Day By Day Dates

April 26 Friday – In Paris at 169 rue de l’Universite, Sam wrote two paragraphs to Francis de Winton a friend of the Marquis of Lorne who later was appointed by King Leopold to take Henry M. Stanley’s place in the Congo. He was a recognized authority of central Africa. Sam announced his world tour that he’d signed an agreement for the day before (Apr. 25), and mentioned Stanley and other friends who’d given him letters of introduction for the tour.

April 28 Sunday – In Paris at 169 rue de l’Universite, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, announcing that the arrangements for the down under, India and South Africa tour had been made. He was still concerned about creditors hounding him if he lectured in the U.S. — if he could get away with it he would sail from Vancouver, B.C. Aug. 16 without succumbing to them. On the matter of his Uniform Edition:

April 29 Monday – In Paris at 169 rue de l’Universite, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers. All the trunks and family had left Sam behind in the empty house:

I have been hidden an hour or two, reading proof of Joan, and now I think I am a lost child. I can’t find anybody on the place. The baggage has all disappeared, including the family. I reckon that in the hurry and bustle of moving to the hotel [Brighton] they forgot me. But it is no matter. It is peacefuller now than I have known it for days and days and days.

May – In Paris before May 12, Sam inscribed a copy of P&P to F.S. Reynolds: To / Mr. F.S. Reynolds / with the compliments of / The Author. / Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economise it. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain / Paris, May/95 [MTP].

May 1 Wednesday – At the Hotel Brighton, Paris, France Sam wrote to Miss Goodridge, declining an invitation for Livy and him to dine on May 3. He pled being “gout-smitten once more, not able to put my foot to the floor all this day,” and he doubted what his condition would be by then. Another engagement also entered into his decision:

May 2 Thursday – In Paris, the Clemenses may have attended a play in the evening, the “Mr Mapes’s play” referred to in his May 1 to Miss Goodridge. Several other letters in this period do not reveal the answer. Mr. Mapes may have been related to Mary Mapes Dodge.

At the Hotel Brighton, Sam also wrote to Poultney Bigelow, who evidently upon learning of the failure of Webster & Co., had sent a check for a thousand dollars. Sam couldn’t keep it:

May 5 Sunday – In Paris Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus. He’d received “that little book” and thanked them (title not given). He announced they would sail from Vancouver, B.C. on Aug. 16 and begin reading in Sydney or Melbourne in September, then reach India in mid-January, 1896. Livy and daughter Clara would accompany him.

May 6 Monday – Andrew Chatto wrote to Sam that they’d made arrangements with Harper to “take a duplicate set of electros of the illustrations to” JA for the English edition, and would make “the best arrangements…for translations and with Tauchnitz for the Continental edition” [MTP].

May 7 Tuesday – In Paris Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto.

I am very glad you have arranged for Joan, and that I am to remain with you and not go wandering among strangers.

May 10 Friday – In Paris Sam wrote to John D. Adams, editor at The Century Co., having just received the proofs, he guessed for Oct. issue. He suggested one slight change, but found “nothing else but some misplaced commas & periods — of no consequence.” He added after his signature, “We leave to-night for America” [MTP].

The Clemens family, not together in America since 1891, left Paris for Southampton.

May 11 Saturday – In Southampton, England, the Clemens family sailed for New York on the S.S. New York. The voyage would take seven days [MTHHR 134]. Note: Sam later called this the beginning of the world tour.

The Critic, XXVI p.338-9 reviewed PW, which it called “admirable in atmosphere, local color and dialect, a drama in its way, full of powerful situations, thrilling even; but it cannot be called in any sense literature” [Tenney 24].

May 12 Sunday – The Clemens family was en route on the SS NewYork to New York. Sam’s notebook on board:

Sunday morning. Six or eight people who came over with me in the Paris the other day. Three or four of them went up to London with our multi-millionaire to be shown his glories. It was a month ago; but to this day these men can think of nothing else, talk of nothing else. They are as happy & stunned & blessed as if they had been to heaven & dined with God [NB 34 TS 9].

