April 17–24 Sunday – Sam’s item in the Enterprise Local Column was “Missionaries Wanted.” This humorous drubbing of two locals in a fictional scene was typical of Sam’s barbs for those he wanted to deflate. Such reports won him the title of “wild and unpredictable humorist.”
Yesterday morning [John] Gashwiler and Charley Funck, citizens of Virginia City and of the Territory of Nevada, and officers of the great Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company, came rushing into our office in a state of excitement bordering on lunacy… [Note: John W. Gashwiler (1831-1883) “Old Gash”]
April 19 Tuesday – Ruel Colt Gridley (1829-1870), an “old schoolfellow of Mark Twain’s” and owner of the Gridley Store in Austin, made a wager on the outcome of a city election, with the loser having to carry a fifty-pound sack of flour from Austin to Clifton, a mile and a quarter’s distance [Fatout, MT in VC 186]. Note: the next day the process began which led to the great flour sack promotions for the Sanitary Fund, a forerunner of the American Red Cross (See May 17 entry.)
April 20 Wednesday – “Frightful Accident to Dan De Quille,” was printed in the Territorial Enterprise. Branch called this sketch “in Mark Twain’s best vein–a typical product of the mutual raillery he carried on with De Quille, resembling his earlier ‘feuds’ with the Unreliable” [ET&S 1: 359].
April 22 Friday – In his Autobiography, Sam wrote of his attempt at a duel with James L. Laird, editor of the Virginia City Union and how it all came about:
April 24 Sunday ca. – Sam got his nose bloodied by George F. Dawson at Chauvel’s Fencing Club, a Virginia City gymnasium. Dawson, an Englishman, at the time an assistant editor at the Enterprise, was a skilled boxer [Mack 252; Fatout, MT in VC 184]. Sam clowned around with a pair of boxing gloves, but evidently Dawson thought Sam was threatening, so uncorked a punch to Sam’s unguarded nose. De Quille claimed a “plentiful flow of claret” and a nose “like an egg-plant” that supposedly embarrassed Sam enough for him to take an out of town assignment for the newspaper.
April 26 Tuesday ca. – Sam left for Silver Mountain to report on mining activity there and to allow his swollen nose to recede for a couple of days.
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 30 Saturday – A fragment of Sam’s Enterprise piece about De Quille survives:
DAN REASSEMBLED
May – Sometime during May, Sam’s article “Burlesque Life of Shakespeare” ran in the Enterprise [Camfield bibliog.].
May 1 Sunday – Sam’s article “Mark Twain and Dan De Quille / Hors de Combat” ran in the Golden Era [Walker 50]. This was essentially a reprint from the Enterprise of “Frightful Accident of Dan De Quille” [Camfield bibliog.].
May 1–15 Sunday – “Washoe—‘Information Wanted’” was printed sometime in the first two weeks of May, and reprinted in the Golden Era on May 22. Branch opines that Sam was disenchanted by this point with Silver-Land, principally over the scandal with the ladies of Carson City and the contributions to the Sanitary Fund with the Virginia Union. The sketch is hyperbole about Nevada that Branch calls an “appropriate farewell” [ET&S 1: 365]. Nevada was discovered many years ago by the Mormons, and was called Carson county. It only became Nevada in 1861, by act of Congress.
May 5 Thursday – The Sanitary Fancy Dress Ball was held in Carson City in connection with the St. Louis Fair (a larger Sanitary charity event to help the Union wounded veterans).
May 15 Sunday – The first meeting in Virginia City for the “Sanitary Fund” was trumpeted from the Virginia City Union:
To-day, at 2 o’clock, the long deferred mammoth Sanitary meeting will be held at the Opera House. The announcement ought to fill the house, but when it is remembered that sweet singers, eloquent orators, pretty ladies, and a fine brass band will be in attendance, who can stay away? Turn out for the honor of Nevada! [Benson 106]. Note: the Enterprise no doubt ran similar fare.
May 16 Monday – Joe Goodman was again away from Virginia City, and Sam was in editorial charge of the Enterprise [Benson 107]. Sam drafted a “joke” about the funds for the Carson City Ball going to a miscegenation society back East. He showed it to De Quille, who agreed with Sam that it shouldn’t be printed. Sam later guessed the foreman, needing filler, picked it up and printed it [Powers, MT A Life 137].
