August 14 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Eustace D. Conway, Moncure’s seventeen-year-old son, who evidently had been working for his father and attempting to interest a play promoter named Taylor in producing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer on the stage. Sam agreed, as the story stood it was not dramatizable and explained:
Hartford House: Day By Day
August 16 Wednesday –James H. Dowland wrote from Chicago, “adding a few words” to Dr. Jackson’s letter about Dowland’s lecture. “He has handed me your reply, and I thank you cordially for the encouragement contained in it.” He asked Sam to give him “a helping hand toward success,” as he’d done with Raymond [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Ass”
August 18 Friday – Ross R. Winans wrote to Sam; evidently Winans was at Newport when Sam and Livy vacationed there in 1875 and had been witnessed to Sam’s bowling prowess on an impossibly warped single lane with Higginson.
[on Union League Club stationery, Madison ave & 26th St., N.Y.]
My Dear Mr. Clemens,
August 19 & 20 Sunday – David Gray from Buffalo visited with Sam and Livy [MTLE 1: 105, 101-2; MTPO notes Aug. 4 to Fairbanks].
August 20 Sunday – From Townsend Harbor, Mass., Howells wrote to Sam, mostly about family matters and fun. He began by asking, however:
“Why don’t you come out with a letter, or speech, or something, for Hayes? I honestly believe that there isn’t another man in the country who could help him so much as you. Do think the matter seriously over” [MTHL 1: 146].
August 21 Monday – Valentine Hammann, secretary of the Executive Committee for the New York Press Club wrote to Sam, inviting Sam to join 200 other members of the Club [MTP]. Note: Sam accepted but his letter confirming has been lost [MTPO notes with Sept. 11 – Oct. 15 to Bladen].
August 22 Tuesday – J.M. Drill wrote from Baltimore. Redpath had offered him an evening of Twain on Nov. 21 but “times are so dreadfully hard” that he couldn’t pay the $300 asked [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “No Answer”
August 23 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Howells, who had encouraged Sam to speak or write in support of Hayes in the coming election. Sam realized he’d have to do it in a:
August 25 Friday – Will Bowen wrote to Sam. In part:
Dear Sam / It has been a long time since I have heard from you, and I believe mine, was the last letter, but that is a small matter, since in these seriously dull times, the ordinary, little matters do not get their customary attention. When I wrote you last, the old world was wheeling along very smoothly with me, and my business prospects were very flattering, but I regret to confess that such is not now, the case.
….
August 26 Saturday – The following ran in the New York Herald:
“History has tried hard to teach us that we can’t have good government under politicians. Now, to go and stick one at the very head of the government couldn’t be wise.”
August 28 Monday – Bret Harte’s play, Two Men of Sandy Bar, premiered at the Union Square Theatre in New York. The character of Hop Sing, a California Chinaman, played by Charles T. Parsloe, was used as the centerpiece of Sam and Bret’s Ah Sin [Walker, Phillip 187].
August 31 Thursday – Sam replied from Elmira to the Aug. 25 from his childhood friend and fellow pilot, Will Bowen. Sam had just read a letter of sentiment tinged with self-pity from his old friend, and let Will have it with a “humble 15-cent dose of salts,” comparing Will’s pie-in-the-sky dreams with those of his brother Orion’s:
September – Sometime during the month, Sam set aside the manuscript he called “Huck Finn’s Autobiography” after completing about one third of the story. He received so many inquiries about a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, that he had a response form letter printed [MTLE 2: .iv]. Note: He would not complete HF until 1883.
September 1 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to his niece, Annie Moffett Webster. Sam explained why he could not visit Buffalo, and that they would soon be traveling to Hartford and New York, putting off their planned trip to Fredonia. He recommended a gas stove over a coal for his mother, then added that Livy was “utterly & bitterly opposed to the gas stove.
September 2 Saturday – Sherrard Clemens (1820-1880) wrote to Sam, clippings enclosed.
September 4 Monday – Helen M. Chapin wrote to Sam: “You have made me very happy by enjoying my small joke” [MTP]. Note: see Aug 10, 28 from Helen.
September 5 Tuesday – The Clemens family left Quarry Farm for Hartford by way of New York City [The Twainian, Nov-Dec. 1956 p.3, June 2, 1911 letter from Susan Crane to Paine].
September 6 Wednesday – The Clemenses registered at the St. James Hotel in New York, where they spent the next few days, arriving back in Hartford on Sept. 11 [MTPO Notes with Sept. 1 to Moffett from the N.Y. Herald and the N.Y. Tribune].
NYC temperatures ranged from 73-52 degrees F. with no rain [NOAA.gov].
September 7-11 Monday – In either New York or Hartford sometime during this period, Sam wrote a short note to Bret Harte, after taking in Harte’s play, Two Men of Sandy Bar at the Union Square Theatre in New York. Harte had sold the play to actor Stuart Robson for $3,000 plus $50 for each performance during its first season, a price Harte came to regret [MTPO].
September 8 Friday – The Clemenses were still in New York.
September 9 Saturday – NYC temperatures ranged from 72-61 degrees F. with no rain [NOAA.gov].
September 10 Sunday – The Clemenses were still in New York. Sam’s notes in Hyppolyte Taine’s The Ancient Regime (1876) state that he finished reading the book on this day, a second reading during the year [Slotta 32]. This was a major sourcebook for both P&P and CY (See also Jan. 29 entry).
NYC temperatures ranged from 66-77 degrees F. with no rain [NOAA.gov].
September 11 Monday – The Clemens family returned home to Hartford [Sept 14 to Fairbanks]. The train trip from Elmira to Hartford took ten hours, and always exhausted Livy. On this trip Sam first hired a sleeping car, which gave the family privacy and lessened the stress for Livy.
September 12 Tuesday – Paid, a Sept. 1 bill for a hack used Apr. 26 from E.C. Wheaton, livery, $3 [MTP].
September 14 Thursday – Sam wrote a note from Hartford to Elisha Bliss reminding him to put a dedication to Livy in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer [MTLE 1: 109].