Day By Day Dates

December 20 Saturday – Sam was becoming incensed at the endless delays and tinkering done on the typesetter by James W. Paige and his assistant Charles Ethan Davis. Sam’s notebook:

December 21 Sunday – † In Hartford Sam telegraphed Frederick J. Hall:

Come up at noon [.] forever — damn the idiotic telephone [MTP]

December 22 Monday – Sam’s notebook:

Let Ham drop his indebtedness & 1/20 [3: 597].

Note: William J. Hamersley had not contributed his required on-going funds for the development of the typesetter, so Sam suggested forgiving the indebtedness and reducing Hamersley’s ownership share from 1/10th to 1/20th. In a later entry Sam wrote that the 1/20th from Hamersley should be given to Joe Goodman.

December 23 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote a letter to the editor of the New York World, which was published on Christmas day:

It is my heart-warm and world-embracing Christian hope and aspiration that all of us — the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the admired, the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage — may eventually be gathered together in a heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss — except the inventor of the telephone. MARK TWAIN / Hartford, Dec. 23

December 24 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to James W. Paige, inviting him to “come out here day after tomorrow (Friday)” (Dec. 26) to discuss a new contract. Senator John P. Jones was to leave California for the East right after Christmas and Sam felt it best that he and Paige make an agreement “more satisfactory than the present contract” before Jones arrived. Sam enclosed another of those analyses of em rates, proof-corrections and overall costs per 1000 ems taking into account such factors as gas, wages, labor, etc [MTP].

December 25 Thursday – Christmas – Sam’s “A Christmas Hope” concerning the inventor of the telephone, ran on the front page of the New York World. See Dec. 23.

Sam wrote to James W. Paige, letter not extant but referred to in Paige’s Dec. 30 response. Sam had sent a contract or a request for Paige to sign a contract [MTP].

Franklin G. Whitmore reported to Sam that the typesetter was up and running again [MTNJ 3: 597 under Dec. 29 entry].

December 26 Friday – Two days before, Sam invited James W. Paige to the house to clarify an new contract that would be presented to Senator John P. Jones by the two of them in Washington upon Jones’ return. Sam asked again for a meeting on Dec. 31, so it’s unlikely the meeting took place on this day. Sam had the proposed contract drawn by Henry C. Robinson, sent (probably by messenger or his servant) to Paige. The typesetter broke down again on this day [MTNJ 3: 597 under Dec. 29 entry]. Paige answered on Dec. 30.

December 27 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote what he later called an “ill-tempered letter” that should be torn up to Frederick J. Hall.

December 28 Sunday – In Hartford † Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall about his “ill-tempered letter” he wished Hall to tear up, and about Daniel Whitford his N.Y. attorney. Though Sam blamed Whitford for allowing “Webster to make a contract without time-limit with [Watson] Gill,” he was useful to Hall as director of the bank.

But I would require him to employ assistance whenever a case is to go to court — have a lawyer whose face & manner are not a fatal influence with judge & jury [MTP].

December 29 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote a note of thanks to James Whitcomb Riley in Indianapolis, Ind., for sending:

…the charming book, which laments my own lost youth for me as no words of mine could do [MTP]. Note: Riley’s Rhymes of Childhood (1890). See Riley’s Dec. 31 to Sam.

Sam’s notebook holds another entry about Paige and the delays on the typesetter:

December 30 Tuesday – James W. Paige responded to Sam’s “favor of the 25th,” and refused to sign the new agreement drawn up on Dec. 18. Without elaborating his objections, Paige wrote,

The paper you sent me on the following day cannot be executed for many reasons.

It is very incorrect in the recitals and in its legal effect would prove suicidal for us both [MTNJ 3: 595n80; MTP].

Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam: “Your favor received. As I said yesterday we are not going to have any more suits unless they are forced upon us which is not likely to happen” [MTP].

December 31 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam sent a note to James W. Paige wanting a talk to “help matters” relating to a new contract and the upcoming negotiations with Senator John P. Jones. Sam suggested 2:30 or 3 this afternoon and if William J. Hamersley could come, would Paige let him know [MTP]. Note: Hamersley had been a party in the earlier contracts.

Interestingly, Franklin G. Whitmore also sent the same request for Sam to Paige and Hamersley.

