Day By Day Dates

November 11 Saturday – The Napa County Reporter published one of Sam’s letters [MTL 1: 325]. Sam’s article, “Exit Bummer,” was printed in the Californian [reprinted from the Enterprise] [Schmidt]. Sam wrote three letters for the Reporter, the other two on Nov. 25 and Dec. 2 [ET&S 2: 371]. Also, Sam’s article “Cheerful Magnificence” ran in the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle [494].

November 13 Monday – Sam’s short article, “In Ecstasies” ran in the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle [ET&S 2: 495].

November 15–18 Saturday – Sam’s editorial, “Editorial ‘Puffing’ ” was printed between these dates in the Enterprise and reprinted in the San Francisco Examiner on November 20. Sam’s target was Albert S. Evans, editor of the Alta California, whom Sam often called “Fitz Smythe” [ET&S 2: 329].

November 16 Thursday – Sam’s article, “Ye Ancient Mystery,” another jab at Fitz Smythe (Albert Evans) ran in the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle [ET&S 2: 496-7].

November 17 Friday – Sam’s articles, “Improving” and “No Verdict” ran in the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle [ET&S 2: 499-501].

November 18 Saturday – The Saturday Press first published the Jumping Frog story. The story was an immediate sensation and was reprinted by newspapers and magazines around the county [Rasmussen 266; ET&S 2: 262]. It was a sensation in New York.  

Sam’s article “The Old Thing” ran in the Enterprise [ET&S 2: 332].  

Another article, “Bad Precedent” ran in the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle [ET&S 2: 502].  

November 19 or 21 Tuesday – Sam’s article, “The Pioneer’s Ball” was printed, probably on one of these dates, in the Territorial Enterprise and reprinted by the Californian on Nov. 25 and the Golden Era on Nov. 26. This sketch was also in Sketches, New and Old, 1875 as “After Jenkins” [ET&S 2: 367].

November 20 Monday – Sam’s squib, “The Goblin Again!” another poke at Albert Evans, ran in the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle [ET&S 2: 503].

November 24 Friday – Sam poked at the ineptness of the local press in “The Whangdoodle Mourneth” which ran in the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle [ET&S 2: 504].

November 25 Saturday – The Napa County Reporter published another of Sam’s letters [MTL 1: 325]. Sam’s article, “The Great Earthquake in San Francisco” was published this day in the New York Weekly Review [ET&S 2: 300].

November 28–30 Thursday – Sam’s article, “Uncle Lige,” was printed in the Enterprise and reprinted in the Californian on Dec. 2 [ET&S 2: 376].

November 30 Thursday – Sam’s 30 th birthday. His four short articles, “Too Terse,” “Shame!” “Bribery! Corruption!” and “Drunk?” ran in the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle. The target? Fitz Smythe again (Evans) [ET&S 2: 505-8].

December 1865–January 1866 – Sometime this month, or at least before Jan. 20, 1866, Sam recalled years later:
“I put the pistol to my head but wasn’t man enough to pull the trigger. Many times I have been sorry I did not succeed, but I was never ashamed of having tried” [MTL 1: 325].
Fanning claims this act was a “direct result, evidently, of something his elder brother [Orion] had done [p. xv]. There is nothing “evident” however, about Orion’s influence creating suicidal thoughts in Sam, rather those of the murderous variety.
Portion of San Francisco Letter: Those Oysters.

December 1 Friday – Sam’s article “How is That?” another poke at Albert Evans, ran in the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle [ET&S 2: 509].

December 2 Saturday – The Napa County Reporter published another of Sam’s letters, which included “Webb’s Benefit” [MTL 1: 325; ET&S 2: 380]. Sam’s article, “Mark Twain Overpowered” was printed in the Californian [reprinting of “Uncle Lige” from the Territorial Enterprise]. [Schmidt].

December 5 Tuesday – Sam’s article “Delightful Romance” ran in the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle, a summary of an Albert Evans article which appeared the day before in the Alta California [ET&S 2: 510].

December 7 Thursday – The Semi-Weekly Telegraph (Salt Lake City), ran this squib quoting Mark Twain:
WESTERN.—MARK TWAIN, noticing a case of infamous outrage on an infant in San Francisco, makes the following candid confession—“We are thoroughly prospecting not only the main lead of crime here, but all its dips, spurs and angles.”

December 8–10 Sunday – Sam’s verse about the theatre manager Thomas MaGuire (1820-1896) appeared in the Enterprise sometime between these dates [ET&S 2: 385].
A RICH EPIGRAM
Tom Maguire,
Torn with ire,
Lighted on Macdougall,
Grabbed his throat,
Tore his coat,
And split him in the bugle.
Shame! Oh, fie!
Maguire, why
Will you thus skyugle?
Why bang and claw,
And gouge and chaw
The unprepared Macdougall?

December 10–31 Sunday – Sam’s item, “A Graceful Compliment,” in which Sam is introduced to the income tax, was probably part of Sam’s regular San Francisco letter. The item ran during this period in the Enterprise [ET&S 2: 388].

December 12 Tuesday – Sam took on the police for a “Shameful Attack on a Chinaman” in the article “Our Active Police” which ran in the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle [ET&S 2: 511].

December 13 Wednesday – Sam wrote from San Francisco to Orion and Mollie. Another hope and plan to sell the Tennessee Land came to naught. This time Sam had entertained an offer to sell the land for $200,000 to Herman Camp, an early locator on the Comstock Lode, who wanted to turn it into a vineyard and make wine. Orion’s “temperance virtue was suddenly on him in strong force.” The deal fell through and caused great friction between the Clemens brothers [MTL 1: 326].

December 13–15 Friday – Sam’s article, “Christian Spectator,” taken from Sam’s San Francisco Letter, dated Dec. 11, was printed in the Enterprise. Sam commented indirectly on the “incendiary religious matter about hell-fire, and brimstone, and wicked young men knocked endways by a streak of lightening while in the act of going fishing on Sunday,” as espoused by Rev. Fitzgerald of the Minna Street Methodist Church in a publication by the same name as the article. Other segments from Sam’s S.F.

December 16 Saturday – “Jim Smiley and the Jumping Frog,” was reprinted by Bret Harte in the Californian. Uncertain about the fate of the story he’d sent George W. Carleton, Sam showed Bret Harte (editor of the Californian) a version that renamed the central character Greeley instead of Smiley and also used Angels camp, the real name, instead of Noomerang. Harte liked the story. Along with the changes, the story got a new title: “The Celebrated Jumping Frog Of Calaveras County” [Schmidt].

December 16–17 Sunday – Sam’s San Francisco Letter dated Dec. 13 ran in the Enterprise: “Managerial” (about Edwin Forrest,) and “Not a Suicide” [ET&S 2: 209].

December 19 Tuesday – Sam’s San Francisco Letter with this date ran sometime later in the month in the Enterprise. Sections: “Thief Catching,” “Caustic,” “I Knew It,” “Macdougall vs. Maguire,” “Louis Aldrich,” and “Gould and Curry” [Schmidt: The last four items are known to have existed but no text is available].

THIEF-CATCHING