Day By Day Dates

January 9 Thursday – Sam wrote from Washington, D.C. to Stephen J. Field (1816-1899), Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, recommending Harvey Beckwith for a government agent post to uncover illicit un-taxed whiskey. Sam had known Beckwith from his Nevada days, when Harvey was the superintendent of the Mexican silver mine at Virginia City [MTL 2: 150].

January 10 Friday – 2 AM – Sam wrote from Washington, D.C. to Charles Webb, asking him to send three copies of the Jumping Frog.

January 11 Saturday – Washington Morning Chronicle:

The subject of his remarks was the recent trip of a party of excursionists on the steamship Quaker City to Europe and points on the Mediterranean, and his descriptions were replete with sparkling wit, to which his slow, deliberate style of speaking gave a peculiar charm [Fatout, MT Speaking 648].

January 12 Sunday – Sam’s “Holy Land Excursion. Letter from Mark Twain Number Thirty-four” dated Sept. 1867 at “Williamsburgh, Palestine” ran in the Alta California [McKeithan 219-25].

January 13 Monday – Sam’s article “Woman—An Opinion” ran in the Washington Evening Star [Camfield, bibliog.]. The Twainian, Feb. 1940, asserts this is the first printing of the speech.

January 14 Tuesday – Sam wrote at 2 AM from Washington, D.C. to his mother and family, enclosing a Washington Evening Star newspaper copy of his speech, “Woman,” which included editorial inserts for laughter, applause, great laughter, etc. [MTL 2: 155-7].

January 15 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Washington to Charles Webb, acknowledging receipt of the books he had asked for on Jan. 10; he passed on the reaction by Cornelius Stagg (b.1827?) to Sam’s questions about a scandal Stagg was involved in. Evidently Stagg was accused of extorting bribes from whiskey dealers in New York State, using a tax as a cover [MTL 2: 158-9].

January 17–19 Sunday – Sam traveled to New York and stayed at Dan Slote’s and “part of two days at Moses Beach’s in Brooklyn” [MTL 2: 165] until about Jan. 21. He also went by ferry to the home of Henry Ward Beecher, who advised him further on the matter of the proposed contract with Bliss [MTL 2: 160].

January 18 Saturday – Elisha Bliss wrote to Sam, anxious to secure promise that IA would be published by American Publishing, at future agreed upon term. [MTP].

January 19 Sunday – Sam and Elisha Bliss exchanged telegrams, either this day or the next, regarding the possible publication of IA. Neither dispatch is extant but both are referred to in Bliss’ Jan. 20 letter.

January 20 Monday – Sam wrote from New York to his mother and sister Pamela. (See Jan. 19) [Powers, MT A Life 647n26; MTP drop in letters].

My Dear Mother & Sister:

I received your letters yesterday postmarked 12th, & Pamela’s to-day postmarked 16th— Your arguments are strong—too strong to be refuted—& now I have no idea of going away without visiting St Louis first.

January 21 Tuesday – The Alta had not only registered Sam’s letters for copyright, but they were in a conflict with the Sacramento Union over its printing of one letter. They printed an “emphatic claim to ownership” of Sam’s Holy Land letters [MTL 2: 174n1].

January 22 Wednesday – As per Elisha Bliss’ invite of Jan. 20, Sam took a train to Hartford, Conn., since he had not been able to reach an agreement through correspondence. This was Sam’s first visit to Hartford. He may have arrived the night before [MTL 2: 162n1]. Andrews cites Jan.

January 24 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to his mother, and sister Pamela Moffett.

January 25 Saturday – Sam returned to New York and stayed at the Slote house, where he wrote his old Hannibal friend, Will Bowen. “I have just come down from Hartford, Conn., where I have made a tip-top contract for a 600-page book, & I feel perfectly jolly.” Sam told Will about his newspaper deal with the Herald, and sent best wishes for Will’s brother Bart, scalded in a steamboat accident [MTL 2

January 26 Sunday – Sam’s “Holy Land Excursion. Letter from Mark Twain Number Thirty-six” dated Sept. 1867 at “Tiberias” ran in the Alta California [McKeithan 229-36].

January 27 Monday – Sam wrote from New York to Elisha Bliss, American Publishing Co., agreeing to terms. That evening Sam attended a dinner of “newspaper Editors & literary scalliwags, at the Westminster Hotel” [MTL 2: 169-70].

January 28 Tuesday – Sam’s article, MARK TWAIN IN WASHINGTON, dated Dec. 17, 1867, ran in the San Francisco California Alta. Subtitles: More Mysteries; How a Mystery was Solved; Singular; Personal; Harris [Schmidt].

January 30 Thursday – Sam returned to Washington, D.C. (See Mar. 3 entry), where he wrote to Mary Mason Fairbanks.

“I confess, humbly, that I deserve all you have said, & promise that I will rigidly eschew slang & vulgarity in future, even in foolish dinner speeches, when on my guard” [MTL 2: 170].

January 31 Friday – Sam wrote from Washington, D.C. to Emma Beach saying he had:

“not been out of the house since I came home, & have not left the writing table, except to sleep, & take my meals. I have written seven long newspaper letters & a short magazine article in less than two days.”

February – Sam’s humorous article, “General Washington’s Negro Body-Servant,” first ran in the Galaxy Magazine for Feb. 1868 [Emerson 63].

February, early – Sam moved again, to 76 Indiana Avenue, Washington, D.C.

February 1 Saturday – Sam wrote from Washington to John Russell Young, editor of the New York Tribune enclosing three Holy Land letters he “smouched” from the Alta bunch:

“…& added 3 at the end of the list to make up the deficiency, but as you will see by the inclosed telegram, they don’t seem to understand it” [MTL 2: 173].

February 2 Sunday – Sam’s “Holy Land Excursion. Letter from Mark Twain Number Thirty-seven” dated Sept. 1867 at “Nazareth” ran in the Alta California [McKeithan 236-42].

February 3 Monday – Sam’s article “Gossip at the National Capitol” dated Feb. 1 ran in the New York Herald [Camfield, bibliog.]. Note: Budd attributes this and two other Herald articles on Feb. 8 and Feb. 15, 1868 to Sam in “Did Mark Twain Write Impersonally for the New York Herald?” Duke University’s Library Notes, Nov. 1973 No. 43.

February 4 and 6 Thursday – Sam wrote from Washington to Elisha Bliss, asking for a thousand dollar advance on the new book, in order to cut down on his newspaper articles and focus on the book, which was to become Innocents Abroad. He had turned down the Postmaster of San Francisco job, and explained the loss of income to Bliss.