Day By Day Dates

October 9 Sunday – George C. Bidwell wrote from E. Hartford to Sam arguing on behalf of convicts unfairly charged in England. Sam wrote on the envelope, “From that d___d convict” [MTP].

October 10 Monday – Webster & Co. Wrote to Sam about the articles to be in the Library of Humor book. They’d also received “a note from Gen. Lucius Fairchild who says that Robert D. Beath…will probably write the history of the G.A.R.” — should they communicate with him? Gen.Crawford’s book status was commented on, plus the gem expert at Tiffany’s possible book, which they felt too expensive to “get up…with a number of delicate plates” [MTP].

October 11 Tuesday – Alfred P. Burbank wrote to Sam setting forth an offer of Chandos Fulton to re-write the play for $300 up front and a quarter of the profits [MTP]. Note: evidently, the play as written was not “pay dirt” at all.

October 12 Wednesday –

Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

3866  Michael Egan  21.11  Farmer

3867  Southern NE Telephone  15.00

3869  John A. Scolley  52.61

3870  Gilbert G. Moseley  6.00  Printers

October 13 Thursday – Nathaniel Judson Burton died of pneumonia. John Hooker, his deacon, was at the bedside. Andrews quotes Twichell, who wrote in his Journal this day,

…a dark, sad day!!…I went at once to his house and found that it was even so. There I met my other brother Dr. [Edwin] Parker. In presence of the astounding fact, which overwhelmed both of us with surprize and distress we found nothing to say, but could only embrace with tears [53; Twichell’s Journal: Yale, copy at MTP].

October 14 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Webster & Co., addressing the letter to “Dear C L W & Co”:

You may write Uncle Remus, & if he doesn’t consent I will then take him by the hair myself.

You may also write Stockton & if he says no, I will take him by the hair.

October 15 Saturday – Sam wrote John Brusnahan, foreman for the New York Herald’s compositors. Sam was able to gain inside information from Brusnahan on the progress of the Mergenthaler Linotype machine in trials at the Herald. Sam confided that the Paige machine was almost complete [MTNJ 3: 344n138].

October 16 Sunday – A.E. Thayer wrote from Vienna, sending Sam a long German word [MTP].

October 17 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Webster & Co., “we do not want the book of Gems at any price,” (as proposed by G.F. Kunz, gem expert at Tiffany’s)  He also asked what arrangement had been made on the Baltimore art book proposed by William Thompson Walters) with William Mackay Laffan, adding that Laffan was “going away” [MTLTP 236]. (See Sept.

October 18 Tuesday – From Sam’s notebook:

Tuesday, a.m., Oct. 18, 1887, Paige showed me (& Whitmore, North, Earl, & two or three others,) and experiment with his new dynamo & motor, to prove that one of the laws laid down in the electrical books is not a law at all. He thinks it a great discovery that he has thus made; & proposes to apply it in a machine which shall show surprising results.

October 19 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Webster & Co., responding to a statement sent.

You may send me $10,000; also the firm’s note or receipt for 12,073.47 to complete the $75,000 capital required by contract [MTLTP 237] Note: evidently there were surplus funds in the company, beyond what Sam had agreed and was obliged to leave in its coffers.

October 20 Thursday – Joe Jefferson, well known actor, wrote to Charles Webster that he had contracted for his book to be published elsewhere, due to a long delay by Webster & Co. To make a firm offer [MTNJ 3: 338n113]. This loss added to the growing split between Sam and Webster.

October 21 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Hjalmar Boyesen, inviting him to a dinner with Charles Dudley Warner, Joe Twichell and others [MTP]

Sam also wrote to Count Claes Lewenhaupt, which probably sets the dinner date mentioned above:

Mrs. Clemens & I beg the pleasure of your company at dinner at our house at 6.15 p.m. next Monday [MTP].

October 24 Monday – The dinner engagement with Boyesen, Twichell, Charles Dudley Warner, and Count Claes Lewenhaupt at the Clemens home [Oct. 21 to Boyesen, Lewenhaupt].

Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

3875  F.G. Whitmore  100.00  Finances

3876  Estes & Lauriat  2.00  Booksellers

October 25 Tuesday – Hjalmar Boyesen wrote to Sam thanking him “heartily for your great kindness to my countrymen,” which he & Livy had shown to Claes Lewenhaupt; it would affect Swedish society [MTP].

October 27 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Charles Webster about a book of the late Nathaniel Judson Burton’s (he died Oct. 13) lectures and sermons that his son, Richard E. Burton had assembled.

October 28 Friday – Sam voted yes on the proposition to publish a volume of Nathaniel J. Burton’s sermons at half-profits; Webster voted no on Oct. 30 [MTBus 387]. It’s not clear if Sam went to N.Y. for this vote, but check #3880 (below) to the Glenham Hotel on Monday, Oct 31 suggests he did. If so, he may have spent the weekend in the City, since no Hartford letters from Sam appear from Oct.

October 29 Saturday – Richard W. Gilder for Century Magazine wrote to Sam about the “Meisterschaft experiment,” that he was “convinced it wouldn’t do to go before our two million readers with the German ungroomed” [MTP].

October 30 Sunday – A ballot was taken at Webster & Co. Whether to publish the late Nathaniel J. Burton’s divinity lectures. Charles Webster voted no on this date and Sam voted yes on Oct. 28 [MTBus 387]. There is no mention of a vote breaking the tie, such as from Frederick J. Hall but this may be because Sam had a larger interest in the firm.

October 31 Monday – In Hartford, Sam responded to Robert Underwood Johnson’s invitation for Sam to read. He agreed, provided that the date would be the 29th, not the 28th; and that he would read either second or third on the program [MTP] (See Nov. 28 entry.)

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November 1 Tuesday –

Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

3884  John O’Neil  60.00  Gardener

3885  Patrick McAleer  50.20  Coachman

November 2 Wednesday – William Mackay Laffan of the N.Y. Sun wrote to Sam that he’d just returned from Boston the night before and could not dine with him on Monday as he’d proposed [MTP].

November 3 Thursday – In New York, Sam left or mailed a short note to Webster & Co. To,

…keep a copy of the within & send the original to Remus Harris. Then you can proceed just as if he had given us his full consent [MTP].

Flora C. Head wrote from Washington College, Tenn., clipping enclosed, to borrow one or two hundred dollars [MTP].

November 4 Friday – Samuel S. McClure sent Sam a notice of the Associated Literary Press program for the Anniversary program sketches for the next five weeks. It was not too late for Sam to send a piece. Sam wrote on the envelope, “The 5th time this has come” [MTP].