Mark Twain - Reporter: Day By Day

April 28 Saturday – Sam’s article, “Mark Twain on His Travels,” was printed in the Californian [Schmidt].

April 28–30 Saturday – “Letter from Mark Twain” from Carson City, was published in the Enterprise.
“I depart for Silver Mountain in the Esmeralda stage at 7 o’clock to-morrow morning. It is the early bird that catches the worm, but I would not get up at that time in the morning for a thousand worms, if I were not obliged to. MARK TWAIN”[Smith 178].

April 3 Friday – Sam’s Local Column in the Enterprise: “A Distinguished Visitor,” “Clara Kopka,” “The Lois Ann mine,” “ Island Mill,” “Gould & Curry,” and “Minstrels.”

April 3 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Honolulu to his mother, and sister Pamela.

I have been here two or three weeks, & like the beautiful tropical climate better & better. I have ridden on horseback all over this island (Oahu) in the meantime, & have visited all the ancient battle-fields & other places of interest. I have got a lot of human bones which I took from one of these battle-fields—I guess I will bring you some of them [MTL 1: 334].

April 30 Saturday – A fragment of Sam’s Enterprise piece about De Quille survives:
DAN REASSEMBLED

April 4 Wednesday – Sam visited with the king of Hawaii, Kamehameha V (1830-1872) at Iolani Palace. Sam was escorted by the “King’s Grand Chamberlain,” David Kalakaua (1836-1891) who would become king in 1874.

April 6 Friday – “Special Dispatch from Mark Twain” ran on page 4 of the New York Times, the first such mention of Sam in that paper:
“Have had an interview with the spirits of Jno. Phoenix and Joe Miller. In their opinion it can’t be done. Joe wanted to know if it’s a regular ‘Tenner’ or something ‘queer.’ MARK TWAIN.”

April 7 Saturday – Sam’s Article, “On Linden, etc.,” was printed in the Californian:
And speaking of steamboats reminds me of an incident of my late trip to Sacramento. I want to publish it as showing how going north on the river gradually enfeebles one’s mind, and accounts for the strange imbecility of legislators who leave here sensible men, and become the reverse, to the astonishment of their constituents, by the time they reach their seats in the Capitol at Sacramento [Schmidt].

April or May 1863 – Sometime during these two months an article titled, “For Lager” appeared in the Enterprise and is attributed to Sam [Schmidt].

August 1 Saturday – The Virginia City Bulletin ran a short article, “Gymnasium” 

“Mark Twain wants a gym in this city. Wouldn’t a bath house afford him as healthy exercise?”

To which Sam answered in the Enterprise soon after:

“Well, my boy, before that gym is completed, we will put you through some evolutions that will make you think a bath house is a very healthy institution. That is if you don’t ‘dry up’ ” [The Twainian, Nov.-Dec. 1948 p.4].

August 1 Wednesday – Sam’s seventeenth letter to the Union dated “Honolulu, July 1, 1866:
FUNERAL OF THE PRINCESS”:
Four or five poodle dogs, which had been the property of the deceased, were carried in the arms of individuals among these servants of peculiar and distinguished trustworthiness. It is likely that all the Christianity the Hawaiians could absorb would never be sufficient to wean them from their almost idolatrous affection for dogs. And these dogs, as a general thing, are the smallest, meanest, and most spiritless, homely and contemptible of their species [Day 182].

August 10 Monday ca. – About this time Sam came down with a bad cold. (See letter Aug. 19) [MTL 1: 264]. Note: Sam had suffered on and off with colds, and on Aug. 1, Clement T. Rice filled in for him due to a cold.

August 10 Wednesday – The following eight local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam:
“Our U.S. Branch Mint,” “They Got Her Out,” “Intelligence Office Row,” “The Murderer Kennedy— A Question of Jurisdiction,” “It Was True,” “Collision,” “A New Star,” and “Board of Education” [Branch, C of Call 293-4].

August 10 Friday – Sam continued the multi-dated letter to his mother and sister he began July 30. We have breezes & calms alternately. The brig is 2 miles to 3 astern, & just stays there. We sail directly east—this brings the brig, with all her canvas set, almost in the eye of the sun, when it sets—beautiful. She looks sharply cut & black as coal against a background of fire & in the midst of a sea of blood [MTL 1: 353].

