Day By Day Dates

October 21 Friday – Sam had to pay an assessment of $100 on four shares of Hale & Norcross mining stock [RI 1993, explanatory notes 701].

October 22 Saturday – Sam’s article, “Whereas” appeared in the Californian [ET&S 2: 86]. The story was shortened (later published in the Jumping Frog book) and re-titled, “Aurelia’s Unfortunate Young Man” [Wilson 1; Budd, “Collected” 1003]. Sam’s article, “Earthquake Almanac,” was published in the Golden Era [Walker 90].

October 29 Saturday – Sam’s article, “A Touching Story of George Washington‘s Boyhood,” was published in the Californian [ET&S 2: 94].

November 5 Saturday – Sam’s article, “Daniel in the Lion’s Den—And Out Again All Right.” Was published in the Californian. “Now for several days I have been visiting the Board of Brokers, and associating with brokers, and drinking with them, and swapping lies with them…” [MTNJ 1: 69; ET&S 2: 100].

November 7 Monday – Orion Clemens was elected to the Nevada State Legislature after much speech making [Fanning 104].

November 11 Friday – Sam wrote from San Francisco to his brother Orion of financial need, Orion’s possible nomination for Nevada senator and the Hale & Norcross mining stock.

November 12 Saturday – Sam’s article, “The Killing of Julius Caesar, ‘Localized’” was published in the Californian [ET&S 2: 108].

November 19 Saturday – Sam’s article, “A Full and Reliable Account of the Extraordinary Meteoric Shower of Last Saturday Night,” was published in the Californian [ET&S 2: 116].

November 19 or 21 Monday – Sam’s article, “The Pioneers’ Ball,” first ran in the Enterprise [Budd, “Collected” 1005].

November 26 Saturday – Sam’s article, “The Pioneers’ Ball,” was re-printed in the Golden Era [Walker 41].

November 30 Wednesday – Sam’s 29 th birthday.

December 3 Saturday – Sam’s story “Lucretia Smith’s Soldier” was first published in the San Francisco Californian. The story was instantly popular, reprinted by newspapers in California and New York, and was later included with the Jumping Frog collection [Wilson 193; ET&S 2: 125].

December 4 Sunday – Sam left San Francisco with James Gillis for Jackass Hill in Tuolumne County, Ca., some one hundred miles east of San Francisco. They boarded a San Joaquin steamer for Stockton, and from there went on by stagecoach to “that serene and reposeful and dreamy and delicious sylvan paradise” (Jackass gulch) [Sanborn 256]. Brother Billy Gillis, then 23, waited there for them. Steve Gillis, finding no way to reconcile with Emeline Russ, returned to Virginia City.

December 13 Tuesday – Sam and Dan De Quille (Wright) were rooming in the Daggett & Myers building at 25 North B Street, one of the large buildings that had escaped fire. They were given a rent bill and receipt for the period of Oct. 28, 1863 to Nov. 28, 1864 at the rate of $30 per month, or $390 total. The document has four line items crediting Sam or Dan for payments, leaving an amount due of $190 [Mack 246].

December, late – Just after Christmas, Sam and Jim Gillis set out on foot over the hills to Vallecito, Calif., an old mining town [Sanborn 257].

Mining and Tall Tales, Angels Camp – Jumping Frog
Literary Celebrity – Pistol to the Head

January and February – Sam’s fourth known notebook, and the first that might be called a “writer’s notebook,” was written during these months. The notebook contained a great amount of literary material that would be immediately useful in the Jumping Frog story, but also material that would later appear in Roughing It, and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and others [MTNJ 1: 66-7].

January 1 Sunday – In Vallecito, Sam and Jim Gillis inspected a 480-foot tunnel. That night they saw a lunar rainbow. Sam jotted it in his notebook. He also noted that he dreamed that night about James W.E. Townsend (1838-1900), a California and Nevada journalist and editor known as “Lying Jim” because of his imagination and total disregard for the truth in what he wrote or spoke [Sanborn 258]. Telling tall tales by the campfire was a popular activity. One of Jim’s stories about a cat named Tom Quartz that was only interested in mining, found a place in Roughing It, five years later.

January 3 Tuesday – From Sam’s notebook:
“…returned with Jim Gillis, by way of Angel’s & Robinson’s Ferry, to Jackass Hill” [MTNJ 1: 70].

January 7 or January 14 Saturday – By eliminating other possible Saturdays, either of these may have been the day William R. Gillis (Billy) referred to in Gold Rush Days with Mark Twain, p.175-6. In the story, Sam supposedly said, “I am going to Sonora and will go to church to-morrow with brother Masons.” The pair left that night: So as soon as we got ready we went over the Hill to Sonora. After looking at the procession we had dinner with the Masonic Fraternity at the Victoria Hotel and I went along as Sam’s guest.

January 22 Sunday – Sam had stayed with Dick Stoker, Jim and Billy Gillis in the one-room Stoker cabin, which Stoker built in 1850; little else of the camp remained from the gold rush days. On this date Sam and Jim Gillis went to nearby Angels Camp in Calaveras County. Jim had a mining claim at Angels Camp [MTL 1: 321; Rasmussen 250]. From Sam’s notebook:
“Angels’,. Ben Lewis’ , Altaville, Studhorse, Cherokee, Horsetown. Excelsior man bought privilege of ‘raising hell’ in Stockton—party burlesqued him….Squirrel hunt at Ben Lewis” [MTNJ 1: 71].

January 23 Monday – “Angels—Rainy, stormy—Beans & dishwater for breakfast at the Frenchman’s [Hotel]; dishwater & beans for dinner, and both articles warmed over for supper” [MTNJ 1: 76; Lennon 100].

January 24 Tuesday – “—Rained all day—meals as before” [MTNJ 1: 76].

January 25 Wednesday – “—Same as above” [MTNJ 1: 76].
From Sam’s notebook, a brush with death:
Narrow Escape.—Dark rainy night—walked to extreme edge of a cut in solid rock 30 feet deep—& while standing upon the extreme verge for half a dozen seconds, meditating whether to proceed or not, heard a stream of water falling into the cut, & then, my eyes becoming more accustomed to the darkness, saw that if the last step taken had been a hand breath longer, must have plunged in to the abyss & lost my life. One of my feet projected over the edge as I stood [MTNJ 1:74].

January 26 Thursday – From Sam’s notebook:
“Rain, beans & dishwater—tapidaro [leather covering on a saddle]. beefsteak for a change—no use, could not bite it” [MTNJ 1: 76].