Mark Twain - Reporter: Day By Day

August 18 Tuesday – The Enterprise ran “Letter from Mark Twain” [Camfield bibliog.].

August 18 Thursday – The following eight local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam:
“Washoe Congressional Gossip,” “Daring Attempt to Assassinate a Pawnbroker in Broad Daylight!,” “Man Run Over,” “The Soap Factory Nuisance,” “Fire at Hayes’ Valley,” “Launch of the New Stockton Steamer,” “Insolent Hackmen,” and “Damages for Personal Injury” [Branch, C of Call 294- 5].

August, late – Sam arrived at the Virginia City Enterprise, a “small rickety frame building at the corner of A Street and Sutton Avenue,” [Fatout, MT in VC 11] (later a large brick building on C Street) to take the job. According to Paine, Sam claimed he walked the 130 miles from Aurora and arrived in the afternoon of a “hot, dusty August day” and drawled to Denis E. McCarthy (1840-1885) one of the owners:

August 19 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Steamboat Springs, Nevada Territory, to his mother, and sister Pamela, sending another $20 greenback [MTL 1: 263]. “Letter from Mark Twain” dated Aug.18 ran in the Enterprise [Smith 66].

August 19 Friday – Four sketches appeared in the Morning Call while Sam was working there as a local reporter. They are unsigned but were in his scrapbooks and were publicly attributed to Sam by Albert S. Evans (d.1872), who was the object of ridicule in the last two sketches. The first of these was, “The New Chinese Temple.” For the other three sketches see Aug. 21, 23, and 24 entries [ET&S 2: 38; Branch, Clemens 295]. Two other local items in the Call are attributed to Sam: “The Wounded Boy,” and “Who Goes with the Money?” [Branch, C of Call 295].

August 2 Sunday – Sam’s “A Duel Prevented,” was published in the Enterprise. He also telegraphed the Call of the conflict between Joe Goodman of the Enterprise and the “fiery” Thomas Fitch (1838-1923) of the Virginia Union, and the dispatch ran under the headline “Tom Fitch in a Duel—Officer Interposes” [Branch, C of Call 286]. The article is what Branch calls “a personal account of much ado about nothing, a tale of comic frustration” [ET&S 1: 262-6].

August 2 Tuesday – The following seven local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Somber Festivities,” “Relieved,” Enlisted for the War,” “Fall of a Flag-staff,” “Assault to Kill,” “Refused Greenbacks,” and “Board of Supervisors” [Branch, C of Call 292].

August 20 Saturday – The following six local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Who Lost Them,” “The Same Subject Continued,” “A Revolutionary Patriot,” “More Abuse of Sailors,” “Suit Against a Mining Superintendent,” and “Mary Kane” [Branch, C of Call 295].

August 21 Sunday – The second of Sam’s four sketches was printed in the Call, “The Chinese Temple.” Four other local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Arms Taken in Charge by the Authorities,” “False Rumor,” “Still Improving,” and “It is the Daniel Webster” [Branch, C of Call 295].

August 23 Sunday – Sam, still not over his cold, returned to Virginia City from Steamboat Springs [The Twainian, Nov.-Dec. 1948 p 4]. Before returning, he wrote a letter to the Call, published there on Aug. 30 [MTL 1: 265; ET&S 1: 272]. The Enterprise ran another “Letter from Mark Twain” written from Steamboat Springs [Camfield bibliog.].

August 23 Tuesday – The third of Sam’s four sketches was printed in the Call, “The New Chinese Temple.” Six other local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “No Earthquake,” “Inexplicable News from San Jose,” “Camanche Items—Sanitary Contributions,” “Rain,” “Board of Supervisors,” and “Sentenced Yesterday” [Branch, C of Call 295].

August 24 Wednesday – The fourth of Sam’s four sketches was printed in the Call, “Supernatural Impudence.” Five other local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Birney and Bunsby,” “Ingratitude,” “A Dark Transaction,” “Police Contributions,” and “Police Record” [Branch, C of Call 295].

August 25 Tuesday – Sam wrote the Territorial Enterprise, describing his visit to Steamboat Springs. His letter was published this date under the title, “Letter from Mark Twain” [MTL 1: 265; Budd, “Collected” 1002]. Sections include: The Springs; The Hotel; The Hospital; The Baths; Good-bye; and:

THE WAKE-UP-JAKE.

August 25 Thursday – The following five local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “War of the Races,” “Henry Meyer,” “The Ladies’ Fair,” “Judgments Against the ‘Sir George Grey’,” and “The Theatres, Etc: Metropolitan” [Branch, C of Call 295-6].

August 26 Friday – The following four local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Mechanics’ Fair,” “Who Killed Him?,” “Good From Louderback,” and “A Confederacy Caged” [Branch, C of Call 296].

August 26 Saturday – Sam’s article “The Facts” ran in the Californian. By now Sam was writing daily letters to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, and had not contributed to the weekly literary Californian for seven weeks [ET&S 2: 250].

August 27 Thursday – Sam’s article in the Local Column of the Enterprise was titled, “YE BULLETIN CYPHERETH,” and disputed bullion production statistics printed the previous day by the Virginia City Evening Bulletin [ET&S 1: 415-7].

August 27 Saturday – Sam’s article, “How to Cure Him of It,” appeared in the Call. This “permanent cure” was for a barking dog and would make the dog “as quiet and docile as a dried herring” (a double handful of strychnine, dissolved in a quart of Prussic acid) [ET&S 2: 57].

Five other local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “The Fair,” “Arrest of Another of the Robbing Gang,” “More Hawaiian Donations,” “Who Lost Evangeline?,” and “The Forlorn Hope” [Branch, C of Call 296].

August 27 Sunday – S. Browne Jones’ eighth article appeared in the Era [Fatout, MT Speaks 19]. Note: Fatout claims eight letters by Jones to the Era between July 2 and this date. Other sources list only the first three.

August 28 Friday – 1:40 PM and 10 PM: Sam covered a large fire in Virginia City for the Enterprise. The fire and subsequent riot covered four blocks. Sam sent two dispatches by telegraph to the San Francisco Morning Call in addition to writing up the events for the Enterprise [Branch, C of Call 286-7]. Fatout writes the fire “ravaged most of Virginia west of A Street and south of Pat Lynch’s Saloon, and might have destroyed the whole town if the wind had been in another quarter” [MT in VC 81].

August 28 Sunday – The following five local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Fair,” “Determined on Suicide,” “The Red, Black, and Blue,” “A Chicken Case,” and “Don’t Bury Your Money in Oyster Cans” [Branch, C of Call 296].

August 29 Saturday – Sam’s dispatch “Disastrous Fire at Virginia City—Seventy Buildings Burned” ran in the Morning Call [Branch, C of Call 286].

August 3 Wednesday – The following six local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Runaway,” “Democratic Meeting at Hayes’ Park,” “More Stage Robbers and Their Confederates Captured,” “Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire,” “A Movement in the Buckeye,” and “Attempted Suicide” [Branch, C of Call 292-3].

August 3 Friday – From Sam’s notebook: “The calm continues. Magnificent weather. Men all turned boys. Play boyish games on the poop & quarter-deck” [MTNJ 1: 158].

August 30 Sunday – Sam’s “Mark Twain’s Letter”(dated Aug. 20 from Steamboat Springs Hotel) ran in the Morning Call, describing his visit to Steamboat Springs [MTL 1: 265; ET&S 1: 277]. Sam also finished a letter on this date that would be published by the Call on Sept. 3 called “Unfortunate Blunder.”