February 3 Sunday – Clemens replied to Dan’s Slote’s request for terms on publishing some of his sketches. Letter not extant but referred to in Slote’s Feb. 4 reply.
Hartford House: Day By Day
February 4 Friday – Sam wrote to Cashier of the First National Bank, Hartford, asking for a New York draft of $1,500 payable to William Wright (Dan De Quille) and to charge his “Personal” account. The bank’s cashier at this time was Charles S. Gillette [MTPO]. (See Feb. 8 entry.)
February 4 Monday – Dan Slote for Slote, Woodman & Co. wrote to Sam having rec’d his “kind favor.” (est Feb. 3 not extant) “We shall get at work on the Sketches at once on the terms agreed…” so asked for article copies [MTP].
February 4 and 5 Tuesday – Jane Clemens wrote to Sam and Livy
February 5 Monday – Elisha Bliss wrote to Sam, enclosing bill & letter from Orion for services performed in serving notice on D.G. Lowry, bookseller and seizing unauthorized copies of TS. An experienced lawyer in Keokuk advised Orion to charge $50 [MTP].
February 5 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Mary Mason Fairbanks after receiving her letter. Evidently the New York Sun’s article about Sam being “connected” with the Hartford Courant had reached as far as Cleveland, because Sam had to explain again that the “article was manufactured out of whole cloth.” The rumor stemmed from the telephone connection between the Courant and the Clemens home.
February 6 Saturday – Lewis Griswold wrote from Centerville, Mont. after reading RI:
February 6 Tuesday – Sam traveled to New York City, where he gave readings at Steinway Hall from his sketches, “Encounter with an Interviewer” and “Dueling Experiences” for the NY Press Club [MTPO].
February 6 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford per an unknown secretary to Andrew Chatto, letting him know that a “…member of our scrap-book firm (Mr. Wilde) is about to establish himself permanently in London…to attend personally to the proper scrap booking of the eastern hemisphere” [MTLE 3: 14].
February 7 Sunday – Twichell’s journal:
“M.T and I went down, by previous appointment, to Morgan St. Mission S.S. School and made a short talk apiece. Mark was very happy in his speech, and I was very happy to have him there” [Yale 54]. Note: the Mission was “Father” David Hawley’s headquarters. Bush claims Twichell and Twain often spoke there [130].
February 7 Monday – William Wright (Dan De Quille) wrote to Sam, increasingly impatient with Bliss for taking his time publishing The Big Bonanza:
February 7 Wednesday – The NY Times, p.5, reported on the Feb. 6 reading that Sam kept the audience in constant laughter. The NY Tribune of the same date, p.8, also reported on the speech.
February 7 Thursday – Charles J. Langdon wrote to Sam on behalf of Towner, a writer he knew. “I am greatly obliged to you for your letter of Feby 5th / It contains valuable information & I shall at once proceed to offer poor Towner some advice…” [MTP].
February 8 Monday – In Hartford, Sam telegraphed that he’d sent $1,000 to President DuRell of the Salt Lake City National Bank to furnish bonds in a legal action to stop unauthorized production of the Gilded Age play there [MTL 6: 373].
February 8 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to William Wright (Dan De Quille), sending him $1,500 to invest in:
“California or Con. Virginia at such time as John Mackey thinks is best, & when he says sell, sell, whether at a loss or a profit, without waiting to swap knives” [California and Consolidated Virginia were Comstock silver mine stocks]
February 8 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford per Fanny Hesse to George S. Merrill, a short note of regret, unable to attend the annual reunion of the Massachusetts Press Association [MTLE 2: 14].
February 9 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Mollie Fairbanks, daughter of Mary Mason Fairbanks. Sam idealized girlhood, as his later treatment of “Angel Fish” would show. Mollie had just had her “coming out” to society party, and Sam reflected:
The Clemens family moved into their home in Hartford, CT September 19 of 1874. It served as their official residence until Sam took his family to Europe in March of 1878, not to return until October 24, 1879. During this first period of residency, Sam did not sit still but made several trips, primarily to New York City and Boston. The family took summer vacations away from Hartford: 1875, Newport, Rhode Island; 1876 & 1877 at Quarry Farm. In May of 1877, Sam and Joe Twichell visited Bermuda, Sam's second visit to the island.
January 1 Friday – Thomas Bailey Aldrich wrote from Ponkapog, Mass. after receiving some 70 pictures of Clemens in 45 envelopes:
January 1 Saturday – in Hartford Sam wrote a postcard to William Dean Howells, asking to write a few articles for the Atlantic in a “new & popular low-comedy vein”—and Sam wrote “scofulous humor” inside of a box [MTLE 1: 28]. Sam’s postcard suggestion for “scrofulous humor” and a pasting of a newspaper clipping is revealed by the following ad, which is typical of many that ran for this product in the Hartford Courant (27 times in 1875) and other papers. use of a standard advertising phrase with double meaning, using the old physiology definition of “humor.”
January 1 Monday – After leaving Isabella Hooker’s failed medium party (see Dec. 31, 1876 entry), Sam and Livy went after midnight to the George Warner residence, where they finished festivities and learned of Isabella’s wacky, megalomaniac scheme [Willis 108]. Twichell, evidently did not go to the Hookers on New Year’s Eve, but stopped by the Warners after midnight.
January 1 Tuesday – Livy’s visitor book was signed by Carrie L. Brown, Frank T. Brown, and Ella F. Brown [MTP].
Moncure Conway wrote to wish Sam a happy new year and to say:
January 10 Sunday – In Cambridge, Mass., Howells wrote Sam, sending proof number two of his pilot series and writing mostly about the hoped-for New Orleans trip, and the possibilities and improbabilities of taking the wives along. Howells included the line:
January 10 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford per Fanny Hesse to Moncure Conway. Sam wanted Andrew Chatto to prosecute the Belford Co., since the copyright belonged to Chatto and not to Sam.
January 10 Thursday – Phineas T. Barnum wrote from Bridgeport to Sam: “This is a begging letter! Awful!! … Now my dear boy I come to you for a character!” he hoped it was not in vain [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Answered Jany 13th/78”. Phineas wanted Sam to create a character useable for Barnum’s shows. Sam’s reply is not extant, but evidently he declined; see Barnum’s Jan. 14 follow up.
January 11 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to John T. Raymond after hosting him and Kate Field for lunch (for a description of the lunch by Annie Moffett, See MTL 6: 347n4)
© 2025 Twain's Geography, All rights reserved.