Home at Hartford: Day By Day

May 18 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, who wrote from Venice, Italy on Apr. 22 about negotiations with Marshall Mallory for the Colonel Sellers as a Scientist play.

May 18 Monday – Sam probably went to New York City as referenced by his May 17 telegram to Webster [MTP]. (No other documentation found; no letters published for May 18 to May 19.)

May 18 Tuesday – Having received Sam’s angry letter, Howells responded:

Your indictment is perfect, but the trodden work remembers details that escape the recollection of the boot-heel.

Howells related how he’d advised Sam to give up on the play on May 2, after Burbank had left the Clemens house unenthusiastic. And he quoted Sam’s words back to him that “there were 9 chances out of ten that it would fail.”

May 18 Wednesday – Sam had planned to go to New York City [May 11 to Webster] and take Joe Jefferson’s MS for Webster to evaluate. No mention of a trip was made, although one week later, May 25, Sam wrote to Webster about the satisfaction of Webster’s visit, which likely was arranged when Sam could not get away (see May 25 entry).

May 18 Friday – Charles R. Brown for American Magazine wrote asking Sam his views on the passage of the “Chase International Copy-right Bill” [MTP].

Helen M. Dove wrote a begging letter to Sam asking him not to consider her a beggar! [MTP].

E.J. Hamersley wrote to Sam; most of it is illegible [MTP].

Webster & Co., per Arthur H. Wright wrote a note of the $5,694.05 bank balances to Sam [MTP].

May 18 Saturday – In Hartford Sam answered the May 11 letter from Edward P. Clark for N.Y. Evening Post, apologizing for the week delay.

Enclosed please find $25. I owe you a thousand apologies for my unpromptness in answering; but during the past ten days I have been in one of those whirlwinds of activity… [MTP]. Note: it was Sam’s habit to answer most mail he intended to answer promptly.

May 18 Monday – Likely the day referred to by Sam in his May 20 to Frederick J. Hall, on which Samuel S. McClure (1857-1949), sent by William Mackay Laffan, came to Hartford to make an offer for Sam’s letters from Europe. McClure also sought The American Claimant for his European syndicate. Sam told McClure he was agreeable but to see Hall for the details [May 20 to Hall].

May – William Dean Howells ran a very favorable review of A Tramp Abroad in the May issue of the Atlantic Monthly. Also, Sam’s “Speech at the Holmes Breakfast” ran in a supplement.

His opinions are no longer the opinions of the Western American newly amused and disgusted at the European difference, but the Western American’s impressions on being a second time confronted with the things he has had time to think over. This is the serious undercurrent of the book… [Wells 23].

May – Sam’s notebook carries an entry to “see Dickens for a note on Cairo [Illinois]” [Gribben 187]. In LM Sam focused on the improvements in Cairo, no longer the place Dickens had described, a:

“…hotbed of disease, an ugly sepulcher, a grave uncheered by any gleam of promise.”

May – Sam inscribed LM to Edwin P. Parker: “With kindest regards of Mark Twain” [MTP].

May – Sam’s article “What Ought he to Have Done?” ran in the May issue of Babyhood [Lou Budd’s list furnished by Thomas Tenney and citing Branch]. Note: this piece also ran in The Christian Union, July 16, 1885 [Camfield, bibliog.]. It was also reprinted in the July 21 Courant as “Mark Twain on the Government of Children.” Susy Clemens reported that upon reading the piece, Livy was “shocked an

May – Correspondence between Clemens and Howells substantially lessened during the year. Sam’s preoccupation with all aspects of business and several speaking engagements, together with Howells’ new duties for “The Editor’s Study” in Harper’s Monthly, and his increasing activism in such matters as the Haymarket fiasco may explain this change.

May – In Hartford, Sam finished CY this month [Kaplan 293]. He also penned two paragraphs as a stock answer to editors as to the status of the Paige typesetter.

