Pilgrims and Vandals: Day By Day

May 8 Saturday – Sam wrote just after midnight from New York City to Livy, whom he missed already. He filled her in on activities since reaching the city.

May 9 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Livy about continuing to struggle with the proofs of his book [MTL 3: 209-11].

November 15 Sunday – Sam’s LETTER FROM “MARK TWAIN” dated Hartford, Oct. 22, ran in the San Francisco Alta California. Subtitles: International Boat Race; The “Wickedest Man”; At Large; Legend; Personal [Schmidt].

November 16 Monday – Sam’s article, “A Mystery” ran in the Cleveland Herald [Camfield, bibliog.].

November 17 Tuesday – Case Hall, Cleveland, Ohio: Sam gave the “Vandals” lecture to an enthusiastic and responsive audience.

November 18 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Cleveland, Ohio to his mother and family.

“Made a splendid hit last night & am the ‘lion’ to-day. Awful rainy, sloppy night, but there were 1,200 people present, anyhow—house full. I captured them, if I do say it myself. I go hence to Pittsburgh—thence to Elmira, N.Y.” [MTL 2: 280].

November – George Routledge & Sons, later Sam’s authorized British publisher, published Sam’s story, “Cannibalism in the Cars” in an English journal, Broadway: A London Magazine [Wilson 15]. Note: George Routledge (1812-1888); Edmund Routledge (1843-1899); Robert Warne Routledge (1837?-1899).

November 19 Tuesday – Charles Dickens arrived in Boston to begin a five-month tour, lecturing and reading from his works [MTL 2: 104n3].

Quaker City arrived at New York City at 10 AM to complete the excursion, 5 months and 11 days long.

November 19 Thursday – Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture at the Academy of Music in Pittsburgh, Pa.

November 20 Friday – Sam wrote from Cleveland to his mother and family:

November 21 Thursday – After a dinner with the New York Herald’s editorial board, Sam took the night train to Washington, D.C [MTL 2: 109 n2; Bliss 58].

Sam’s “Holy Land Excursion. Letter from Mark Twain Number Twenty-five” dated Sept. 6 ran in the Alta California [McKeithan 168-72].

Elisha P. Bliss (1822-1880) of the American Publishing Co. wrote to Clemens:

November 21 Saturday – Sam arrived in Elmira and went to the Langdons during the breakfast hour. Paine reports Sam announced himself: “The calf has returned; may the prodigal have some breakfast?” [MTB 375].

November 22 Friday – Sam arrived in Washington, D.C. and roomed with his new employer, Senator William Morris Stewart (1827-1909) in a second-floor apartment run by 70-year-old Miss Virginia Wells. “Clemens took his meals and socialized at the Round Robin bar at the Willard Hotel (see insert picture)….a favorite watering hole of Washington power brokers” [Bliss 64].

November 22 Sunday – Sam’s LETTER FROM “MARK TWAIN” dated Hartford, Oct. 28, ran in the San Francisco Alta California. Subtitles: E. Pluribus Unim; Indigent Nomenclature Legend; A Relic: Where is McGrorty? [Schmidt].

November 23 Monday – Opera House, Elmira, New York: Sam gave the “American Vandal” lecture for the third time, this time for the benefit of the local volunteer fire company, since Charles Langdon was an active member.

November 24 Sunday – Sam wrote from Washington to Frank Fuller about his strategy for lecturing somewhere other than “in the provinces.”

November 25 Monday – Sam wrote from Washington, D.C. to Charles H. Webb, sending a penciled draft of the first two acts of a play about the Quaker City trip. He also confessed his inability to find a sweetheart named “Pauline” (unknown) and asked to be remembered to her [MTL 2: 115].

November 26 Thursday – Thanksgiving – Olivia Louise Langdon accepted Sam’s proposal, subject to her father’s approval. Sam accepted Jervis Langdon’s suggestion that official parental sanction be given after credentials of Sam’s character might be obtained. Sam offered names for Jervis to solicit [MTB 376].

November 26-27 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Mary Mason Fairbanks:

November 28 Saturday – Sam wrote from Everett House in New York to Livy, his first love-letter since their engagement.

November 29 Friday – The New York Times ran a 1,700 word article on the front page signed by “Scupper Nong” about a meeting of a correspondent and General Ulysses S. Grant. Muller calls this the “Scupper Nong Letter” (in Chapter 3) and notes it was reprinted the following day in the  Philadelphia Daily Evening Telegraph with the byline of Mark Twain [47]. The article was the result of Sam and Bill Swinton calling on Grant, who was not at home at the time.

November 29? Sunday – Sam wrote from New York to his sister, Pamela Moffett:

November 3 Tuesday – Sam made social calls in NYC to a friend of Livy’s, Fidele (Mrs. Henry) Brooks (b.1837), and to longtime Hannibal friends of the family, the George Washington Wiley (b.1813?) family. He ate dinner there and walked back to the Everett House, some 28 blocks in “weather cold as the mischief” [MTL 2: 278].

November 30 Saturday – Sam’s 32nd birthday. “The Scupper Nong Letters—From the National Capital—An Interview with General Grant” ran in the Philadelphia Daily Evening Telegraph [Muller 47].

November 30 Monday – Sam’s 33rd birthday.