Elmira, Hartford and England: Day By Day

June 29 Monday – Sam left for a quick trip to Hartford, primarily to inspect the progress of the new house. He first went to New York City, where he stayed at the St. Nicholas Hotel for two and possibly three nights before traveling on to Hartford. Sam probably spent time with John Hay and William A. Seaver, whom he’d promised to visit.

June 3 Monday – The Cranes arrived in Hartford at noon to take the body of Langdon back to be buried in the Langdon plot in Elmira. Livy was in no shape to travel, and could not leave Susy. Sam could not leave Livy, so they stayed in Hartford [MTL 5: 100].

June 3 Wednesday – From Charles E. Perkins ’ cash book, Sam’s account: “To po Insurance 50 + 10  60” [Berg collection, NYPL].

June 30 Sunday – Sam arrived in New York and stayed at the St. Nicholas Hotel. He may have gone to Boston during this week to attend the Boston World’s Peace Jubilee and International Music Festival. James R. Osgood & Co. was a major underwriter of the Jubilee.

June 30 Tuesday – In Newport, Vermont, on the way to get his father settled as American consul at Quebec, William Dean Howells wrote between connections to Sam:

June 4 Sunday – Sam attended services at Twichell’s church (Asylum Hill Congregational,) and had dinner with Conn. Governor Marshall Jewell (1825-1883) While in Hartford, Sam visited with Orion and Mollie and other Hartford friends [MTL 4: 395].

June 4 Tuesday – After a “short simple service” in Hartford, Susan and Theodore Crane, left Hartford at 8 PM, taking the body of Langdon to Elmira [MTL 5: 100].

Bill dated May 14 paid to D.S. Brooks & Sons, Hartford for a grate, $1.25 [MTP].

June 5 Monday – A letter sold on eBay (Sept. 18, 2007; # 270167135431) that puts the Clemens family’s departure for Elmira at June 5. Though dated only “June 5,” the letter could only fit into this date for the entire period from 1870 through 1885:

June 5 Wednesday – The Cranes arrived in Elmira while it was still daylight. As the sun set, Langdon Clemens was buried in the Langdon plot, Woodlawn Cemetery, close to his grandfather Jervis Langdon [MTL 5: 100]. A death mask of the child was made, which Livy placed in her keepsake box. Sam later had a bust made from the mask.

June 5 Friday –  Owen S. McKinney  wrote to Sam. This is what the  MTP calls a “ghost letter,” being referred to somewhere but with no known text. It’s possible this will surface in time [MTP].

Mitchell, Vance & Co. wrote from NYC to advertise their “large stock” of gas fixtures [MTP].

June 6 Tuesday – Sam was back in Elmira and began work on what would be Chapter 54 of Roughing It, which began by referring to a news item of June 3 in the New York Tribune.

“As I write, news comes in that broad daylight in San Francisco, some boys have stoned an inoffensive Chinaman to death, and that although a large crowd witnessed the shameful deed, no one interfered” [Roughing It, Ch.54].

June 6 Saturday – Case & Rathbun wrote to Sam: “Your telegram duly rec’d, also to-day, order for shirts [half dozen] with slight changes, and order for 200 cigars which we send to-day by express” [MTP].

June 7 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Orion and Mollie.

June 8 Monday – At 7 AM, Livy gave birth to Clara Langdon Clemens, their second daughter, named after Livy’s friend, Clara Spaulding. The baby weighed nearly eight pounds, “which is colossal for Livy,” Sam wrote on June 10 to Orion and Mollie [MTL 6: 155].

June 9 Friday – Sam wrote a new lecture, “An Appeal in behalf of Extending the Suffrage to Boys” [MTL 4: 398].

June 9 Monday – Sam wrote from Edwards’ Hotel,  George Street, Hanover Square, accepting a dinner invitation from Kate Field and her London hostess, Lady Katherine Dilke (d.1874). Sam was asked to name the day and time; he chose Wednesday, June 11 at 5 PM [MTL 5: 375].

June 9 Tuesday – Sam paid a June 5 bill of $8.40 from Scribner, Welford & Armstrong of New York for William Harris Rule’s two-volume work, History of the Inquisition from Its Establishment in the Twelfth Century to Its Extinction in the Nineteenth [Gribben 593].

March 1 Saturday – A receipt with this date from the Asylum Congregational Society for $155. The document is a form letter for rent of slip no. 167 [number written in] for one year from date [MTP]. Notes: Annual pew fees were a common way for churches to raise revenue. It was a similar purchase of $25 by Orion that would raise Sam’s ire in two years (see July 26, 1875 entry).

March 10 Monday –Sam wrote from Hartford to Tom Hood and George Routledge & Sons in London. Sam wrote about the Jubilee Singers, who were about to appear in London. He had heard the singers once, probably on Jan. 28, 1872 when they came to Twichell’s church. He would hear them twice more in his next visit to England.

March 10 Tuesday – In Hartford, Sam wrote a short note to Mr. McElroy, who had inquired if Sam would ever return to Albany to lecture as he did on Jan. 10 1870. Sam recalled the “festive lunch” but offered that he had “no present idea or intention of ever standing on a lecture platform again” [MTL 6: 65].

March 11 Tuesday – Bill paid to Geo. W. Ford 395 Main St. Hartford; for 12 fire extinguishers charged $12 [MTP].

March 11 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Elisha Bliss about publishing details and Charles Dudley Warner [MTL 6: 65].

March 12 Tuesday – Sam had a painful meeting with Elisha Bliss. An unsent draft of Mar. 20 shows that Sam was somewhat reassured by the meeting of this day. Sam probably went to a party at the Hartford home of Joseph R. Hawley, editor of the Hartford Courant. Andrew Hoffman claims that Bliss kept two sets of books [195].

March 12 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to the editor of the London Standard. In explaining the phenomenon of non-violent prayer-ins at liquor shops by respectable females in the U.S., Sam forthrightly raised the cause of women’s suffrage, reflecting an evolution in his thought from 1867, when he said, “I never want to see women voting, and gabbling about politics, and electioneering.

March 13 Friday – Sam telegraphed from Hartford to James Redpath, asking what hour Charles Kingsley would arrive for his two-day visit to Hartford from his last lecture stop, Troy New York [MTL 6: 73].