed at the Galt House. At 4:30 they went to a reception at the Louisville Press Club, and a stop at the Pendennis Club [Cardwell 34].

January 6 Tuesday – Sam and Cable gave a second reading at Leiderkranz Hall, Louisville, Kentucky. From the Louisville Courier-Journal:

Despite the rain there was a large audience at Leiderkranz Hall last night to hear Cable and Mark Twain read. Mr. Cable last year prepared for himself a welcome to Louisville, and the people were ready with a hearty greeting for Mr. Clemens.