Home at Hartford: Day By Day

May 13 Sunday – Zadel Barnes Gustafson wrote from N.Y. to Sam asking to borrow $5,000 [MTP].

May 13 Monday – A new contract was signed between Sam and Abby Sage Richardson, this time including Daniel Frohman, for the dramatization of P&P. (See Mar. 25) Fatout writes:

May 13 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to his sister, Pamela Moffett:

May 13 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote two letters to Frederick J. Hall about an offer to serialize The American Claimant.

May 14 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to his mother and sister. He related the advice he’d given to Orion. No holiday planning, Sam further advised, otherwise the Gate City might prefer his “successor” [MTLE 5: 103].

The May 31 bill from Western Union shows a telegram sent to New York, recipient unspecified (see May 31 entry).

May 14 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. Sam was still hot on the heels of Dan Slote and Sneider.

May 14 Sunday – The Gem City arrived in Hannibal, Mo. at 7 AM [Ch 53 LM]. Kaplan writes it was “a still Sunday morning. The town seemed deserted.” Sam later wrote Livy that “Everything was changed, but when I reached Third or Fourth street the tears burst forth, for I recognized the mud” [Kaplan 246].

Sam registered at the Park Hotel.

May 14 Wednesday – Edgar W. Howe for Atchison Globe wrote to Clemens: He’d sent Aldrich a book and all those on the list Sam furnished. He was working on another book, this one not as much a history as the first [MTP].

James B. Pond wrote to Clemens: “I have had a talk with Mr. Roswell Smith about the house for Mr Cable. He & I think it would be best for you to take charge of the affair. I am willing to pay my share…” [MTP].

May 14 Thursday – Newspapers were reporting grossly inaccurate earnings for Sam and Cable from the reading tour—The Boston Transcript and the Boston Evening Journal claimed the tour had netted Sam “nearly $35,000.” On May 17, the New York World also claimed that amount for Sam, and an equal number for Cable [Cardwell 11]. The actual amounts were much less—see Feb. 28 entry.

May 14 Friday – Alfred P. Burbank wrote to Sam on Lotos Club stationery advising that Frank Mayo “comes into the Lyceum May 24th on ½ gross receipts.” He thought they might “recoup” some of their expenses on the aborted Sellers play [MTP].

Karl Gerhardt wrote that the Beecher bust was “receiving its just deserts [sic] in way of flattering criticism from the New York papers” [MTP].

May 14 Saturday – J.E. Jenks of the Boston Herald, Washington office, wrote asking for Sam’s photo and autograph for a collector in his office [MTP].

May 14 Monday – Sam’s notebook: 4143, Wm Bryan & sons May 14. — $80.20 [MTNJ 3: 385].

Miss Winifred G. Dawson wrote from Montreal to thank Sam for the picture of his cats [MTP].

Webster & Co., per Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam that Dr. Wallace Wood, author of The Hundred Greatest Men had been by with an idea for a series of greatest lawyers, theologians, etc. [MTP].

May 14 Tuesday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam asking clarification if he was to “speak to Mr. Stedman with reference to reading” Sam’s new book, CY [MTP].

May 14 Wednesday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam about securing the $25,000 loan from the Mount Morris Bank [MTLTP 260n1].

The Players Club, N.Y. receipted Sam for $10 for dues ($20 crossed out for $10) [MTP].

Charles J. Langdon wrote to Livy that he was sailing for Europe on June 18 and could not be at the June 17h stockholders’ meeting, and so sent a proxy for her vote; he mentioned that Matthew Arnot could not “possibly get away” to Hartford to see the machine [MTP].

May 14 Thursday

.Check # Payee Amount [Notes]

5259 Dr. M.J. Black 21.50

5260 E. Simmons 9.75

5261 Messrs. Allyn & Blanchard & Co 62.00

5262 The Players 10.00 Club dues

May 15 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Edwin Pond Parker (1836-1925). Parker became Pastor of the Second Church of Christ, Hartford, in Jan. 1860. He was Chief Editor of the Book of Praise (Congregational, 1874) and wrote hymns and poetry.

May 15 Monday – Sam was the guest at the summer home (“Woodside”) of John Garth, “A popular schoolmate of Sam’s, beginning at Mrs. Horr’s…son of a tobacconist who taught the boys at Sunday school in the Presbyterian church” [Wecter 144]. Garth had married another childhood friend, Helen Kercheval and made his fortune in New York [Rasmussen 163]. He returned in 1871 to live in Hannibal, now a town of 15,000.

May 15 Tuesday – Robert Hirst gives this as the date the “earliest copies of the first edition [LM] were published” [“A Note on the Text” Oxford edition, 1996]. The first review, this from the Hartford Courant, p.1:

May 15 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James B. Pond about Roswell Smith’s proposal:

Roswell has got up a Hartford-Cable-Lecture; & he put the Hartford end of it in my hands, & described how he was going to put the New York end of it through, himself. Do you remember how he carried out his contract? I do—& don’t you doubt it. And now Roswell would put another project in my hands! Why, it almost makes me smile.

May 15 Friday – Sam attended Chauncey M. Depew’s talk on “Poetry and Politics in the British Isles” at the Opera House in Hartford. Governor Henry B. Harrison (1821-1901) was in attendance. Sam and Joseph R. Hawley and other dignitaries sat on the lecture platform.

May 15 Saturday – Sam added to his May 13 scorcher to Howells:

Been interrupted for a day or two. [Probably by Pamela’s visit]

May 15 Sunday – The Brooklyn Eagle, p.7, “Books & Magazines” included a paragraph on Sam’s latest readings:

Mark Twain is working “English as She is Taught” for all it is worth. He has been reading in public from it in Boston, the first instance, probably, of a joke book put to such a use, unless Artemus Ward and Josh Billings were before him.

May 15 Tuesday – Hartford doctor Nathan Mayer wrote to thank Sam. “May Mrs. Clemens be much benefited and strengthened” [MTP].

Andrew Chatto wrote to Sam: “I have replied to Herr von Kirschbaum of Posen, whose letter you sent me informing him on your behalf that we would give him authority to translate” P&P “into German for the small sum of £15” [MTP].

May 15 Wednesday – Sam made a 7:45 p.m. dinner speech at Jarvis Hall, Trinity College, Hartford for the Ology Club [Fatout, MT Speaking 659]. His notebook entry of “Explosions” under this event notice suggests he may have spoken on the New York City problem of subway explosions caused by gas leaks [MTNJ 3: 473n233].

May 15 Thursday – Edward Bellamy wrote from Chicopee Falls, Mass. Introducing Henry Holiday, evidently a visitor from England. This was enclosed in Holiday’s May 16 to Sam [MTP].

Emerson W. Judd, secretary for Mass. Tax Reform League wrote offering to make Sam a member of the Mass. Tariff Reform League, now changed in name to the New England Tariff Reform League, for only one dollar [MTP].