Mark Twain - Reporter: Day By Day

January – A photograph of William H. Clagett, Mark Twain, and A.J. Simmons was taken for the third Territorial Legislature at Carson City. The handwritten caption reads: “three of the suspected men still in confinement in Aurora” [MTL 1: 279].

January – Sam’s San Francisco Letter of Dec. 29, 1865 ran in the Enterprise (See entry.) Another Enterprise item, “New Year’s Day,” was a narrative of Sam trying to find breakfast on the holiday. (Reprinted in the Golden Era on Jan. 14.) [Walker 111-3]. The following items also ran in the Enterprise sometime in January: “The Kearney Street Ghost Story,” “Captain Montgomery,” “The Chapman Family” [Schmidt].

January 19 Tuesday – The election was held and Orion won the Secretary of State office. But the electorate, putting Nevada’s statehood in doubt, rejected the new constitution. Fatout describes the scene in Virginia City: Voting day was a carnival in Virginia. Business houses closed, and the holiday spirit brought on a number of good fights, one of the best being a brisk encounter in which a butcher attempted to decapitate his adversary with a cleaver.

January 19 Friday ca. – Based on the events of Sam’s imprisonment, Evans’ dispatch, and Sam’s appearance before a magistrate, Fanning concludes this the likely date that Sam “put the pistol to my head but wasn’t man enough to pull the trigger” [108]. ].

January 2 Saturday – Sam wrote his mother from Carson City about the fraudulent proceedings of the Nevada convention. He urges his mother to welcome Artemus Ward when he reached St. Louis:

January 20 Wednesday – From “Legislative Proceedings”: HOUSE—NINTH DAY Mr. Dean offered a resolution to employ a copying clerk. Mr. Gillespie offered an amendment requiring the Engrossing and Enrolling Clerks to do this proposed officer’s work. (These two officers are strictly ornamental—have been under wages since the first day of the session—haven’t had anything to do, and won’t for two weeks yet—and now by the eternal, they want some more useless clerical jewelry to dangle to the Legislature.

January 20 Saturday – Sam wrote from San Francisco to his mother, and sister Pamela:
“I don’t know what to write—my life is so uneventful. I wish I was back there piloting up & down the river again. Verily, all is vanity and little worth—save piloting” [MTL 1: 327].

January 21 Thursday – From “Legislative Proceedings”: HOUSE—TENTH DAY QUESTION OF PRIVILEGE

January 21 Sunday – The Golden Era reprinted Sam’s articles, “What have the Police been Doing, ” and “Fitz Smythe’s Horse” [Walker 97-99]. Sam’s attacks on the police have often been cited as a contributing factor in his departure from San Francisco. Regardless, Sam enjoyed poking the police with his pen. This first article is doubtless one the Call would not publish.

January 22 Sunday – Sam had stayed with Dick Stoker, Jim and Billy Gillis in the one-room Stoker cabin, which Stoker built in 1850; little else of the camp remained from the gold rush days. On this date Sam and Jim Gillis went to nearby Angels Camp in Calaveras County. Jim had a mining claim at Angels Camp [MTL 1: 321; Rasmussen 250]. From Sam’s notebook:
“Angels’,. Ben Lewis’ , Altaville, Studhorse, Cherokee, Horsetown. Excelsior man bought privilege of ‘raising hell’ in Stockton—party burlesqued him….Squirrel hunt at Ben Lewis” [MTNJ 1: 71].

January 22 Monday – Sam’s jailing brought delight to his rivals, including Albert Evans of the Alta California, who wrote articles objecting to the relocation of the city’s slaughter houses. Evans wrote that such a change would allow prevailing winds to give the entire city “a stench which is only second in horrible density to that which prevails in the Police Court when the Bohemian of the Sage-Brush is in the dock for being drunk over night” [Sanborn 270].

January 23? Friday – Sam’s article “A Sunday in Carson” about a murder ran on this date in the Enterprise [Camfield, bibliog.].

January 23 Saturday – Sam responded to a request by Seymour Pixley and G.A. Sears, trustees of the First Presbyterian Church of Carson City, to charge a dollar for attendees of the mock “Third House” of the legislature and donate the funds to the church. Sam wrote:

January 23 Monday – “Angels—Rainy, stormy—Beans & dishwater for breakfast at the Frenchman’s [Hotel]; dishwater & beans for dinner, and both articles warmed over for supper” [MTNJ 1: 76; Lennon 100].

January 23 Tuesday – Sam’s San Francisco Letter dated Jan. 18 ran in the Enterprise. Sections: “A Righteous Judge,” “The Righteous Shall Not be Forgotten,” and “Chief Burke.”
A RIGHTEOUS JUDGE

January 24 Tuesday – “—Rained all day—meals as before” [MTNJ 1: 76].

January 24 Wednesday – Sam’s San Francisco Letter dated Jan. 24 ran later in January in the Enterprise. Sections: “More Outcroppings!” “Among the Spiritualists,” “Personal,” and “How They Take It.” (No text available for the last two items) [Schmidt: reprinted in Mark Twain: San Francisco Correspondent, (Book Club of California, 1957) 66-67].

January 25 Monday – Sam spoke to a sold out benefit for the Third House [A. Hoffman 86]. Paine quoted those who attended as Sam’s “greatest effort of his life” [MTB 246; Fatout, MT Speaking 648]. Sam was presented with a gold watch from wealthy Theodore Winters and Alexander W. (Sandy) Baldwin (1835-1869). The engraving read, “To Gov. Mark Twain,” etc. Sam wrote to his sister Pamela on Mar. 18 [MTL 1: 275].

January 25 Wednesday – “—Same as above” [MTNJ 1: 76].
From Sam’s notebook, a brush with death:
Narrow Escape.—Dark rainy night—walked to extreme edge of a cut in solid rock 30 feet deep—& while standing upon the extreme verge for half a dozen seconds, meditating whether to proceed or not, heard a stream of water falling into the cut, & then, my eyes becoming more accustomed to the darkness, saw that if the last step taken had been a hand breath longer, must have plunged in to the abyss & lost my life. One of my feet projected over the edge as I stood [MTNJ 1:74].

January 26 Tuesday – Jennie Clemens, eight-year-old daughter of Orion and Mollie, took ill. A. Hoffman cites this as “one day after” Sam’s speech [86]. Note: Fanning claims Jennie was stricken on Jan. 29 [91].

January 26 Thursday – From Sam’s notebook:
“Rain, beans & dishwater—tapidaro [leather covering on a saddle]. beefsteak for a change—no use, could not bite it” [MTNJ 1: 76].

January 27 Wednesday – Sam’s “Message to the ‘Third House,’ Delivered in Carson City, 27 January” ran on or about this date in the Enterprise. The paper is lost but the piece was reprinted on Jan. 29 and 30 in two other Virginia City newspapers [Camfield bibliog.]. Sam wrote in HOUSE – SEVENTEENTH DAY, Jan. 28 of the speech:

January 27 Friday – From Sam’s notebook:
“Same old diet—same old weather—went out to pocket claim—had to rush back” [MTNJ 1: 76].

January 28 Wednesday – Sam sat up all night to take the stage to Carson City where he spent the first week of February. Between Jan. 22 and Jan. 28 he wrote “Territorial Sweets” which appeared in the Enterprise [ET&S 1: 190].

January 28 Saturday – “Rain & wind all day & all night—Chili beans & dishwater three times to-day, as usual, & some kind of ‘slum’ which the Frenchman called ‘hash.’ Hash be d—d” [MTNJ 1: 76].