Day By Day Dates

December 26 Saturday – Sam left Charlotte for Tecumseh, Michigan, where he gave his “Vandals” lecture.

December 27 Sunday – Sam wrote from Tecumseh to Livy about the difficulties of becoming a Christian, about social drinking, about his loneliness, about his love, and his expectation to see Mrs. Fairbanks the next day [MTL 2: 353-6].

December 28 Monday – Sam arrived in Cleveland and stayed with the Fairbankses.

December 29 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Cleveland to Jervis Langdon, responding to his letter of Dec. 8 that had caught up with him in Charlotte, Michigan. The last letter Sam wrote concerning Sam’s time spent alone in the drawing room had offended Jervis. Sam wrote that he accepted the rebuke and regretted any offense. He wrote a few paragraphs about his references:

December 30 Wednesday – Sam wrote in the morning from Cleveland to Livy and told her of the letter he’d written her father the day before. Sam confessed misgivings about his letters to Jervis Langdon, but also told her of Mary Fairbanks reading a letter from Mrs. Langdon, one favorably disposed to Sam.

December 31 Thursday – Sam wrote from Cleveland, Ohio to Livy:

Midwest Lecture Tour – Visits to Elmira & Hartford – Sam & Livy Engaged - Sam Met William Dean Howells – Innocents Abroad a Great Success - Buffalo Newspaper Purchased with Jervis Langdon’s help – Grueling Lecture Schedule

1869 – Sometime during the year Clemens took out a $10,000 life insurance policy with Continental Life Ins. Co of Hartford [MTP]. Note: see June 16, 1877.

January 1 Friday – Sam spent the day with Solon & Emily Severance, old Quaker City shipmates, making social calls in Cleveland, Ohio. While he waited for the carriage, Sam wrote Joseph Twichell:
“And I have delightful Christmas letters, this morning, from her [Livy’s] mother & father—full of love and trust. I seem to be shaking off the drowsiness of centuries & looking about me half bewildered at the light just bursting above the horizon of an unfamiliar world” [MTL 3: 1-2].

January 2 Saturday – Sam made an error in his schedule, not appearing on Dec. 29 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This was a make up date and he gave the “American Vandal Abroad” lecture at Hamilton’s Hall in Ft. Wayne. Afterward he wrote from Ft. Wayne to Livy:

January 3 Sunday – In a letter of Jan. 14 to Livy, Sam answered her question of what he did on this day. Where was I on Sunday, Jan 3? In Fort Wayne. Had my breakfast brought up, & lay in bed till 1 P.M. I did want to go to church, & the bells sounded very inviting, but it seemed a plain duty to rest all I could….Yes I lay abed till 1 P.M. & read your Akron & Cleveland letters several times—& read the Testament—& re-read Beecher’s sermon on the love of riches being the root of all evil—and read Prof.

January 4 Monday – Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture at The Metropolitan, Indianapolis, Indiana. 

John Morris wrote:

January 5 Tuesday – The Indianapolis Journal reviewed Sam’s lecture:

January 6 Wednesday – Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture at Brown’s Hall in Rockford, Illinois to about a thousand people [Schmidt].

January 7 Thursday – After the Rockford lecture and past midnight, Sam wrote from Rockford to Mary Mason Fairbanks, and to Livy. (Over half of Sam’s nearly daily love letters to Livy have been lost.) That evening Sam again gave his “Vandals” lecture at Library Hall, Chicago, Illinois [MTL 3: 8-9].

January 8 Friday – Sam traveled to Monmouth, Illinois, 170 miles southwest of Chicago. The Chicago Tribune’s review worked to place the reader in the hall on that night of January 7, 1868:

January 9 Saturday – The Rockford Register printed a review of Sam’s lecture there:
We never saw an audience so determined to laugh “out loud” …we confess to having laughed ourselves until our sides fairly ached…We congratulate those who were present, and we feel deep sympathy for those who remained away and missed a grand opportunity of hearing a speaker who, as a humorist and wit, stands unrivaled on the American stage [MTL 3: 8-9n1].

January 10 Sunday – Sam wrote from Galesburg to Harriet Lewis, Livy’s cousin who was Sam and Livy’s ally, early on in 1868 pretending to be the object of Sam’s affections to hide their affair from the Langdons. Sam’s tongue in cheek letter about breaking Harriet’s heart was sublime and hilarious:

January 11 Monday – Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture to about 1,200 in Rouse’s Opera House, Peoria, Illinois. Jervis Langdon celebrated his 60 th birthday.

January 12 Tuesday – The Peoria National Democrat gave Sam a good review. Sam wrote from El Paso, Illinois to Livy.
“I talked in Peoria, last night, to a large audience, & one whose intellectual faces surprised me as well as pleased me, for I certainly had expected no such experience in Peoria.”
Sam wrote that he had to stay in Peoria half a day and was on his way to Decatur.

January 13 Wednesday – Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture in the Methodist Episcopal Church in Ottawa, Illinois. The reviews were mixed but Sam began a letter to Livy that called it a “botch.”
My Dearest Livy—

January 14 Thursday – Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture at the Burtis Opera House, in Davenport, Iowa. Afterwards he wrote again to Livy: Livy, darling, I greet you. We did have a splendid house tonight, & everything went off handsomely. Now I begin to fear that I shan’t get a chance to see your loved face between Jan. 22 & Feb. 13 as I was hoping & longing I should. Because I have just received some new appointments by telegraph—the ones I expected. Please add them to your list—carefully, & don’t make any mistake: Thus:
Marshall, Mich., {underline} Jan. 25.

January 15 Friday – Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture in Metropolitan Hall, Iowa City, Iowa. Livy wrote Mary Mason Fairbanks, inviting her to Elmira for a reunion of the Quaker City passengers [MTL 3: 42].

January 16 Saturday – Sam slipped and fell on the ice in Iowa City earning a sore hip. That evening, Sam traveled by train to Chicago, and along the way wrote a letter of apology to the landlord in Iowa City. Sam had yelled at the man for waking him up too early, 9 AM [MTL 3: 45-7].

January 17 Sunday – Sam wrote from Chicago to Livy, telling her about the spill on the ice and his sore hip, and his written apology to the landlord. “Have you got a good picture yet, Livy? —because I want it so badly” [MTL 3: 45-7].

January 18 Monday – Sam was unable to get to Sparta, Wisconsin for a scheduled lecture. He arrived in Cleveland at daylight [MTL 3: 49].