May 13 Monday – The Clemens family was en route on the SS NewYork to New York.

May 14 Tuesday – The Clemens family was en route on the SS NewYork to New York.

May 15 Wednesday – The Clemens family was en route on the SS NewYork to New York.

Livy wrote to H.H. Rogers: “Please honor Mr. Clemens’s drafts upon such funds of mine as are in your hands, & greatly oblige” [MTP].

May 16 Thursday – The Clemens family was en route on the SS NewYork to New York.

May 17 Friday – The Clemens family was en route on the SS NewYork to New York. After a concert aboard ship, Sam gave two readings for the usual Seaman’s Fund charity. The Brooklyn Eagle, May 18, 1895, p.2. “MARK TWAIN GAVE READINGS” reported:

At the Concert on the American Line Steamer New York.

May 18 Saturday – The S.S. New York arrived in New York at 9 a.m. with the Clemens family aboard. [N.Y. Times, May 18, 1895, p.6 “Incoming Steamships. To-day, (Saturday) May 18”; NB 34 TS 9; MTHHR 134]. Note: the latter source says the family “went immediately to Elmira,” but Sam wrote Frank Mayo on May 19 and gave a curtain speech on May 22; his first letter from Elmira was May 24 to J.B.

May 19 Sunday – In New York at H.H. Rogers’ office, Sam wrote to Frank Mayo, asking for three tickets to the PW play. Evidently he’d asked for two prior to this, his first request not extant:

I made a mistake. I wanted to ask for 3 seats for Miss Harrison, instead of 2. If not too late, won’t you mail 3 to her, Care H.H. Rogers, 26 Broadway?

May 20 Monday – The Boston Daily Globe, p.5 ran an unsigned New York interview done with Sam at the Everett House (not in Scharnhorst):

IT PAYS TO KICK.

Mark Twain Says So in All Seriousness.

Believes in Complaining to the Responsible Head.

Cites Discourtesies in Our Every Day Life.

Approves of Reform and Tells How to Get Redress.

“I Suppose We Are Born Timid,” He Says.

May 22 Wednesday – In New York Sam gave a curtain Speech for Frank Mayo’s production of Pudd’nhead Wilson at the Herald Square Theatre. The New York Times reported it on May 23. See also Fatout, MT Speaking 276-8, based upon the N.Y. Herald’s May 23 article. The former:

MARK TWAIN IN THE PLAYHOUSE

May 23 Thursday – This is the probable day that the Clemens family continued on to Elmira. The May 26 to Rogers reveals they did not go directly to Quarry Farm.

Bainbridge Colby finalized the contract with Harper & Brothers for a Uniform Edition of Sam’s works. H.H. Rogers handled many of the details, and the contract bore his signature as Sam’s attorney. The contract was delivered on July 26, 1895 [MTHHR 155n1].

May 24 Friday – In Elmira Sam responded to James B. Pond (Pond’s letter not extant), attempting to “strike out something definite and get down to business” on the American leg of the world tour. Sam numbered eight conditions and offers: He would give Pond a fourth of the profits except in San Francisco, where Sam wanted four-fifths. Wherever he talked outside of San Francisco he must talk two nights, “so as to practice two readings & give Mrs.

May 25 Saturday – In Elmira Sam wrote a short paragraph to Franklin G. Whitmore in Hartford, asking him to “look out for a package for Mrs. Clemens, & lay it away.” The package for Livy was coming from Paris addressed to Whitmore and contained “a couple of waists….made out of old dresses…& of course are not dutiable” [MTP].

Sam’s notebook reveals a response from Pond to his May 25 telegram: “His reply, by telegraph, May 25. ‘Terms accepted. See letter’” [NB 34 TS 10].

May 26 Sunday – In Elmira Sam wrote to his brother Orion. This letter is not extant but was quoted in a June 17 to Samuel Moffett from Pamela Moffett.