Home at Hartford: Day By Day

April 4 Saturday – In Hartford Sam responded to Howells’ Apr. 3:

April 5 Monday – Sam held the Monday Evening Club in his home and gave a reading “On the Decay of the Art of Lying” [MTLE 5: 62]. This was Sam’s fifth presentation to the club since being elected as a member in 1873 [Monday Evening Club]. There are several references to Francis Parkman’s works, including:

April 5 Wednesday – James R. Osgood wrote proposing a royalty for LM [MTP].

Orion Clemens wrote to Sam about “trying to work into business naturally”, Orion to Rhodes & Mclure Apr. 5 enclosed. “My idea was to live in a village and do business in Chicago by aid of the railroads” [MTP].

April 5 Thursday – Sam introduced George W. Cable to the Saturday Morning Club, Hartford, at the home of Charles Perkins. Cable read “Posson Jones.” Richard Watson Gilder was among the guests [Bickle 97; Turner, MT & GWC 16-17]. Note: In this and a few other cases Sam’s young girls’ club met on days other than Saturday to accommodate speakers.

April 5 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to the Gerhardts, advising when they return to America, to make some connection with Augustus Saint-Gaudens or John Quincy Adams Ward [MTP].

Sam’s letter to Karl Gerhardt was sold at auction by Sotheby’s on June 19, 2003, and this addition expands the short explanation at the MTP:

A lengthy letter in which Clemens gives the artist advice:

April 5 Sunday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to Charles Webster.

“Livy forbids the ‘Prefatory Remark’—therefore, put it in the fire.”

Sam also discussed the son, age 34, of brilliant criminal lawyer Samuel F. Jones, who was looking for a position. Sam referred him to Webster to evaluate as a state agent for book sales. Sam also vowed to raise the money for Hamersley necessary for the “type-writer speculation” [MTP]. Note: Paige typsetter.

April 5 Monday – The Howellses arrived in New York and checked into the Murray Hill Hotel [NY Times, Apr. 6, 1886 p.2 “Personal Intelligence”; MTHL 2: 553n1].

April 5 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam responded to the Apr. 4 letter from Richard Malcom Johnston (1822-1898), Georgia educator, lawyer and author of Dukesborough Tales (1883). Johnston was a “dialect humorist.” Sam would include a story from Dukesborough Tales, “The Expensive Treat of Colonel Mosels Grice” in Mark Twain’s Library of Humor (1888).

April 5 Thursday – In Hartford Sam telegraphed Augustin Daly, asking,

Send 3 tickets to murray hill hotel for tomorrow night I will pay at the door [MTP]. Note: it’s conjectural who the third ticket was for, perhaps Susy.

April 5 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Augustin Daly feeling he owed him and the actress Miss Rehan, who was the idol of his girls.

I have written wonderful books, which have revolutionized politics & religion in the world; & you might think that that is why my children hold my person to be sacred, but it isn’t so: it is because I know Miss Rehan & Mr. Drew personally [MTP]. Note: Ada Rehan and John Drew were notables on the N.Y. stage.

April 5 Saturday – An unsigned review of CY, “Mark Twain’s Camelot” ran in London’s Spectator:

Is it not written in this coarse and clumsy burlesque, of which American in general, and Mark Twain in particular, ought to be heartily ashamed? Mr. Howells, however, is in raptures over this sorry performance [Tenney 17].

Maurice Macmillian wrote to Sam [MTP]. Note: this letter is lost in the MTP files.

April 5 Sunday – Robert W. Carl sent a note and a clipping from this day’s New York Recorder, which he called, “a comparatively new journal.” The article was titled, “MARK TWAIN’S REVENGE,” the story from Sen. William M. Stewart’s perspective of why Sam’s RI featured an unflattering illustration of the Senator. Jones claimed the picture was published due to his threat to “flog” Sam in Washington, D.C.

