Home at Hartford: Day By Day

November 13 Thursday – Sam delivered a “snapper” in his speech, “The Babies” (See Fatout, MT Speaking 131-3) for the Army of the Tennessee Reunion Banquet, Palmer House, Chicago, Illinois—the snapper that finally broke Grant’s cast-iron expression into waves of laughter. For Sam it was a complete and devastating triumphal victory, as high as the debacle on Whittier’s birthday had been low. In a letter written at 5 AM the next morning (Nov.

November 13 Saturday – Sam purchased Common Sense in the Household: A Manual of Practical Housewifery (1880) from Brown & Gross, Hartford booksellers [Gribben 695]. See Jan. 17, 1881.

The November bill from Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Co. shows a telegram sent to Elmira (party unknown, see Dec. 1 entry for others).

November 13 Sunday – Sam’s notebook entry reflects continuing problems from the erratic burglar alarm system. He had to turn the time setting forward twelve hours [MTNJ 2:402].

November 13 Monday – H.O. Johnson wrote to Sam on Sam’s typed note of Oct. 27: “Candidly it was the autograph of ‘Mark Twain’ that I wanted and I was as disappointed as the man who after a night raid with the ‘boys’ found he had been stealing his own pork” [MTP].

November 13 Tuesday – Western Union per W.C. Hamstone, J.H. Lounsbury wrote in response to a report in the NY Times that a telegram had been lost/delayed. He claimed from reports he’d rec’d that “our service was properly performed,” the telegram phoned to his residence at about 4 pm Nov. 3, the date it was sent from Boston by Howells [MTP].

November 13 Thursday – Here was the first big test in a big city—Boston. Pond placed advertisements in the Evening Transcript several days in advance, starting with Nov. 8. He presented the reading as part of the lyceum lecture series. The focus of these ads became the standard for the tour—“Twain is a comedian; Cable a master of humor and pathos” [Cardwell 17].

November 13 Friday – Orion Clemens wrote: “I enclose replies from the mint, and will send you extracts from Macaulay’s Life & Letters next week.” And, “Ma treated me to a dog and pony show at the opera house last Saturday afternoon” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “What a ton of gold and silver is worth”

Rollin M. Daggett wrote from Wash. DC with his travel plans back to San Diego, and the book of legends he was preparing with the Hawaiian King [MTP].

November 13 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Sarah Knowles Bolton, who suggested Sam see a “proof first,” of the section on Mark Twain for Famous American Authors (1887) [MTP].

Sam also wrote to James W. Paige, enclosing J.W. Schuckers’ Nov. 12. Schuckers wanted to meet Sam and Paige to interest them in his spacing device, which might work with the Paige typesetter.

November 13 Sunday – Sam wrote to Webster & Co. (again, addressing the letter to “Dear CLW &Co” as he did during this period.) Addressing to the company may have reflected the fact that Charles Webster was often not at the office; if he’d addressed to Frederick J. Hall only, Webster may have taken umbrage.

November 13 Tuesday – Sam was receipted $60 total for fees and dues connected with The Players Club, New York; in advance to May 1, 1889. Note: $20 crossed out and $10 written; signed by William Bispham; one hundred crossed out — so total was 60, or half of the normal dues [MTP; MTNJ 3: 429n73].

November 13 Wednesday – Sam was in Mount Auburn, Mass. part of the day, completing his visit with the Howells family. He returned either this evening or early the next morning.

Sylvester Baxter for Boston Herald wrote to ask Sam for advance sheets of CY so he might “give a good story about it in the Herald; Howells had given Baxter “an enthusiastic account” of the book [MTP].

November 13 Thursday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam: “Your letter this moment received. I have cut it in two above the word ‘private’ and shall mail it forthwith to Fry, with only this comment: ‘Sam sends me the enclosed which means, I suppose, that I am to write nothing, and you are to use nothing that I told you’”. Fry had been asked to do an article on the Clemens family [MTP]. See Nov. 1 entry.

November 14 Friday – In Chicago, Sam wrote from the Palmer House to Livy at 5 AM.

November 14 Sunday – Annie E. Lucas wrote a fan letter from Queensland, Australia to ask Clemens for his autograph (Leod to George Oct. 25 enclosed) [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “From an Australian girl.”

November 14 Monday – Sam’s notebook on the alarm system: “It was right in the morning & wrong in the afternoon.”

“Spoke of Louise Messina (in bed in morning Nov. 12) first time in 3 years. Two days later got a letter from Andrew Langdon in Chicago dated 12th, asking indirectly for a contribution of money for her” [MTNJ 2: 402]. Note: Andrew Langdon was a cousin of Livy’s and a prominent Buffalo businessman [402n161].

November 14 Tuesday – William White for District Conn., Archer Co., Texas wrote to Sam that the 320 acres in Archer Co. had been sold for taxes the past year but he could redeem it by paying double what it sold for plus this year’s taxes, or a total of $17.06 [MTP].

November 14 Wednesday – In the evening Sam and Livy and Howells attended a Hartford reception for Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), who was to lecture in Hartford the next day. Arnold had lectured in Boston on Nov. 7 and would repeat the talk there on Nov.

November 14 Friday – Boston papers reviewed the performance of the previous evening—The Transcript, the Globe, the Journal, and the Post. The Globe compared Cable to Dickens and praised Twain for his struggle with the German language, his trying conversation with the young lady in the hotel dining room at Lucerne, and his ghost story.

November 14 Saturday – Lizzie C. Grant (Mrs. Jesse Grant) wrote to thank Samfor an article she’d rec’d from the Philadelphia Ledger about the portrait of Gen. Grant [MTP].

November 14 Sunday – The Brooklyn Eagle, page 7, ran an unfavorable review of Humorous Masterpieces, edited by Edward F. Mason, a three-volume work issued by G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

November 14 Monday – Sydney M. Dickens wrote to Sam that he would “not be surprised to learn that she had caught the [autograph] fever,” and wrote that “nothing will cure me but your signature under a photograph” [MTP]. Note: Sydney was the granddaughter of the late Charles Dickens, daughter of Charles Culliford Boz Dickens. Sam wrote on the envelope, “Send photograph.”

Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

3903  J. Goldwaite  35.00

November 14 Thursday – In Hartford, Sam responded to Sylvester Baxter’s Nov. 13 letter.

November 14 Friday – C.R. Plummer, Special Agent, Lowell, Mass., special orders on dictionaries, “Atlases, Encyclopedias” wrote to Sam (clippings encl.) noting changes in a circular sent to him by Webster & Co. [MTP].

November 15 Saturday – The Chicago Times, on page 3, ran an article mainly on Sam’s activities during the Grant reunion.

November 15 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Darwin R. Barker, thanking him for an honorary life membership in the Fredonia Library Association [MTLE 5: 197].

The November bill from Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Co. shows a telegram sent to Philadelphia (party unknown, see Dec. 1 entry for others).