Sam’s article, “History of the Gold and Silver Bars—How They Do Things in Washoe,” ran in the Enterprise [Camfield bibliog.].
May 17 Tuesday – In Virginia City, Sam wrote to his mother, Jane Clemens, and sister Pamela about raising money for relief of sick and wounded Union soldiers, called the “sanitary fund.” The Enterprise and the Union bid against each other to raise funds. Sam related Reuel Colt Gridley’s efforts at hauling a flour sack from town to town for the people to bid on as a means of raising funds. This letter was published (and it appears written for publication) in an unidentified St. Louis newspaper [MTL 1: 281-287].
May 18 Wednesday – Sam’s EDITORIAL “How Is It?” ran in the Enterprise:
How is it that The Union outbid us for the flour Monday night and now repudiate their bid? How it is that Union employees refused to pay their subscriptions when they fell due? Did they pledge themselves for a big amount solely to make a bigger display than The Enterprise? Had they any other idea than to splurge? [Schmidt: reprinted in The Saga of the Comstock Lode, George D. Lyman, (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1957), p. 294, quoting Virginia City Daily Union, May 19, 1864].
May 19 Thursday – Four ladies on the Carson City Sanitary Ball Committee drafted a letter of protest to the Enterprise over Sam’s miscegenation editorial. Joe Goodman, back at his desk, tried to ignore the uproar [Powers, MT A Life 138].
May 20 Friday – Sam wrote from Virginia City to his sister in law, Mollie Clemens, explaining and apologizing for the appearance of the “joke” of May 17. Sam’s confessed he was not sober when he wrote the miscegenation editorial, and had never intended it to be published. He theorized that after sharing it with Dan De Quille he left it in the office and the foreman found it, thinking it was to be published [MTL 1: 287-290]. Another Enterprise editorial continuing the feud with the Union is attributed to Sam [Schmidt].
May 21 Saturday – The Virginia Daily Union reacted to the “libelous article” in the Enterprise signed anonymously by “CITIZEN.” Sam’s humor was too raw for these folks, and a full-blown scandal was on. In a further squabble over each newspaper’s contribution to the Sanitary fund, Sam was called “an unmitigated liar, a poltroon and a puppy” in the pages of the Virginia Daily Union. On this same day, Sam wrote to James L. Laird, a partner in the publishers of the Union, demanding a public retraction “of the insulting articles I have mentioned, or satisfaction.”
May 22 Sunday – Sam’s article “Washoe” was published in the Golden Era [Walker 54].
May 23 Monday – Sam wrote Ellen G. Cutler (Mrs. William K. Cutler), president of the Carson City Sanitary Ball committee his apologies for the unintended printing of the “joke.” Sam wrote, “I address a lady, in every sense of the term” [MTL 1: 296]. James L. Laird of the Virginia Daily Union wrote again answering Sam [MTL 1: 295].
May 24 Tuesday – Sam printed under the title “Miscegenation,” an article in the Enterprise explained the hoax with an apology to the ladies of Carson City. Sam also printed all of his letters in the scrape with the Union, plus those of Laird, Wilmington, and Gillis in the Enterprise, numbering them I through VII (See Smith 191-6 for text). He then called Laird a coward, liar and a fool.
May 25 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Virginia City to Orion and Mollie. Orion had been appointed president of the Ormsby County sanitary committee, and Sam wrote, “I am mighty sick of that fund…” Sam expressed a desire for the whole controversy to go away [MTL 1: 298].
May 26 Thursday – Sam wrote Orion asking for $200:
May 28 Saturday – Sam wrote William K. Cutler in receipt of his challenge to a duel. “Having made my arrangements—before I received your note—to leave for California, & having no time to fool away on a common bummer like you, I want an immediate reply to this” [MTL 1: 301]. Note: Cutler had come up from Carson City and Steve Gillis placated him and convinced him to leave town. In some accounts it has been erroneously given that Sam Clemens ran from a duel, the reason for his leaving Virginia City. Examination of these letters and news accounts prove otherwise.