August 11 Tuesday – According to an article in the Virginia City Bulletin, Sam and Adair Wilson (1841-1912) left in the morning for Lake Bigler (Tahoe):

DEPARTED

Those two pilfering reporters, “Mark Twain” and the “Unimportant,” left this morning for Lake Bigler (Tahoe)….They have left two consumptive “arrangements” to supply their places while they are absent. The “Unreliable” [Clement T. Rice] is lying for the “Unimportant” [Adair Wilson] while a quondam county official is endeavoring to sustain a similar reputation for Mark [The Twainian, Nov.- Dec. 1948 p 4].

August 11 Thursday – The following five local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Police Judge’s Budget,” “Meteoric,” “Small Business,” “An Accumulation of Copperheads,” and “Young Celestial Derelicts” [Branch, C of Call 294].

August 12 Friday – Sam wrote from San Francisco to his mother. Sam had joined the San Francisco Olympic Club and praised the blessings of exercise, saying it has added twenty years to his life. Sam commented about his article, “What a Sky-Rocket Did,” printed in the Call on this date. The article is another hoax, this time about a rocket crashing through a tenement roof, at the expense of a former member of the city’s board of supervisors, William Crawley Hinckley [MTL 1: 305-6].

August 12–16 Sunday ca. – Sam spent time at Lake Bigler (Tahoe) with Adair Wilson, the junior local editor of the Virginia City Union. Sam loved the Lake and had praised its clean air to his family, so he likely went to recover from his cold [MTL 1: 265n2]. Andrew Hoffman claims he “fell in with a fast crowd there, staying up late drinking too much champagne” [82].

August 13 Thursday – Another of Sam’s “Mark Twain’s Letters” (dated Aug. 8) ran in the Morning Call. Sam wrote again about high yields from the Echo mine. From a high price per share of $140 asked in mid-July, the Echo stock fell to $27 within six months. Subheadings: The City of Virginia; More Fire Companies; Visiting Brethren; Carson Races; Theatricals; Legal Battle; Railroad Meeting; No Democratic Convention; Mining Affairs [MTL 1: 259; Camfield bibliog.].

August 13 Sunday – S. Browne Jones’ seventh article appeared in the Era [Fatout, MT Speaks 19].

August 13 Monday – At 3 PM, the Smyrniote and the Comet arrived at San Francisco together. The trip had taken 25 days, due to long periods of calm weather [Sanborn 294]. From Walter Frear:

August 13 and 14 Sunday – Sam wrote from San Francisco to Orion and Mollie. He copied part of his letter of Aug. 12 to his mother, and made light of it [MTL 1: 307]. Sam and Steve Gillis, with six other newspapermen, took the 8:30 AM train for San Jose, which at that time was about the same size as Hannibal. After drinks at the Continental Hotel, the group strolled the streets of San Jose. After lunch at the hotel, the group hired buggies and rode twelve miles to Warm Springs, a spot where well-to-do San Franciscans took rest. There they had dinner and spent hours in the bar [Sanborn 247].

August 16 Tuesday – The following eight local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam:
“The Hotel Thief,” “Lively Times at the Bella Union,” “An Ill-advised Prosecution,” “A Sharp Woman,” “Rival Water Companies,” “Enlargement of the Spleen,” “Manes of an Old Ejectment Laid,” and “An Unprofitable Operation” [Branch, C of Call 294].

August 17 Monday – Sam left Lake Bigler and went to Steamboat Springs, a mineral bath about nine miles northwest of Virginia City. He paid for his stay by writing up the resort for both the Territorial Enterprise and the San Francisco Morning Call [A. Hoffman 82].

August 17 Wednesday – The following six local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam:
“Aggravating a Pawnbroker,” “School Director Pope and the Call,” “Judge Shepheard’s School of Discipline,” “Conjugal Infelicity,” “A Peace-Maker,” and “The Bella Union Imbrogilo” [Branch, C of Call 294].