New York and Washington DC 1867-68 - Day By Day

1867, Late – 1868 – Sometime in late 1867 Sam met General Ulysses S. Grant at a Washington reception. The two did not speak on their first meeting. MTA dictated in 1885 gives this date as “the fall or winter of 1866” [1: 13]. Mark Perry, p. xxvi, also gives this as late 1866, but Sam was not in Washington that entire year.

During the period from November of 1867 and March of 1868, Mark Twain spent most of his time in Washington D.C. and New York City.  He had initially accepted the post of Private Secretary for Senator William Stewart, an acquaintance from Nevada.  This did not work out so well and he spent much of his time writing correspondence and in arranging to produce his book on the Quaker City excursion.

December 1 Sunday – Sam wrote from Washington, D.C. to John Russell Young about payment and questioned the amount of a $65 check he’d received. He also received a letter from Elisha P. Bliss, which he responded to the next day.

December 10 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Washington to his mother and family about political prospects and about Mrs. Fairbanks.

December 12 Thursday – Sam wrote from Washington to Mary Mason Fairbanks. About Mary’s advice to get married, Sam gave the famous reply:

December 13 Friday – Sam wrote from Washington to Frank Fuller:

“I believe I have made a mistake in not lecturing this winter…I am already dead tired of being in one place so long. I have received 2 or 3 calls lately from N.Y. & Indiana towns. When are you coming down? I might take a ‘disgust’ any moment & sail for Cal” [MTL 2: 136].

December 14 Saturday – Sam dated an article this day, “Colonel Burke and the Fenians,” a humorous article for the Washington Evening Star, which was reprinted in many newspapers, including the Territorial Enterprise. The article suggested using a barrel of gunpowder to remove Edwin M. Stanton from office [Fatout, MT Speaks 50].

December 15 Sunday – Sam’s “Holy Land Excursion. Letter from Mark Twain Number Thirty” dated Sept. at “Banias” ran in the Alta California [McKeithan 193-8].

Sam’s article, “Letter from Mark Twain. The Facts in the Case of the Senate Door Keeper” dated Dec. 15, ran in the New York Citizen [Camfield, bibliog.].

December 16 Monday – Sam announced to his Territorial Enterprise readers that he had resigned his secretaryship, and that “E.A. Pretois, formerly of Virginia and Sacramento, is Senator Stewart’s private secretary, now” [MTL 2: 139n4]. Note: Sam and Senator Stewart did not hit it off, and the position had not kept Sam’s interest. Once again the vagabond itch came over Sam.

December 18 Wednesday – Sam’s article “Information Wanted” dated Dec. 10, ran in the New York Tribune [Camfield, bibliog.; The Twainian, Nov-Dec 1946 p.1-2]. Note: There is no connection with George Francis Train on this entry as mistakenly shown in the first edition.

December 2 Monday – From Washington, Sam responded favorably to Bliss’ pitch, and asked for more particulars [MTL 2: 119-21].

On the same day Sam wrote Mary Mason Fairbanks:

December 20 Friday – Charles Langdon, along with his father, Jervis Langdon (1809-1870), and sister Olivia Louise Langdon, arrived at the St. Nicholas Hotel in New York for a holiday stay [MTL 2: 145 n2].

Sam included a prose poem parody on Poe’s “The Raven” in his letter to the Enterprise. “Quoth the Choctaw, ‘Nevermore’” [ET&S 2: 63].

December 22 Sunday – Sam’s MARK TWAIN’S LETTERS FROM WASHINGTON, NUMBER I, dated Dec. 4, ran in the Virginia City Enterprise:

December 24 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Washington, D.C. to Emily A. Severance about the death of Mrs. Fairbanks’ mother. After expressed sympathies, he wrote: “I am in a fidget to move.

December 25 Wednesday – Christmas – Sam arrived in New York for the holidays, and took a room in the Westminster Hotel [MTL 2: 142n1]. Since Sam did not arrive in New York until Dec. 25, Langdon family tradition and other scholars are incorrect that he met Olivia Langdon two days before Christmas.

December 26 Thursday – Sam moved to Dan Slote’s home, probably after only one night at the Westminster Hotel [MTL 2: 142n1]. One night during this week, Charles Langdon, Jack Van Nostrand, Dan Slote and Sam got together for a “blow-out” at Dan Slote’s house “& a lively talk over old times” [MTL 2: 144].

December 27 Friday – Sam accepted an invitation from the Langdons for dinner at the St. Nicholas Hotel. There he met Olivia Louise Langdon, his wife to be [MTL 2: 145n3]. (See Dec. 31 entry)

December 29 Sunday – Sam’s “Holy Land Excursion. Letter from Mark Twain Number Thirty-two” dated Sept. at “Banias” ran in the Alta California [McKeithan 204-8].

December 30 Monday – Sam wrote from New York to the Brooklyn Eagle, responding to an article “Trouble among the Pilgrims,” which had appeared on Dec. 24.

December 31 Tuesday – Sam’s article on Duncan appeared in the Brooklyn Eagle. That evening Sam went with the Langdons to Charles Dickens’ read from David Copperfield at Steinway Hall in New York. Sam noted that Dickens not only read, but acted, an important lesson Sam noted about successful platform speakers.

December 4 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Washington to John Russell Young again, asking if he might use the three letters he had sent in the book he was planning for Bliss. “I am sorry to trouble you so much, but behold the world is full of sorrows, & grief is the heritage of man” [MTL 2: 125].

December 5 Thursday – Sam wrote from Washington to Miss Emeline Beach “Emma”, the seventeen year old daughter of Moses Beach, both of whom had been aboard the Quaker City. The Beach family was members of Henry Ward Beecher’s congregation, and Moses Beach took umbrage at Sam’s article about the passengers of the Quaker City.

December 8 Sunday – Sam’s “Holy Land Excursion. Letter from Mark Twain Number Twenty-nine” dated Sept. 17 ran in the Alta California [McKeithan 188-93].

February 1 Saturday – Sam wrote from Washington to John Russell Young, editor of the New York Tribune enclosing three Holy Land letters he “smouched” from the Alta bunch:

“…& added 3 at the end of the list to make up the deficiency, but as you will see by the inclosed telegram, they don’t seem to understand it” [MTL 2: 173].

February 10 Monday – Sam wrote from Washington to Emma Beach and began with: “PS.—Don’t skip any of this letter, now—because it is just full of wisdom.” Sam often put his postscripts at the top of his letters. Sam told Emeline he was still sick.