Mark Twain - Reporter: Day By Day

October 16-23 Monday – Edgar Branch gives this as the week in which Sam composed “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog” [“My Voice” 600].

October 17 Tuesday – Sam’s “Earthquake Almanac” was published in San Francisco’s Dramatic Chronicle [ET&S 2: 297].

Orion & Mollie Clemens wrote to Sam, letter not extant but referred to in Twain’s 19 and 20 Oct. reply, referring to the sermons sent. [MTP].

October 18 Tuesday – Sam wrote from San Francisco to his brother Orion. Sam was out of work so asked his brother to “send the stock” (Hale & Norcross mining stock). Sam did continue receiving $12 for articles written for the Californian, but wrote only three of these [MTL 1: 320]. Sanford claims Sam wrote ten pieces in the Californian between Oct. 1 and Dec. 3 [254].

October 18 Wednesday – Sam had sent his Jumping Frog story to George W. Carleton (1832-1901), for a book that Artemus Ward was editing. It was too late for inclusion in the book so Carleton sent the story on to Henry Clapp, Jr. (1814-1875) at the Saturday Press, who published it [Rasmussen 265-6]. See also AMT 2: 484-5 for more on Carleton and Clapp.

October – “Time for Her to Come Home,” an article in the Enterprise, is attributed to Sam [Schmidt]. Sam alluded to a periodical Bell’s Life in London and Sporting Chronicle as his source for euphemistic boxing terminology [Gribben 58].

October – Sometime between this month and mid-1865, Sam wrote a parody of Poe’s “The Raven,” called “The Mysterious Chinaman,” for the album of Jim Gillis’ daughter, Mary Elizabeth Gillis. Sam wrote at the top of the manuscript, “Written for M.E.G.’s Album.” Sam had read Poe and knew the poem well. He also wrote a prose parody of it in his Dec. 20, 1867 letter to the Enterprise [ET&S 2: 62-3].

October – “Cats!” an anecdote about “renowned fiddling humbug” is known to have existed and been printed in the Virginia City Enterprise [Schmidt].

October 19 Monday – Sam wrote up the Fair for the Territorial Enterprise. His article, FIRST ANNUAL FAIR OF WASHOE AGRICULTURAL, MINING AND MECHANICAL SOCIETY, was printed sometime later in October (Camfield’s bibliog. lists the print date as Oct. 20). Sections included: Triumphal Parade; Great Pantomime Speech; Races Saturday Afternoon; A Hint to Carson; and, The Fair a Success and a Valuable Lesson [Smith 80-6].

October 2 Sunday – The following five local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “The Last Hitch at the Mint,” “Benefit for the Santa Barbara Sufferers,” “Important Arrest,” “Last Night of the Fair,” and “Everybody Wants to Help” [Branch, C of Call 300].

October 2–6 Monday – From the Enterprise:
LOCAL COLUMN
Translated – If a man’s sign blowing heavenward is a proof of it, than Justice Atwill was translated yesterday, and is doubtless holding Court in Paradise this morning for his shingle, bearing the legend “Justice,” was seen sailing over the Summit of Mount Davidson [Marleau, “Some Early” 12].

October 20 Monday – Mollie Clemens and daughter and Jennie arrived in San Francisco and were met by Orion. They left immediately for Carson [MTP card file quotes Mack]. Sam was aware of their arrival, as he wrote to them the next day.

October 20 Tuesday ca. – Sam returned to Virginia City. He and Dan De Quille rented rooms together [MTL 1: 266]. (See Oct. 28 entry.)

October 21 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Virginia City to Orion & Mollie about how he made up the story “Petrified Man?” which several newspapers took as an actual scientific discovery. “I got it up to worry Sewall,” he wrote. G.T. Sewall was a judge of Humboldt County who was antagonistic toward Sam, probably over some governmental duties of Orion, and had withheld information from reporters in an officious and irritating way [MTL 1: 241].

October 21 Friday – Sam had to pay an assessment of $100 on four shares of Hale & Norcross mining stock [RI 1993, explanatory notes 701].

October 21–24 Tuesday – Sam’s sketch, “Bob Roach’s Plan for Circumventing a Democrat,” was printed between these dates in the Territorial Enterprise, copies of which are lost. It was reprinted Nov. 30 in the San Francisco Examiner. Sam dated the letter Oct. 19 [ET&S 2: 311].

October 22 Saturday – Sam’s article, “Whereas” appeared in the Californian [ET&S 2: 86]. The story was shortened (later published in the Jumping Frog book) and re-titled, “Aurelia’s Unfortunate Young Man” [Wilson 1; Budd, “Collected” 1003]. Sam’s article, “Earthquake Almanac,” was published in the Golden Era [Walker 90].

October 22–24 Tuesday – Sam’s San Francisco Letter about the Rawhide Ranch Mine was printed in the Enterprise and reprinted in the Sonora (Calif.) Union Democrat [Schmidt].

October 26 Monday – The Virginia City Bulletin reported: Mark Twain and Charley Parker of the Bulletin responded to toasts to the press on the housing of the new fire engine [The Twainian, Nov.-Dec. 1948 p 4].

October 26 Thursday – Sam’s article “Attention, Fitz Smythe!” ran in the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle [ET&S 2: 482].

October 26–28 Saturday – Sam’s San Francisco Letter to the Enterprise included: “A Love of a Bonnet Described,” “Re-opening of the Plaza,” and: MORE FASHIONS – EXIT “WATERFALL.”

October 28 Wednesday – Sam’s hoax, “A Bloody Massacre near Carson,” for which he received a tempest of indignation and protest, ran uncensored in the Enterprise. (Most everything local reporters wrote was uncensored.) This piece was a fiction-hoax of one Pete Hopkins, who’d gone insane and chopped up his wife and seven of his nine children with an axe and club, afterwards riding into Carson City with his throat cut from ear to ear. The story was widely reprinted [Fatout, MT Speaks 15; ET&S 1: 324-6].

October 28 Saturday – Sam’s article, “Real Estate versus Imaginary Possessions, Poetically Considered – ‘My Ranch’,” was printed in the Californian [Schmidt]. Between Oct. 26 and this date, Sam’s San Francisco Letter was printed in the Enterprise. Subtitles: A LOVE OF A BONNET DESCRIBED, RE-OPENING OF THE PLAZA, MORE FASHIONS—EXIT “WATERFALL”

October 29 Thursday – Sam revealed in the Enterprise that the “Bloody Massacre” story was a hoax:

I TAKE IT ALL BACK

October 29 Saturday – Sam’s article, “A Touching Story of George Washington‘s Boyhood,” was published in the Californian [ET&S 2: 94].