June 25 Tuesday – Sam’s Notebook:
Offered William Gillette stock at one-2500th for $1000. This offer has also been made heretofore to Dean Sage, Ned Bunce, H.C. Robinson, Mr. Parsons, Charley Langdon, Theodore Crane & George Griffin. I had the hope that they would decline, & they did. The stock is worth either ten times that or it is worth nothing; maybe the latter, though I think otherwise [3: 496].
June 26 Wednesday – Sam spoke at the Yale Alumni Banquet in New Haven, Conn.
June 27 Thursday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam having received the monthly $200 check. Samuel and Mary Moffett left yesterday and Orion related their conversations. Ma was going to a concert this evening — “seems to be well enough to walk to the opera house. We’ll ride.” He wrote of writing and starting again several times on a religious article [MTP]. Sam likely traveled back to Elmira by this day.
June 28 Friday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore.
I expect a telegram from Paige to-morrow to say the machine is done. After that, I would like a daily note from you telling me the state of the machine…. Ask Paige to keep the fact that the machine is finished absolutely secret from everybody until I come. I’ve got a scheme which will explain this [MTP].
Sam’s notebook: [chk] #4974. Whitmo, $125, June 28 / #4975. F.G. Warner $9 [3: 491].
June 29 Saturday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Mary A. Jordan, seeking a “capable governess — one who can prepare Susie for Smith & carry Clara along.” Sam wrote he was sending the note with Miss Hesse (Fanny C. Hesse?), as he did not know Jordan’s address [MTP]. Note: Up until this time the Clemens girls were home-schooled.
July 1 Monday – In Elmira Sam wrote to his brother Orion Clemens and sent him complaints about Charles Webster, whom he had no more use for:
Read it & forward to Pamela. If she answers, I would rather she should do it under cover to you. I have never hated any creature with a hundred thousandth fraction of the hatred which I bear that human louse, Webster.
July 2 Tuesday – Sam responded to James B. Pond’s letter of June 28 asking him to do more introductions for Edgar W. “Bill” Nye and James Whitcomb Riley during the summer. (Sam introduced the pair on Feb. 28 in Boston.
It is too late, old man. June was the only idle month I was to have for a year, & June just escaped from us. We are in deep trouble here. Mrs. Clemens’s brother-in-law (Mr. Crane) is believed to be dying, after ten months of wearing illness [MTP].
July 3 Wednesday – Sam added a PS to his letter of the prior day to Frederick J. Hall:
July 3, 2:30 p.m. Mr. Crane is still alive, but that is all [MTP]. Note: Clara Clemens received the telegram on the telephone.
After Sam wrote this letter, Theodore Crane died [MTNJ 3: 474n236]. His death delayed Sam’s departure to Hartford to see the Paige typesetter. It would be a week or more before he traveled alone to Hartford [498n53].
July 4 Thursday – James W. Housel wrote an appeal to Sam to help secure a pardon for convicted embezzler of Webster & Co., Frank M. Scott. Housel enclosed photographs of Scott’s family and wrote about,
…the Wife & Children depending upon the charity of others, and whose cry is constantly ringing in her weary Ears when is my Pa Pa coming home [MTP] Note: Sam wrote on the envelope “unanswered” and “preserve this sentimental rubbish.”
July 5 Friday – Frederick J. Hall forwarded a sample illustration from Daniel Carter Beard. Sam had seen Beard’s work in the March issue of Cosmopolitan [MTLTP 254n1].
Frederick Bryant wrote to Sam asking for an autograph [MTP].
James S. Metcalfe for American Newspaper Publishers, N.Y. wrote to Sam wishing to keep informed about the progress of the Paige typesetter and also asking for a submission [MTP].
July 6 Saturday – Thomas Fitch, attorney in Reno, Nevada wrote to Sam enclosing p 3-4 from the Reno Evening Gazette for May 30, 1889, reporting Fitch’s Memorial Day speech; and p.3-4 of the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise July 6, 1889 reporting Fitch’s July 4 speech. No letter accompanied the clippings [MTP].
July 7 Sunday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore, directing him to send all securities for Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corp. to Charles Langdon in Elmira, as he “has a chance to sell the whole thing out.” Sam added:
It is splendid news from the machine.
I shall arrive Tuesday afternoon [MTP]. Note: the letter was postmarked July 8 and received July 9.
July 8 Monday – Likely on this day Sam left Quarry Farm for New York, where he may have spent the night. He was in Hartford by July 11, and on July 12 wrote he’d left Elmira “a few days ago.” Theodore Crane’s death on July 3 delayed his departure since he received Paige’s telegram on July 2, so this day, the first he might have reasonably traveled, seems likely.
July 9 Tuesday – Sam would have been in New York. He might have left for Hartford this day or either of the next two, but wrote from Hartford on July 11. He probably did not go to Hartford until the latter date, as he wrote Howells on July 13 that he “came on from Elmira a day or two ago.”
July 10 Wednesday – W.P. Hanna wrote from Auckland, NZ to Sam, enclosing a clipping (not extant) which told of a reading in the Wellington Parliament of Sam’s description of the Chamois in TA [MTP].
July 11 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Edmund C. Stedman, referring to his critical read of CY. Paraphrased from Henkels catalogs, Apr. 19, 1912, item 118:
July 12 Friday – In Hartford, at the family home, Sam wrote to Livy still in Elmira;
July 13 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to his old friend, William Dean Howells about the death of Theodore Crane and the “heart-breaking” atmosphere at Quarry Farm. In Hartford since at least July 11, Sam brooded about the house, empty save for the servants. His letter is one of the few from this period that is not an obvious response, but a request.
July 15 Monday – In Elmira Clara Clemens wrote to her father in Hartford of a new kitten, the growing puppies, their horse rides and her violin teacher, Professor John C. Bostelmann (see Sept 13 to same). Clara called her father “Buf” and obviously inherited her mother’s “original” spelling [MTP].
July 16 Tuesday – † In the evening in Hartford, Sam dined with the Charles Warners and then wrote a “response” not an “answer” to his daughter Clara’s letter of the previous day.
July 17 Wednesday – In Cambridge, William Dean Howells responded to Sam’s invitation of July 13. There was a chance he might be able to come for a day, perhaps even the next day. He would telegraph if he could come.
July 18 Thursday – In Cambridge, Howells sent Sam a postcard that he could not leave home. Could Sam “run up Saturday and spend Sunday”? (July 20-21) [MTHL 2: 606].
G.P. Davis wrote from Hartford following up on Sam’s contribution to the YMCA [MTP].
William Mackay Laffan wrote to Sam asking if he would be in N.Y. all day Saturday [MTP].
July 19 Friday – In Richmond, Va., Arthur C. Thornton (1865- ) wrote to Sam, spelling his name wrong. Thornton extended “a true old Virginia welcome” for Sam to visit in his “summer rambles.” Thornton referred to himself as the “forgotten writer of the horrible conglomeration of puns, which” Sam “rec’d some two years since…” Note: He was from an old Virginia family; his comedy book is not further identified.
July 20 Saturday – Webster & Co. Sent Sam ten Daily Report slips for July 15 to 20 [MTP].
July 20 Saturday ca. † – Sam sent Thornton’s July 19th letter to Franklin G. Whitmore:
Please mail my enclosed letter to him (read it,) & put in one of those heliotype pictures of me. SLC [MTP]. Note: Sam’s letter to Thornton is not extant.
July 21 Sunday – In Cambridge Mass., Howells wrote Sam, “extremely sorry” he’d not been able to come to Hartford for a short visit, but “one trivial thing after another” had interfered.