[There is a list of publications preceding 1891 in the on-line site for DBD. No explanation for this list is given:

January – Sam inscribed a copy of The Stolen White Elephant to an unidentified person: A lie well stuck to becomes History. Mark Twain. Jan. ’91 [MTP: Assoc-Anderson Galleries catalog, Dec. 5, 1934 item72].

In an anonymous article, “American Fiction” in the Edinburgh Review, p.31-65 Mark Twain is mentioned in a list of humorists with the observation that “the humorous drama with a single character in different situations is one which American humourists have made peculiarly their own”; the critic’s own preference is for Lowell [Tenney 19].

January 2 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote through Franklin G. Whitmore to the Secretary of the Clover Club of Philadelphia, declining their invitation for Jan. 15 to attend the ninth anniversary dinner. He pled previous engagements [MTP].

James W. Paige wrote to Sam of more problems on the typesetter:

January 3 Saturday – Sam dictated a letter to Franklin G. Whitmore to send to James W. Paige. Noted was receipt from Franklin’s son Will, a statement of expenses for the month of December.

He desires Mr. Boaz that he is not now making any further advances for the Type machine. …he is endeavoring to have your objections to the form of contract which he submitted to you last week, as he is very anxious to show the machine to Mr Jones [Senator John P. Jones] at the earliest possible opportunity [MTP] Note: signed by Whitmore as agent for S.L. Clemens.

January 4 Sunday – In Hartford Sam wrote to James W. Paige, glad that the “machine is again at work.” Sam wrote he was “leaving for a few days,” and hoped by the time he returned Paige would have sold “a large stock of royalties to the Farnham people” [MTP]. Note: William Hamersley was initially involved in the typesetter company early in the 1880s, when it was then called the Farnham machine, still with Paige as inventor [MTB 904]. A dispute arose in July 1890 between Hamersley and Sam over funding of the Paige. See July 11, 1890 entry and MTNJ 3: 599n91 for particulars.

January 5 Monday – Mary L. Craig wrote from Dubois, Penn. to Sam asking permission to write a sketch of Jane Lampton Clemens for an unspecified newspaper. Craig had been employed by Orion to care for Ma for eight months of 1890, “became very much attached to her,” and wrote down several of her “sayings.” Of course, she added, she would only tell the pleasant things she remembered [MTP].

January 6 Tuesday – James W. Paige wrote from Hartford to Sam:

Your letter of the 4th inst. receivecd. – In reply I must again remind you that I have repeatedly told you that I could not sell or assist you to sell any of the royalties now held by you for the type setting machine until you shall have been authorized, by letter from Mr. Jones… [MTP].

January 7 Wednesday – Charles W. Joundham sent a photograph of Sam he wished autographed and returned [MTP].

Mrs. M.E. Keyes wrote to Sam in need of $500 — another begging letter [MTP].

January 8 Thursday – In Hartford Sam responded to an invitation (not extant) by Thomas L. Gulick.

…It could bring peace to this family who have heard me sigh for the Islands every year for twenty years, yet have never heard me sigh to return to any other place I had seen before. But I know we can never go — although I shall never entirely give up the intention [MTP]. Note: tragically, Sam would be at anchor off the Sandwich Islands in 1895, but quarantine would prevent his disembarking.

January 9 Friday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam enclosing a Dec. 1 report, which he thought “remarkable” considering “no new books had been published that have had any great sale” [MTP].

Webster & Co. wrote to Sam that his request for two sets of his books to be sent to J.D. Pyatt would be filled today (Pyatt Jan 2 encl) [MTP]. Note: See Jan. 2.

January 10 Saturday – Frank E. Bliss wrote a short note enclosing check for $433.04 for “all royalties and profits due on sales of your books to date. Please acknowledge” [MTP].

January 11 Sunday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Annie Eliot Trumbull, daughter of Hartford historian and philologist, J. Hammond Trumbull. The Trumbulls were family friends. Evidently books had been found in the Clemens home belonging to Annie.

January 12 Monday – Sam left for New York, Jersey City, and Washington — altogether a fourteen hour trip. “Railing toward Washington” in the afternoon, Sam wrote a short note posted from Washington D.C. to Charles N. Flagg, “Up in the Cheney Building Tower.” Sam wrote that Richard Watson Gilder of Century magazine read the more important submissions himself instead of using assistant editors, and that Flagg’s “Talks with my Uncle George” was about to be read [MTP]. See Dec.