Day By Day Dates

July 19 Sunday – Orion Clemens wrote more about helping Puss (Tabitha Greening (Puss) to Orion July 17 enclosed)

Karl Gerhardt wrote from Mt. McGregor: “your very nice letters are with me—Josie has again made the fatal mistake of letting my private correspondenced get out…” And, “Josie and baby have come here to the mountain and are all the rage” [MTP].

July 20 Monday – Joseph Blackburn Jones wrote from Chicago, having been to Hartford twice and missing him both times. He hadn’t seen Sam since the “babies” speech in Chicago. He mentioned the time they roomed together at Tom Fitch’s in Va. City. He just returned from Europe and told how popular Twain was there [MTP].

July 21 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Edward House, marking the letter “private.” Sam covered again the events leading to his publication of Grant’s Memoirs, the sales figures and royalties, comparing what the General would have received if he had signed the Century contract vs. Sam’s.

July 22 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to A.H. Warner (no connection found to the Hartford Warners). “Dear Sir: I thank you very much—& also your friend—for the enclosure.” [MTP].

Charles Webster wrote that he’d sent no proof pages as he had none to send. He thought “it very dangerous to cart those proofs about,” feeling better when they’re in the safe. Details added about the Grant volumes [MTP].

July 23 Thursday – General Ulysses S. Grant died. Sam took a ten-hour train ride to New York City, arriving in the early evening [July 24 to Livy].

From Sam’s notebook:

On board train, Binghamton, July 23, 1885,—10 a.m. The news is that Gen. Grant died about 2 hours ago—at 5 minutes past 8.

July 24 Friday – Sam wrote from New York City to Livy:

Livy darling, I reached here so drowsy & dull with railroading that I forgot to telegraph you till 9 o’clock; so I was probably too late with it, considering the slowness of the Western Union service.

      I woke refreshed about half past eight; & now am through with today’s business & ready to take the 4.30 train for Hartford.

July 25 Saturday – From Sam’s notebook:

Home (Hartfd) July 25/85 (Saturday) noon. James W. Paige has just told me that I can dispose of his telegraphing machine & have half of the proceeds for my trouble. Each of us is to give a certain share of said result to Hammersley [MTNJ 3: 170].

July 26 Sunday – Jean Clemens’ fifth birthday.

Sam returned to New York City, from whence he traveled back to Elmira, since he wrote from there on July 27.

From Susy’s unfinished biography of her papa:

It is Jean’s birthday to day. She is 5 yrs. old. Papa is away today and he telegraphed Jean that he wished her 65 happy returns.

July 27 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to the editor of the New York Sun, discussing the controversy and objections to Grant being buried in New York City. Sam argued that it was just the place:

July 28 Tuesday – Fred Grant decided that his father would be placed in a temporary tomb in Riverside Park next to the Hudson River, while the city architect drew plans for the permanent tomb and memorial. Formal plans for the funeral were completed this week [Perry 229].

July 30 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Annie Webster, sending her $250 “to spend on trifles” she “would not otherwise feel justified in buying….” Annie and her husband Charles were about to sail for Europe (on Aug. 1). The letter was high praise for Charles and included praise from the late General Grant. [MTP].

The New York Sun ran Sam’s article, “The Future National Capital” [Camfield, bibliog.].

July 31 Friday – J.P. Haynes, “tea and grocery house” Hartford, billed $6.50 for “1 bbl of flour” [MTP].

Annie Moffett Webster wrote: “Your very kind letter enclosing $250.00 received. I thank you and Aunt Livy very much. I am very much pleased that you feel as you do about Charlie; and I hope he will always be as successful as he has been…” [MTP].

Alexander & Green wrote returning a MS. Also, “You will get the burro in due course” [MTP].

August – Sam’s history game was patented, but no attempt was made to market it until Feb.

August 1 Saturday – Sam went to New York, probably to see Charles Webster sail for Europe. He went to arrange English and European editions of Grant’s Memoirs, and to feel out foreign investment interest in the Paige typesetter [MTNJ 3: 131n13]. Frederick J. Hall was temporarily head of Webster & Co., while Charles was in England [MTNJ 3: 191].

August 2 Sunday – Beginning this night or the next, Sam stayed seven nights at the Normandie Hotel, returning home Aug. 10 (see that entry).

E.V. Satterfield wrote from Mt. Vernon, Illinois, agreeing with Sam about the final resting place of Gen. Grant being in NYC. “P.S. Mt Vernon Ills. is away down in Egypt and the writer of this is a printer by trade and a lawyer by profession and practice, and never have been known as a very ‘shining light’ at either” [MTP].

August 3 Monday – Tisdale & Davis, “mfg and dealers in tobacco & cigars”, Hannibal, Mo., for 500 “Old Fish” cigars. Sam wrote on this bill: ‘These are first-rate S.L.C.” No paid date [MTP]. Only Sam would enjoy a cigar named “Old Fish.”

August 4 Tuesday – Sam wrote from New York City to Livy, describing the black draped buildings and how much more so the City was for Grant than it had been for Garfield.

“I think I have seen a thousand big portraits of the General, set in the centre of a desert of black, on store-fronts” [MTP].

August 5 Wednesday – From Sam’s Aug. 6 to Livy for this day:

August 6 Thursday – After lying 24 hours in the Capitol at Albany, Grant’s casket, was put on a train for the six-hour ride to New York City. The train slowed passing West Point for the cadets to salute. Once in the city, where tens of thousands waited, the casket was taken to City Hall, where it lay in state another 24 hours [Perry 229].

August 7 Friday – Over 300,000 people passed by Grant’s casket in New York City Hall [Perry 229]. The New York Times reported Sam staying at the Hotel Normandie [p.4 “Personal Intelligence”].

August 8 Saturday – Grant’s funeral and procession included 60,000 members of the military assigned by President Cleveland. Sam was not in the funeral, but took a place in the window of Webster & Co. overlooking Union Square. He stood for five hours watching as the procession worked its way north through the City, passing along 14th Street toward Fifth Avenue [Perry 231]. Kaplan says 40,000 military. A lot, anyway.

August 9 Sunday – Sam had arranged “business…with Hartford people” on Tuesday (Aug. 11), but moved it up to Sunday so he might return to Elmira the next day [Aug. 15 to Johnson]. The nature of his business with Hartford people is unknown. It is possible that the Hartford people referred to came to New York.

August 10 Monday – Sam left New York in the morning for the long train ride to Elmira. He telegraphed from Portland, Penn. to Theodore W. Crane: “Shall arrive at the usual / S L Clemens” [MTP]. Portland was en route to Elmira.

August 11 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Richard S. Tuthill, at this time District Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois (Chicago). Tuthill had sent an invitation for Sam to come and break bread with some of his old Midwest friends.

“I would give anything in the world if I could go; for that is true which you have said: the boys are growing old & passing away—did not we deliver to the rest & peace of the grave the greatest, noblest, the chiefest of them all, three days ago?”

August 12 or 19 or 26 Wednesday – On one of these days, Sam wrote to Webster & Co. (Charles Webster was sailing to Europe). He hadn’t received a letter referred to in a telegraph from someone at the company. There were “bogus Grant books” being canvassed and Sam suggested “Mr. Hall employ detectives or trustworthy friends to write” a solicitation to canvass to be sent to “several fraudulent publishers” [MTP].