April 6 Tuesday – James Redpath wrote from NYC to Sam, having just returned home. When would Sam be strong enough to “endure a preferential interview?” [MTP].

William A. Talcott wrote to ask Sam if he would participate in “The Round Table,” a discussion group of English and American literature of some six years in NYC. He enclosed a program [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Another of those fiends. / 1880 / Wants something”.

April 6 Wednesday – Western Union Telegraph Co. bill of Apr. 30 shows telegram this date to and from Ft. Hamilton (Brooklyn), recipient not specified (see that entry for others).

Edward Duffy wrote from Utica, NY to ask Clemens’ advice for a little book describing the country home of Horatio Seymour (1810-1886), twice Governor of NY and loser in the 1868 election of Grant [MTP].

April 6 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to the office of the Secretary of War, requesting a map of the Mississippi River. In Sam’s notebook: “Cut the map of the Mississippi into 20 pieces (full page size) & interleave it along through the book, beginning at St. Louis & going down section by section to N.O.” [MTNJ 2: 455].

Sam also wrote to William Thomas St. Clair letter not extant but referred to in St. Clair’s Apr. 10 reply.

April 6 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Frances A. Cox. Sam thanked her again for the portrait of “Mammy” –“the lovely & lovable black face, heart of gold in ebony casket.” Sam also wrote that this reading was:

April 6 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, telling him to “come up & bring the pictures.” He also directed that a cloth P&P and a cloth LM be sent to Mrs. Olmsted’s Southern school or charity [MTP].

April 6 Monday – Sam added a PS to his letter of Apr. 4 to Webster. He noted that the man made two errors in an enclosed galley proof, but the Paige machine made “not a single error” [MTP].

Karl Gerhardt wrote “I carried bronze bust to Col Fred Grant this afternoon and he gives it to his mother. I give the other members of the family terra cotta busts” [MTP].

April 6 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote one line to Charles Webster asking if he’d seen “that furniture man” for Livy about a sofa [MTP]. The sofa was purchased from Mr. Burghardt, at 389 Bowery in New York [MTNJ 3: 227n2]. Note: No matter of business or personal task was too small to delegate to Webster.

April 6 Friday – Sam, Livy, and perhaps Susy, went to New York and checked into the Murray Hill Hotel. At 8:15 they went to Daly’s Theatre and saw a performance of Midsummer Night’s Dream, starring Miss Ada Rehan, James Lewis, Miss Virginia Dreher, and John Drew. It was the next to last performance of the season for this play, the 78th. It opened on Jan.

April 6 Saturday – Webster & Co. wrote to Sam (O’Reilly to Hall Mar. 27 encl.) referring O’Reilly’s suggestion that the later events of the Pope’s life should be included in a new edition, since if the Pope died, it would not take advantage of the “excitement incident” to it [MTP]. Note: among his recent achievements, the Pope founded the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

April 6 Sunday – Orion Clemens wrote to thank Sam for photographs; Mollie thought Livy looked sad in them, the children, “exceedingly well…the house is very handsome.” Orion gave progress reports on the canvass of CY in the area, both by himself and a girl agent there. Ma was walking around and Mollie had “a dreadful cold with chills and night-sweats” [MTP].

April 6 Monday – The N.Y. Times, p.4 “The Academy’s Exhibition” described the 66th exhibition of the National Academy of Design, which included “a half length of ‘Mark Twain’ by Charles Noel Flagg.”

April 7 Wednesday – Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen wrote from Ithaca, NY to thank Sam for sending TA. “It has occupied me steadily luring the last three days & I have laughed until my voice is husky.” His wife was also reading it and laughing. He sent news of their new baby and their resolve to move to NYC [MTP].

April 7 Thursday – Western Union Telegraph Co. bill of Apr. 30 shows telegram sent this date to New York, recipient not specified (see that entry for others).

E. Muchall wrote to Clemens asking for “a few lines” from him. Muchall wrote for a religious paper in NY but the “remuneration is so small I do not care to waste my time” [MTP].