Mark Twain - Reporter: Day By Day

July 23 Thursday – Another “Mark Twain Letter” (dated July 19) ran in the Morning Call. Subheadings: Judicial Broil; Theatricals; General Benevolence; The Caved Mines; About Other Mines: Immigration; Billiard Match [Camfield, bibliog.].

July 23 Saturday – The following six local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Demoralizing Young Girls,” “Rape,” “The Nose-Biter,” “Oh! That Mine Enemy Would Make a Speech!,” “Discharged,” and “False Pretenses” [Branch, C of Call 291].

July 23 Sunday – S. Browne Jones’ fourth article appeared in the Era [Fatout, MT Speaks 19].

July 23 Monday – From Sam’s notebook: “5 day—lat. 31.34—longitude 157.30—distance 202 miles.”

July 24 Friday – Orion’s term as acting governor of Nevada Territory ended [ET&S 1: 465].

July 24 Sunday – The following five local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Startling!—The Latest General Order,” “Obscene-Picture Dealers,” “A Merited Penalty,” “The ‘Nina Tilden’,” and “Police Court Doings” [Branch, C of Call 291].

July 24 Tuesday – From Sam’s notebook:
“6 Day out—lat. 34.32 N. long. 157.40 W. Distance 180 miles. Had calms several times. Are we never going to make any longitude? The trades are weakening—it is time we struck the China winds about midnight—say in lat. 36” [MTNJ 1: 134].

July 25 Saturday – The Virginia City Bulletin ran an item about Mark Twain seen coming from the Chinatown section of town with “a feather in his cap we supposed you had turned Pah-Ute.” This could have been an indirect reference to Sam frequenting the red light district [The Twainian, Nov.- Dec. 1948, p.4].

July 25 Wednesday – From Sam’s notebook:
“lat. 37.18 long. 158.06—distance 170 miles. 3 P.M. –we are abreast of San Francisco, but seventeen hundred miles at sea!—when will the wind change?….I was genuinely glad, this evening, to welcome the first twilight I have seen in 6 years, No twilight in the S. Islands, California or Washoe” [MTNJ 1: 134-5].

July 26 Sunday – Sam and Clement T. Rice were forced out of their White House Hotel rooms by a fire at 11 AM. Sam went solo to a room in an “A” street mansion [MTL 1: 262]. Accounts of the fire appeared the next day in the Virginia City Evening Bulletin, and on July 28 in the Union. Note: a larger fire burned 70 buildings in late August. In some accounts this fire is confused with the larger conflagration.

July 26 Tuesday – The following three local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Vending Obscene Pictures,” “Lewd Merchandise,” and “ Concerning Hackmen” [Branch, C of Call 292].

July 26 Thursday – From Sam’s notebook: “Got 50 miles above opposite San Francisco & at noon started back & are now running south-east—almost calm—1700 miles at sea” [MTNJ 1: 136].

July 27 Wednesday – The following three local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Family Jar,” “Bail Forfeited,” and “Police Court” [Branch, C of Call 292].

July 27 Friday – From Sam’s notebook:
We are just barely moving to-day in a general direction southeast toward San F—though last night we stood stock still for hours, pieces of banana skins thrown to the great sea-birds swimming in our wake floating perfectly still in the sluggish water. In the last 24 hours we have made but 38 miles—made most of that drifting sideways. Position at noon, 38.55 N. 157.37 W….Tuesday & Friday bean day; Saturday fish day; Monday & Thursday duck [MTNJ 1: 136-7].

July 28 Thursday – The following two local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Munificent Donation,” and “Sliding Scale of Assault and Battery” [Branch, C of Call 292].

July 28 Saturday – From Sam’s notebook: “—38.46—156.36—48 miles—glassy calm—had sternway awhile” [MTNJ 1: 139].
From notebook entries for the period aboard the Smyrniote, it may be inferred that Sam read Ocean Scenes by Leavitt & Allen (1848), during these long calm periods [Gribben 513 from Michael Frank, ed. MTP].

July 29 Friday – The following two local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Obscene Information,” and “On a Pleasure Trip” [Branch, C of Call 292].

July 29 Sunday – From Sam’s notebook: “Overcast, breezy and very pleasant on deck. All hands on deck immediately after breakfast. Rev. Franklin S. Rising preached, & the passengers formed choir” [MTNJ 1: 144]. Note: Rising (1833?-1868).
Frear writes: “One of his fellow passengers was the young Episcopal clergyman Franklin S. Rising, with whom he had formed a warm friendship in a helpful, fatherly way in Nevada and California—the first of his noted ministerial friendships. Rising preached each Sunday on board” [13].

July 3 Sunday – Sam’s article “Early Rising, As Regards Excursions to the Cliff House” was published in the Golden Era. The piece is “manifestly an attempt to elaborate the experience of his own recent trip into a humorous, essentially literary sketch” [Walker 83; ET&S 2: 22].
The following five local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “The Secesh Highwaymen,” “Theatrical Record. City,” “Nabbed,” “Young Thieves,” and “Those Thieves” [Branch, C of Call 289-90].

July 3 Tuesday – From Sam’s notebook:

“Saw star to-night on which counted 12 distinct & flaming points—very large star—shone with such a pure, rich, diamond luster—lustrous—on a field on dead solid black—no star very close—where I sat saw no other—Moonlight here is fine, but nowhere so fine as Washoe” [MTNJ 1: 119].

July 30 Thursday – Sam’s account of his Virginia City fire experience (dated July 26) ran in the San Francisco Morning Call:

July 30 Saturday – The following ten local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam:
“Trot Her Along,” “More Sanitary Molasses,” “Washoe Mining Festivals,” “ Mrs. O’Farrell,” “The Sinking Ship Deserted,” “Caving In,” “ “Emancipation Celebration,” “End of the Rape Case,” “Police Court,” and “After Sundries” [Branch, C of Call 292].

July 30 Sunday – S. Browne Jones’ fifth article appeared in the Era [Fatout, MT Speaks 19].

July 30 Monday – Sam’s sixteenth letter to the Union, dated “Honolulu, June 30, 1866. A MONTH OF MOURNING”:

July 31 Friday – The new Enterprise building and its new steam press were completed on North C street [Mack 233]. With all the celebrating of the event Sam’s chronic bronchitis forced him to bed. He asked Clement T. Rice to fill in for him, and Rice did so, taking the opportunity to run a fake “apology” in the Enterprise (see Aug. 1 entry).