Day By Day Dates

October 29 Tuesday – Sam’s “Holy Land Excursion. Letter from Mark Twain Number Nineteen” dated only August, “Constantinople” ran in the Alta California [McKeithan 123-28].

November 1 Friday – Sam’s “Holy Land Excursion. Letter from Mark Twain Number Twenty” dated Aug. 22 “Sebastopol” ran in the Alta California [McKeithan 132-7].

November 2 Saturday – Sam’s article, “The American Colony in Palistine” dated Oct. 2, ran in the New York Tribune [McKeithan 306-9].

November 3 Sunday – Sam’s “Holy Land Excursion. Letter from Mark Twain Number Twenty-one” dated Aug. 22 at “Odessa” ran in the Alta California [McKeithan 137-42].

November 6 Wednesday – Sam’s “Holy Land Excursion. Letter from Mark Twain Number Twenty-two” dated Aug. 27 at “Yalta” ran in the Alta California [McKeithan 150-57].

November 9 Saturday – Sam’s article, “Holy Land, The First Day in Palestine” dated Sept. at “Baldwinsville, Galilee” ran in the New York Tribune [McKeithan 209-13].

November 10 Sunday – Sam’s “Holy Land Excursion. Letter from Mark Twain Number Twenty-three” dated Aug. 27 at “Yalta, Russia” ran in the Alta California [McKeithan 157-63].

November 11 Monday – QC arrived at St. George, Bermuda at dawn.

“…the beautiful Bermudas rose out of the sea, we entered the tortuous channel, steamed hither and thither among the bright summer islands, and rested at last under the flag of England and were welcome” [IA Ch.60].

November 12 Tuesday – The group rode in carriages to the Gibbs Hill lighthouse, an unusual structure built in 1844-6, mostly from cast-iron parts made in England. The group then returned to the Hamilton Hotel for a meal. Afterward they traveled back to St. George’s for an evening at the W.C.J. and Mary Hyland’s. Hyland was a “fellow Christian and eminent citizen of St.

November 13 Wednesday – A gale from the NW came up, continuing throughout the day. Just after midnight: The ship was anchored about a mile from shore. A rising wind and current made rowing back difficult. Mary Fairbanks wrote:

“Our oarsmen tugged manfully, and ‘Mark Twain’ held the rudder with a strong hand, while the spray dashed over his Parisian broadcloth and almost extinguished his inevitable cigar” [D. Hoffman 22].

November 14 Thursday – Stormy weather continued, delaying the departure of the QC [D. Hoffman 23].

November 15 Friday – QC left St. George at 8 AM. [MTL 2: 105 n5].

November 17 Sunday – Sam’s “Holy Land Excursion. Letter from Mark Twain Number Twenty-four” dated Sept. 5 ran in the Alta California [McKeithan 163-68].

November 19 Tuesday – Charles Dickens arrived in Boston to begin a five-month tour, lecturing and reading from his works [MTL 2: 104n3].

Quaker City arrived at New York City at 10 AM to complete the excursion, 5 months and 11 days long.

November 20 Wednesday – Sam wrote two letters to his mother, Jane Clemens and family upon arriving in New York, and finished them this day.

—the Herald folks got me at 6 o’clock, & notwithstanding I had an engagement to dine at the St. Nicholas with some ladies [Mary Fairbanks and Charles Langdon have been identified]. & take them to the theatre, I sat down in one of the editorial rooms & wrote a long article that will make the Quakers get up & howl in the morning.

November 21 Thursday – After a dinner with the New York Herald’s editorial board, Sam took the night train to Washington, D.C [MTL 2: 109 n2; Bliss 58].

Sam’s “Holy Land Excursion. Letter from Mark Twain Number Twenty-five” dated Sept. 6 ran in the Alta California [McKeithan 168-72].

Elisha P. Bliss (1822-1880) of the American Publishing Co. wrote to Clemens:

November 22 Friday – Sam arrived in Washington, D.C. and roomed with his new employer, Senator William Morris Stewart (1827-1909) in a second-floor apartment run by 70-year-old Miss Virginia Wells. “Clemens took his meals and socialized at the Round Robin bar at the Willard Hotel (see insert picture)….a favorite watering hole of Washington power brokers” [Bliss 64].

November 24 Sunday – Sam wrote from Washington to Frank Fuller about his strategy for lecturing somewhere other than “in the provinces.”

November 25 Monday – Sam wrote from Washington, D.C. to Charles H. Webb, sending a penciled draft of the first two acts of a play about the Quaker City trip. He also confessed his inability to find a sweetheart named “Pauline” (unknown) and asked to be remembered to her [MTL 2: 115].

November 29 Friday – The New York Times ran a 1,700 word article on the front page signed by “Scupper Nong” about a meeting of a correspondent and General Ulysses S. Grant. Muller calls this the “Scupper Nong Letter” (in Chapter 3) and notes it was reprinted the following day in the  Philadelphia Daily Evening Telegraph with the byline of Mark Twain [47]. The article was the result of Sam and Bill Swinton calling on Grant, who was not at home at the time.

November 30 Saturday – Sam’s 32nd birthday. “The Scupper Nong Letters—From the National Capital—An Interview with General Grant” ran in the Philadelphia Daily Evening Telegraph [Muller 47].

December 1 Sunday – Sam wrote from Washington, D.C. to John Russell Young about payment and questioned the amount of a $65 check he’d received. He also received a letter from Elisha P. Bliss, which he responded to the next day.

December 2 Monday – From Washington, Sam responded favorably to Bliss’ pitch, and asked for more particulars [MTL 2: 119-21].

On the same day Sam wrote Mary Mason Fairbanks:

December 4 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Washington to John Russell Young again, asking if he might use the three letters he had sent in the book he was planning for Bliss. “I am sorry to trouble you so much, but behold the world is full of sorrows, & grief is the heritage of man” [MTL 2: 125].

December 5 Thursday – Sam wrote from Washington to Miss Emeline Beach “Emma”, the seventeen year old daughter of Moses Beach, both of whom had been aboard the Quaker City. The Beach family was members of Henry Ward Beecher’s congregation, and Moses Beach took umbrage at Sam’s article about the passengers of the Quaker City.