Day By Day Dates

June 13 Monday – Sam’s piece, titled “Parting Presentation,” about the presentation of a cane to Major Edward C. Perry, ran on the front page of the Alta California. This was Sam’s first signed publication following his move from Nevada [ET&S 2: 5]. Emerson observes the speech “was intended to be amusing; ‘Mark Twain’ was clearly a humorist” [24].

June, Mid – Sam wrote his Territorial Enterprise readers that the Occidental was “ ‘Heaven on the half shell’ – a welcome respite from the sagebrush and desolation of Washoe” [MTL 1: 302].

June 15 Wednesday – A local item in the Call, “Petty Police Court Transactions” is attributed to Sam [Branch, C of Call 289].

June 17–23 Thursday – The article “‘Mark Twain’ in the Metropolis” was probably first printed sometime between these dates in the Territorial Enterprise, copies of which were lost [ET&S 2: 9]. (See June 26 entry)

The Morning Call

June 21 Tuesday – A local item in the Call, “Short-Hand Law Reporter” is attributed to Sam [Branch, C of Call 289].

June 23 Thursday – A local item in the Call, “Another of Them” is attributed to Sam [Branch, C of Call 289].

June 25 Saturday – Two local items in the Call, “A Trip to Cliff House,” and “Charge Against a Police Officer,” are attributed to Sam [Branch, C of Call 289].

June 26 Sunday – Sam’s articles, “In the Metropolis,” and “ The Evidence in the Case of Smith vs Jones,” were published in the Golden Era [Walker 77; ET&S 2: 13]. This latter article was an early experiment with reliance on dialogue, dramatic narrative, and rhythm of dialect.

June 28 Tuesday – The following six local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Hackmen Arrested,” “Accessions to the Ranks of the Dashaways,” “Missionaries Wanted for San Francisco,” “Board of Supervisors,” “Charges Against a Police Officer,” (About Lewis P. Ward) “Swill Peddlers” [Branch, C of Call 289].

June 29 Wednesday – Two local items in the Call, “The Kahn of Tartary,” and “Police Court” are attributed to Sam [Branch, C of Call 289].

June 30 Thursday – Two local items in the Call, “Municipal Records,” and “The Sacrilegious Hack-Driver,” are attributed to Sam [Branch, C of Call 289].

July 1 Friday – The following five local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “The Old Thing,” “House at Large,” “School Children’s Rehearsal,” “Police Commissioners,” and “More Steamship Suits Brewing” [Branch, C of Call 289]

July 2 Saturday – The following four local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Policeman Suspended,” “The Swindle Case,” “Chance for the Hotels,” and “Stole a Shirt” [Branch, C of Call 289].

July 3 Sunday – Sam’s article “Early Rising, As Regards Excursions to the Cliff House” was published in the Golden Era. The piece is “manifestly an attempt to elaborate the experience of his own recent trip into a humorous, essentially literary sketch” [Walker 83; ET&S 2: 22].
The following five local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “The Secesh Highwaymen,” “Theatrical Record. City,” “Nabbed,” “Young Thieves,” and “Those Thieves” [Branch, C of Call 289-90].

July 4 Monday – Sam’s “Original Novelette,” an imitation of John Phoenix in a form popularized by Bret Harte and Charles Webb, was published in the Call [Wilson 195; ET&S 2: 31].
The following three local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam:
“A Sheep-Stealer Caught,” “Original Novelette,” and “An ‘Altagraph’,” [Branch, C of Call 290].
Dan De Quille paid $40 to Daggett & Myers toward rent owed with Sam [Mack 246].

July 6 Wednesday – The following four local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Shirt Stealing,” “Fourth of July,” “The Racing Stock in the Procession,” and “Banner Presentation” [Branch, C of Call 290].

July 7 Thursday – “Homicide—Coroner’s Inquest,” in the Call is attributed to Sam [Branch, C of Call 290].

July 8 Friday – The following five local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Swill Music,” “Arrested for Bigamy,” “Insane,” “En Route,” and “The Bigamist” [Branch, C of Call 290].

July 9 Saturday – The following six local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Buglary—The Burglar Caught in the Act,” “Break in the Water Works,” “Opium Smugglers,” “Young Offender,” “United States Circuit Court,” and “The Bigamist” [Branch, C of Call 290].

July 10 Sunday – The following two local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Green-back Theft,” and “The Bigamist” [Branch, C of Call 290].

July 12 Tuesday – The following five local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Police Court Testimony,” “United States Circuit Court,” “Astounding Cheek,” “Chinese Slaves,” and “The Bigamy Case” [Branch, C of Call 290].

July 13 Wednesday – The following four local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Its Opponents,” “Insane,” “New Board Rooms,” and “Board of Education” [Branch, C of Call 290].

July 14 Thursday – The following five local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Calaboose Theatricals,” “Not Insane,” “A Wife-Smasher in Limbo,” “Runaway,” and “Inspection of Fortifications” [Branch, C of Call 290].

July 15 Friday – Sam wrote to William Wright (Dan De Quille) from the Occidental Hotel, San Francisco. He asked Dan to get George Dawson to send Sam money owed. He then related hilarious impressions of himself and Steve by the landlady at the Occidental, about a visitor who’d gone there to find the pair, but they’d moved on. Sam noted that a famous actor had left for the Sandwich Islands, which may have continued to pull Sam’s imagination [MTL 1: 304]. The article “Disposed of” in the Call is attributed to Sam [Branch, C of Call 290].

July 16 Saturday – The following five local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “The ‘Coming of Man’ Has arrived,” “Moses in the Bulrushes Again,” “A Gross Outrage,” “The Comanche,” and “Remarkable Clock” [Branch, C of Call 290-1].