Elmira, Hartford and England: Day By Day

August 5 Wednesday – From Charles E. Perkins’ cash book, Sam’s account: “To po Garvie 5000.00; Insurance 317.25; Fox & Co [Grocers] 56.74” [Berg collection, NYPL].

August 6 Tuesday – Sam wrote from New Saybrook to Charles M. Underhill (1839-1924), a general salesman for an affiliate of the J. Langdon & Co. Theodore Crane had informed Sam that his annual payment to Thomas A. Kennett was due with interest (Sam still owed $5,000 of the initial $25,000 for the one-third interest in the Buffalo Express).

August 6 Wednesday – From Livy’s diary:

“This afternoon at three o’clock Dr. Brown is coming to take us for a drive; he is the most charming old gentleman and I believe grows more and more so all the time” [Salsbury 23].

August 6 Thursday – The Lotos Club held a dinner to welcome John L. Toole, English comic actor. Sam did not attend but sent a letter that was read, entitled “Dinner to Mr. Toole” [MTL 5: 506n4].

August 7 Wednesday – Sam wrote from New Saybrook to Elisha Bliss, acknowledging payment of $8,485.17 in royalties. Sam had finalized plans to sail for England “in 10 or 12 days to be gone several months.” He also related writing “strongly to Anna Dickinson,” the suffrage reformer who was trying to swing a book deal with Bliss but was holding out for a $10,000 guarantee.

August 8 and 9 Saturday – Sam and Livy visited Abbotsford and Melrose with Alexander Russel (1814-1876), a friend of Dr. John Brown’s, and an editor for the Edinburgh Scotsman, a paper with a circulation of 40,000.

August 8 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James Redpath.

August 8 Thursday – Sam telegraphed from Saybrook Point to Mollie Clemens, asking her to “stir up that infernal Steam Laundry” [MTL 5: 141]. He also sent Mollie a short note and a check for the E.C.C. Kellogg Co. for the prowler bell he’d ordered installed at the Forest Street Hartford house. “All well. I am going to England in a week from now” [MTL 5: 142].

August 8 Saturday – Sam and Livy continued on to Buffalo where they stayed with David Gray and family [MTL 6: 205].

August 9 Friday – Joseph L. Blamire for Routledge & Sons, NYC wrote to Sam having rec’d his of Aug. 7, encouraging him to go to England early in September, when he might “see a good deal of country life, before the folks begin to return to Town.” He recommended the Cunard steamship line [MTP].

Orion Accuses Bliss – Olivia Susan “Susy” Clemens Born – Langdon Clemens Dies
John Henry Riley Dead from Cancer – Visit to Fairbanks Clan – Vacation in Saybrook
Sam Sails Solo to England – Banquets Galore – Batavia Heroes

England to Home Again – Sketches No. 1 Flop – Orion the Chicken-Rancher - Colonel Sellers Stars on Broadway – Clara “Bay” Clemens Born – Elmira Summer - Dream House Built – Fredonia Visit – Hike to Boston with Twichell - “Old Times on the Mississippi” – Atlantic Monthly Breakthrough - Typewriter for Genius – Reformed Lecturer

December 1 Friday – Sam gave the “Artemus Ward” lecture in Doolittle Hall, Oswego, NY [MTPO]. 

December 1 Monday – Sam gave his “Sandwich Islands” lecture at Queen’s Concert Rooms, Hanover Square, London. George Dolby arranged his English lecture tour. After the first night’s lecture, Sam gave his ten-minute speech, “The Ladies” for the Scottish Corporation, commemorating their 209th anniversary. The group provided assistance for needy Scots in London [See Sam’s speech: Fatout, MT Speaking 78-80].

December 10 Sunday – Sam wrote from Erie, Penn. to Mary Mason Fairbanks, apologizing for not being able to spend time with the Fairbanks family.

December 10 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Thomas Nast, thanking him for his autograph that he sent to Mary Fairbanks’ son, Charley, a fan of Nast who later became his protégé and even named a son after him. Sam also was grateful for Nast’s role in helping to elect Grant over Greeley in the recent election.

My Dear Nast—

December 10 Wednesday – Sam gave his “Roughing It on the Silver Frontier” lecture at the Queen’s Concert Rooms, London [MTPO]. Sam wrote to Moncure Conway, responding to a letter (see below), congratulating Sam on the “Roughing It” lecture. Sam offered to trade books—The Gilded Age for Conway’s new book on scriptures, which was to be released within a few weeks [MTL 5: 502].

December 11 Monday – Sam lectured in White’s Hall, Toledo, Ohio – “Artemus Ward.” Sam wrote from Toledo to James Redpath, claiming that his new lecture was “perfectly bully, now.” He wrote that he’d given it “at Warsaw & made a spectacular success—& at Fredonia & made a splendid failure.” So, Sam rewrote the “Roughing It” lecture again.

December 11 Thursday – Sam’s humorous letter to the London Morning Post was printed [MTL 5: 503]. Sam wrote the preface for the English release of The Gilded Age [MTL 6: 5-6]. In the evening Sam gave his “Roughing It on the Silver Frontier” lecture at the Queen’s Concert Rooms, London [MTPO].

December 12 Tuesday – Sam lectured in University Hall, Ann Arbor, Michigan – “Artemus Ward.” “–a continuous roar of laughter” [MTL 4: 515].

December 12 Friday – Sam gave his “Roughing It on the Silver Frontier” lecture at the Queen’s Concert Rooms, London [MTPO]. Afterward at the Scotch Morayshire Dinner, London, Sam responded to a toast “The Visitors” (text not available, but MTL 5: 509-10 paraphrases).

December 13 Wednesday – Sam lectured in Union Hall, Jackson, Michigan – “Artemus Ward” this time was said to be “rather monotonous and tiresome.” Either Sam was inconsistent with this material, probably looking past it to his perfected new lecture, or regional/local differences applied.

December 13 Saturday – Sam gave his “Roughing It on the Silver Frontier” lecture at the Queen’s Concert Rooms, London [MTPO]. He started a letter to Livy, which he finished on Dec. 15.

“Livy darling, I am so tired of lecturing! I enjoy while I am on the stage, because the audience are such elegant looking people & are so heartily responsive (heaps of fine carriages & liveries come,) but I don’t take any interest in life during the day.”

December 14 Thursday – Sam gave the revamped “Roughing It” lecture in Mead’s Hall, Lansing, Michigan. Samuel H. Row introduced Clemens. See Nov. 14, 1905 from Row.

December 14 Saturday – Sam’s LETTER FROM “MARK TWAIN” “Appeal for Ned Wakeman” dated Hartford, Dec. 3, ran in the San Francisco Alta California.