Elmira, Hartford and England: Day By Day

November – Sam’s article “A Big Scare” ran in American Publishing Co.’s in-house promotional monthly, American Publisher [Camfield, bibliog.].

November 19 Tuesday – More from Sam’s letter of Nov. 20:

November 19 Wednesday – Sam checked into his rooms at the Langham Hotel in London There he was joined by Charles Warren Stoddard. In an 1876 letter to Howells, asking him to recommend Stoddard for a consulship:

November 2 Thursday – Sam went to the memorable lunch at Ober’s Greek Revival Restaurant on Winter Place, described by William Dean Howells as Sam’s introduction into the Boston literary circle. Ralph Keeler (1840-1873), a young bohemian Sam had known at the Golden Era, organized the lunch. In attendance: publisher James T.

November 2 Saturday – Sam wrote from London to Mary Mason Fairbanks:

“I hunted that stag in a wagon—but I didn’t catch him. Neither did the red-coated, pigskin-breeched hunters—but it was fine to see the 250 scour over the hills & fields & sail over the hedges & fences like so many birds” [MTL 5: 205].

Sam was learning about the English:

November 2 Sunday – The Batavia reached port in New York City at dusk. Livy’s mother and brother, and also Orion (who was in the city looking for work) met the Clemens family at the pier. Charles Langdon had reserved rooms at the new Windsor Hotel, where the party spent the night.

November 20 Monday – Sam took the morning train from Hartford to New York, and made connections to Philadelphia [MTL 4: 493n8]. Sam lectured in the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – “Artemus Ward.”

In Hartford, Livy wrote for Sam to Robert M. Howland at the St. Nicholas Hotel in NYC:

Dear Sir

November 20 Wednesday – Sam wrote en route to Boston from Liverpool, to the Royal Humane Society about the storm and rescue, and recommending Captain John E. Mouland (b. 1828) and crew for “that reward which a sailor prizes & covets above all other distinctions, the Royal Humane Society’s medal.” Sam and nineteen passengers signed the letter [MTL 5: 223].

November 20 Thursday – Sam wrote from room 113 at the Langham to Livy. Sam was lonely, having breakfast but no one to share it with. His letter to Livy was wistful, resigned. His nickname for baby Susy was “Modoc,” coined by Joaquin Miller, Susy’s hair reminding him of the Modoc Indians he’d written about. Earlier, Sam had called her “Muggins” [MTL 5: 478].

November 21 Tuesday – Sam lectured in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, New York – “Artemus Ward.” Plymouth was Henry Ward Beecher’s church. Sam evoked “continuous fits of laughter” [MTL 4: 497]. Advertisements like the one that ran on Nov.

November 21 Friday – Sam wrote from London to Livy. He’d gone shopping and purchased an overcoat, some meerschaum pipes, a “particularly nice” umbrella, a hat, a hatbrush, a couple of razors, and ordered “some patent leather shoes at a considerably higher price than one pays in Hartford for such things” [MTL 5: 480].

November 22 Wednesday – Sam lectured in Washington Hall, Roundout, NY – “Artemus Ward.”

November 22 Saturday – From the Langham, Sam dictated a short note to Charles Warren Stoddard for Henry Lee. Sam was busy preparing for his lectures, which would begin Dec. 1 and could not promise to “go down to Croydon on Wednesday next” [MTL 5: 481].

November 23 Thursday – Sam lectured in Court House, Easton, Penn. – “Artemus Ward.”

In MTP a receipt for $53 to W.B. Willard, Hartford dealer in flour, grain & feed.

November 23 Saturday – Sam wrote a congratulatory letter to Captain John E. Mouland for his “brave and good deed” and for his handling of the crisis of the storm. Again, signed by many other passengers [MTL 5: 227-9].

November 23 Sunday – Sam wrote from London to Livy, of the “very sunny & bright & cheery” weather. He and Stoddard had walked through Regent’s Park and to the top of Primrose Hill and back. Stoddard had been spending time at Oxford University and brought Sam an invitation to speak there.

November 24 Friday – Sam lectured in Reading, Penn. – “Artemus Ward.” The theater of Keystone Opera House, as reported by the Berks and Schuylkill Journal of Nov. 25:

Mark Twain, author of “Innocents Abroad,” delivered a lecture on the “Uncommon-place Characters he has met with” at the Keystone Opera House last evening to a full house.”

November 24 Monday – Sam wrote from London to Livy.

“Dolby is the same jolly good fellow, & says heaps of pleasant things about you & Clara—among the rest that you, in face & nature & everything, are the most perfect woman he ever saw or knew—which is simply what any one would say, & so it does not surprise me.”

November 25 Saturday – The London Leisure Hour ran reprints from the St. Louis Republican and a story of how Sam took the name Mark Twain—this one relates him writing a sketch about Captain Isaiah Sellers, then asking “John Morris, now steward of the Belle Memphis,” what name he should sign to it. When the leadsman called out “Mark Twain,” it supposedly decided the issue [Tenney 4].

November 25 Monday – The Batavia reached Boston. Sam de-boarded and took Englishman C.F. Wood and Fijian servant on an express train for Hartford. Near Enfield, Conn. the train narrowly avoided being derailed by a drunk New Haven printer attempting to exact revenge for being forcibly thrown off a train for lack of fare. The Hartford Times Nov.

November 25 Tuesday – Andrew Chatto’s letter to Clemens of this date introduced him as the successor to John Camden Hotten, who died on June 14. Chatto enclosed “a set of the sheets of a volume of your writings, in order that you may (as I understand you expressed a desire to do) correct certain portions of the contents” [Welland 31].

November 26 Tuesday – Sam took C.F. Wood and servant to the train. Wood crossed the continent by the Great Pacific Railway and sailed from San Francisco for New Zealand, stopping at the Sandwich Islands [MTL 5: 231n2].

Mollie Clemens and Sam wrote from Hartford to their mother, Jane Lampton Clemens and Pamela Moffett.

November 26 Wednesday – Charles Kingsley (1819-1875), the canon of Westminster and author of several historical novels and other works wrote to Clemens:

My dear Sir / I tried in vain, when you were last in London, to have the great pleasure of introducing myself to you. I called—hearing that you had returned—at the Langham Hotel today: but was too meek to intrude on you—even had you been at home.

November 27 Monday – Livy’s 26th birthday.

Sam lectured in Bennington, Vermont – “Artemus Ward.” Afterward, Sam wrote to Livy:

November 27 Wednesday – Livy’s 27th birthday.