…we are hoping, & also expecting, that the Paige Compositor will be finished by the 15th of July. It will use moveable type, of the ordinary sort. By the manipulation of one person it will set type, & at the same time will automatically distribute, accurately space, and perfectly justify the lines.

May – MTNJ 3: 564n255 refers to Sam dining at the George Hearst home during this month in Washington. See unresolved issues regarding a possible May 8-12 trip to Washington.

Webster & Co. sent Sam a “Books sent out during April, 1890” report, with a total of 6,524, led by 2,038 CY [MTP]. Note: the MTP catalogues this as a Apr. incoming entry.

May – Sam inscribed a photograph of himself to Sergei Mikhailovich Kravchinsky [MTP]. In his notebook he inserted a literary notion: “Remember Bayard Taylor in the Holsatia” [NB 30, TS 36]. Note: see entries for Taylor and the Holsatia in Vol. I.

Sometime during the month from Hartford, Sam sent a one-liner to “J.H.” not further identified.

By the test of double-postage he shall be tried! [MTP].

May 19 Wednesday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam. “My Dear Brother: — / Mollie is agitated by my loss of place, and anxious to go away from where we have been subjected to so much humiliation. If you felt willing to extend to me the same aid as here I would like to go to some city where the chances of getting an editorial situation would be multiplied…” Mollie had no faith in his autobiography—would it be published? [MTP].

May 19 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Webster. He wanted an accounting of old bills paid. After they were done with Sneider, he told Webster to get their attorney’s view how to proceed against Slote. Sam also felt the American Publishing Co. was “getting mighty feeble” and talked of plans to dump his stock. There were problems in England, too:

May 19 Friday – The Minneapolis arrived at Dubuque, Iowa.

We noticed that above Dubuque the water of the Mississippi was olive-green—rich and beautiful and semitransparent, with the sun on it….The majestic bluffs that overlook the river, along through this region, charm one with the grace and variety of their forms, and the soft beauty of their adornment…And it is all as tranquil and reposeful as dreamland, and has nothing this-worldly about it—nothing to hang a fret or a worry upon [Ch 58 LM].

May 19 Saturday – Sam wrote two drafts of a telegram to be sent from Hartford to John Douglas Sutherland Campbell (Marquis of Lorne; 1845-1914), apologizing for his delay after receiving a confused message second hand by telephone. After a:

“…long delay it has come to me correctly & lucidly in manuscript form & I hasten to accept your lordship’s kind invitation & say I shall do myself the honor to report in Ottawa” [MTP].

May 19 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, telling him he’d sold the Oregon & Transcontinental stock at 12 dollars; asking him for a copy of Rubayat by Omar Khayam published by Osgood, and that Osgood was about to sail for Europe, so “get everything squared up before he leaves” [MTP].

May 19 Tuesday – Jane Clemens wrote to Sam & Livy about the weather, not getting out much, good neighbors, her new set of teeth, and asked Jean to tell her how the stockings fit [MTP].

May 19 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam responded to William Dean Howells’ of May 18. Sam’s tone was much more conciliatory and resigned.

May 19 Saturday – Frederick J. Hall for Webster & Co. wrote Sam a long letter about “certain glaring defects in the organization of our Subscription Department.” He objected to the manners and appearance of W.E. Dibble, hired by Webster, and urged he be replaced. With Webster gone, Hall felt he could not give much time to the subscription department.

May 19 Sunday – The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, p.20, printed an interview, “Mark Twain Chatty: He Tells of His Former Life as a Reporter.” The interview is datelined May 17, but refers to Sam’s February trip to Washington.

May 19 Monday

May 19 Monday ca. – On or about this day Sam was in New York City where he put a card on Andrew Carnegie’s door, “I mean to ring your doorbell toward 8 this evening, Mr. Carnegie.” The card had Sam’s name and the Murray Hill Hotel on it [MTP].

James W. Paige telegrammed Sam at the Murray Hill Hotel: “Hamersley in NY will write the papers myself” [MTP].