Mark Twain - Reporter: Day By Day

November 30 Monday – Sam’s 28 th birthday. He attended the ball and supper at Sutliffe’s Hall by the Virginia City Eagle Engine Company, where he gave a speech [ET&S 1: 331].

November 30 Wednesday – Sam’s 29 th birthday.

November 30 Thursday – Sam’s 30 th birthday. His four short articles, “Too Terse,” “Shame!” “Bribery! Corruption!” and “Drunk?” ran in the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle. The target? Fitz Smythe again (Evans) [ET&S 2: 505-8].

November 4 Saturday – Sam’s article “‘Mark Twain’ On the Ballad Infliction” ran in the Californian [reprinted from the Territorial Enterprise]:

November 5 Saturday – Sam’s article, “Daniel in the Lion’s Den—And Out Again All Right.” Was published in the Californian. “Now for several days I have been visiting the Board of Brokers, and associating with brokers, and drinking with them, and swapping lies with them…” [MTNJ 1: 69; ET&S 2: 100].

November 6 Monday – Sam’s unsigned article, “Oh, You Robinson!” about a man charged with bigamy, ran in the gossip column of the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle, p2. The “Robertsonian method of teaching French” is very good, but the Robinsonian method of getting divorces is rather too brash [ET&S 2: 488; Gribben 583].
Theodore Robertson (1803-1871), author: The Whole French Language: The Robertsonian System (1855).

November 7 Saturday – “Letter from Mark Twain,” Carson City, this date, “political convention,” was published later in the month in the Enterprise [Smith 86]. (Camfield places the print date as Nov. 10 [biblio.]).

November 7 Monday – Orion Clemens was elected to the Nevada State Legislature after much speech making [Fanning 104].

November 7 Tuesday – Sam was among other reporters aboard the new tugboat Rescue, loaded with champagne and calliope playing to celebrate its maiden voyage. He wrote “Pleasure Excursion” about this trip with “high-toned newspaper reporters, numerous military officers, and gentlemen of note” [ET&S 2: 326]. Also, Sam’s article “A word from Lisle Lester” ran in the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle, along with squib, “Explanation” [ET&S 2: 489-90].

November 8 Wednesday – Sam’s obituary of the San Franciscan dog celebre, Bummer, appeared in the Enterprise and was reprinted Nov 11 in the Californian.

November 9 Thursday ­– Sam’s article “Stand Back!” ran in the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle [ET&S 2: 492].

November 9–12 Sunday – Sam’s article “Pleasure Excursion” was printed during this period in the Enterprise, reprinted Nov. 19 in the Golden Era; and the San Francisco Examiner on Dec. 2 [ET&S 2: 326].

November to December – Sam neglected his letter writing for this period and continued to work as a reporter for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise.

October 1 Wednesday – “The Indian Troubles on the Overland Route,” attributed to Sam, ran in the Local Column of the Enterprise. The article was about an Indian attack on emigrants [Fatout, MT in VC 12]. Sam later mentioned such an exaggerated approach to the news in his first days on the paper. Nearly all copies of the Enterprise for the period Sam worked there have been lost, but many papers in the West borrowed and reprinted from other newspapers. This article was reprinted on Oct. 5 by the Marysville, California, Daily Appeal. [Fatout, MT Speaks 1-4].

October 1 Saturday – Sam’s first contribution to the Californian was published, a piece titled, “A Notable Conundrum,” about the Fourth Industrial Fair of the Mechanics’ Institute of San Francisco [MTL 1: 314; ET&S 2: 66]. Between Oct. 1 and Dec. 3 1864, Sam wrote ten weekly articles for the Californian, which paid twelve dollars each [MTNJ 1: 65].
Meanwhile, Sam continued to write local items for the Morning Call. The following two items are attributed to him: “Great Excitement,” and “Damages Awarded” [Branch, C of Call 300].

October 10 Monday – George Barnes, editor of the Call, fired Sam, less than five months after hiring him [MT Encyclopedia, McFatter 653].
“I neglected my duties and became about worthless, as a reporter for a brisk newspaper. And at last one of the proprietors took me aside, with a charity I still remember with considerable respect, and gave me an opportunity to resign my berth and so save myself the disgrace of a dismissal” [Roughing It, Ch.58].

October 10–11 Wednesday – Sam’s article, “The Cruel Earthquake,” appeared in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise about this time, and was reprinted in the Gold Hill News on Oct. 13 [ET&S 2: 289].

October 11 Sunday – Sam’s “The Great Prize Fight” was published in the Golden Era [Walker 24].

October 11 Tuesday – The local article, “Had a Fit,” in the Call is attributed to Sam [Branch, C of Call 300]. This is the last article thought to be by Sam Clemens in the Morning Call while he was employed as a city reporter there.

October 12 Sunday – Orion’s wife Mollie arrived in Carson City with their seven-year-old daughter, Jennie Clemens, after a steamer trip to San Francisco a week before. Sam was still in Virginia City [MTL 1: 242n1].

October 12 through 17 Saturday – Sam covered the First Annual Fair of the Washoe Agricultural, Mining and Mechanical Society [MTL 1: 266].

October 13–16 Thursday – An article of Sam’s, title missing, appeared in the Enterprise: 

October 15 Saturday – Sam’s review of a romantic comic opera, The Crown Diamonds, “Still further Concerning That Conundrum” was published in the Californian [ET&S 2: 79]. Sam’s focus was on the prop-man who moved furniture between scenes [Gribben 31].

October 15–31 Tuesday – One of Sam’s letters to the Enterprise was printed in this period, “Popper Defieth Ye Earthquake,” about Popper’s Building, heavily damaged [ET&S 2: 296].

October 16 Monday – Edgar Branch gives this as the date Sam began a two-month stint for the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle as a staff writer [“My Voice” 591].