Day By Day Dates

September 14 Wednesday – This is the day Sam wrote Whitmore he’d leave Elmira (see Aug 18), but Sam’s letter of Sept. 8 to Hall confirms he would “look in” at Webster & Co. On this morning, so that the family probably left Elmira the day before.

Alfred P. Burbank telegraphed Sam: “Will you come to Rochester for tomorrow nights performance I want to talk of future disposition of the play” [MTP].

September 15 Thursday – William H. Gillette, at this time appearing at New York’s Star Theatre in a Civil War drama, Held by the Enemy, wrote to Sam:

Only rec. your telegram on arrival at theatre last night — 8 p.m. — too late to send up. I stationed a man at door who said he knew you — but he did not — for he came back and reported that you had not arrived. Sorry not to have had the pleasure of sending seats for the family [MTNJ 3: 318n53].

September 16 Friday – The Clemens family left New York and returned home to Hartford [Sept. 10 telegram to Whitmore].

F.L. Totten wrote from N.Y. to Sam (clipping enclosed of a poem and a sketch of Will Carleton), asking him to send him a list of “all your works with financial results” for a collection of sketches he was writing of prominent men. Sam wrote on the envelope, “Refer him to Chas. Bolton’s book — get his stuff there” [MTP].

September 17 Saturday – This was the date Sam told Whitmore he’d be back in Hartford (see Aug.17), but the family actually arrived the day before [Sept. 10 telegram to Whitmore].

September 18 Sunday – Alfred P. Burbank wrote to Sam. Trial performances of Colonel Sellers as a Scientist to small audiences in Rochester and Syracuse had received poor reviews from newspapers there. Still, Burbank was optimistic. He invited Sam to attend a Sept.

September 19 Monday – In Hartford Sam responded to Chatto & Windus’ Aug. 24 notice that the Inland Revenue Department had assessed an income tax on his British book sales profits. Today, Sam might have deducted all costs of trips to England, but then Sam simply asked C&W to pay the tax on all sums paid him as “profits” for the 1885-6 and 1886-7 years. Further, he requested that they withhold and pay such taxes from his earnings in the future.

September 20 Tuesday – Almira Hancock’s Reminiscences of Winfield Scott Hancock was officially published on schedule [From Hall Sept. 21].

September 21 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder of Century Magazine about using the artist Edward Windsor Kemble for Library of Humor illustrations.

Consound you, I want my artist. I didn’t GIVE him to you, I only lent him. ‘Course I mean Kemble. I shall telegraph him & tell him to go ahead and make my pictures…[MTP from Am. Art Assoc. catalog, May 7, 1928 Item 144].

September 22 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote what is obviously a response to Laurence Hutton, whose recent letter is not extant.

September 23 Friday – Sam and Howells’ play, The American Claimant (Colonel Sellers as a Scientist) was performed with Alfred P. Burbank at the Lyceum Theatre in New York [MTNJ 3: 300n1].

The New York Times of Sept. 24, p.5 delivered the bad news:

MR. BURBANK’S ENTERTAINMENT.

September 24 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to his sister-in-law, Susan L. Crane, thanking her for pictures sent of the cats, and of William (farm hand?) and a horse. Sam also had an idea to improve Quarry Farm life:

When you & Theo come, I will take him down town & discuss an electric light plant for the farm — make your own electricity on the premises; $700 or $1000 for the plant; after that, no expense, no wear-&-tear [MTP].

September 25 Sunday – Alfred P. Burbank wrote to Sam asking if he would be in N.Y. this week — “when and where I may see you. If you are not to come here I will run up to Hartford” [MTP].

September 26 Monday – Frederick J. Hall for Webster & Co. Wrote to Sam, forwarding information on three books they’d been approached about publishing: a revision of the Bible from Dr. Philip Schaff, head of the Board of the American Revision of the Bible; William Desmond O’Brien with an encyclopedia of Ireland; and Dr. Chalfant of San Francisco, who had stopped in to show a manuscript of a history of convict life [MTP].

September 27 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote a two-line letter to his sister, Pamela Moffett, now in Oakland, Calif:

I think Sam [Moffett] was right. A body must take his promotion when it offers — it won’t do to wait [MTP].

September 28 Wednesday – Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder of Century Magazine, submitting Meisterschaft, a 3-act bilingual play he wrote in 1886-7 for family entertainment to. It ran in Jan. 1888’s issue with a few changes [MTNJ 3: 333n95].

I had a hell of a time reading this proof, which was set up by an Americanized Finn [MTP].

September 29 Thursday – Francis Wayland, dean of Yale Law School, wrote to Sam, forwarding a letter of application from Charles W. Johnson. “Wayland asked Clemens, who had already provided two years’ support to another Negro student, ‘to put the writer down for your kind assistance.’” [MTNJ 3: 300n2]. See Oct. 1 entry.

September 30 Friday – Henry Drummond (1851-1897), Scottish evangelical writer and lecturer, visited Hartford and spent some time at the Clemens home. Drummond assisted Dwight L. Moody in his evangelical crusades, and came to America at Moody’s request in the spring of 1887 for a Conference of Students which sought to continue a religious movement in America’s colleges like that he began in Edinburgh, Scotland. Drummond had some success at Yale.

October – about this month Sam telegraphed Alfred P. Burbank:

Dear Sir:

  Go to Sheol.

    Yours Truly.

P.S. No, don’t do it. Go to the other place. My future is uncertain & If the worst comes to the worst, it will be an alleviation to know that it isn’t as bad as it could have been, anyway [MTP].

Sam also wrote Francis Pratt a long complaint about the contract with Pratt & Whitney about lagging work schedules:

October 1 Saturday – Francis Wayland, dean of Yale Law School wrote to Sam, agreeing with Sam that Charles W. Johnson should “spend the coming year in earning & saving money, so that he might come to us, if he chose, at the end of that time, with money enough in hand to prevent him from being wholly dependent on charity” [MTNJ 3: 300n2]. See Sept. 29 entry.

October 2 Sunday – The Brooklyn Eagle ran a short piece on page 15 echoing recent negative reviews of The American Claimant (Colonel Sellers as a Scientist) play.

DOWN ON MARK TWAIN

October 3 Monday – William Mackay Laffan wrote to Sam about the Dec. 7, 1886 investment in International Telegraph and Cable Co. 

…as to the great cable invention…let me explain to you in person, when I see you next, what a Goddamned humiliating and degrading fizzle it proved to be…and how the first of experts are the cream of asses, and how I am now fully trying to get the money back [MTNJ 3: 262n117].

October 4 Tuesday – Sam wrote a note to Livy on Lotos Club stationery, so was undoubtedly in New York on business (an Oct. 6 check to the Glenham Hotel confirms). He wrote of seeing a Mr. Choate, who had lost a son and now this “infinitely heavier & awfuler disaster.”

October 6 Thursday – Several checks below to N.Y. merchants and the Glenham Hotel suggest that Sam was in the city until this day. He may have escorted Grace King to Hartford.

Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

3836  A.P. Burbank  229.44

3837  Tiffany & Co  0.80  N.Y. Jeweler

October 7 Friday – Grace King arrived to spend a weekend at the Clemens residence. From one of the guest rooms in the house she wrote her mother, Sarah Ann Miller King, of the visit.

October 8 Saturday – In Hartford, Grace King’s letter to her mother, written at the Clemens residence, continued: