Home at Hartford: Day By Day

November 8 Saturday – Sam went to New York, and if the Tribune letter of Nov. 11 is to be believed, arrived at 11:25 a.m., leaving after a few hours for home, after an altercation with a horse-car conductor. He then wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Sun which ran in the newspaper the next day as “An Appeal Against Injudicious Swearing”:

November 9 Sunday – Sam wrote en route (“In a hotel-car, 300 miles west of Philadelphia, 11.30 Sunday morning”) from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, to Livy. He would telegraph her from Pittsburgh, he wrote. He liked the sleeping car and his breakfast, and hoped she had slept well, but was afraid she didn’t. “You must have Emily Perkins or some other quiet body with you.” George wrote on the note: “He is a jolly travelling companion” [MTLE 4: 134].

November 9 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Edward House, who had confided what General Grant had thought about some matter. Sam was gratified that he was not offended and didn’t care “sixpence for other people’s opinions.” House accompanied Grant and Sam from Boston to Hartford on Oct. 16 for a Republican rally. Sam wrote that he was expecting a visit from the Houses [MTLE 5: 194].

November 9 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to David Gray. He offered belated thanks for the “hospitable entertainment which I enjoyed under your roof” on his last trip to Fredonia and Buffalo. He also expressed desire to send a few copies of P&P to friends but “our lawyer said no, stop right where we were, till day of publication, Dec.

November 9 Thursday – Katie Hay wrote from St. Kilda West, Victoria to thank Sam for sending his autograph [MTP].

November 9 Sunday – In Providence, R.I. Sam wrote to Charles Webster, advising that Pond would “presently begin to render his weekly-or-whatever-it-is account to you, accompanied by money.” Sam wanted these funds untouched and if Webster needed money to apply for it and Sam would draw on Elmira or Hartford banks. Gilder of the Century was “profoundly indebted” to Sam for recommending 

November 9 Monday – Henry Ward Beecher wrote scolding Sam and assured that the pages of Grant’s Memoirs he had were safe “and will soon be on their way home” [MTP].

James Redpath telegram: “Would like to see you tonight or tomorrow morning. Will be at the Allen House” [MTP].

November 9 Tuesday – Dora Wheeler wrote from N.Y. that she’d just returned from Cleveland and found his “most delightful note of introduction to Mr. Howells.” When could she come to begin Sam’s portrait? [MTP].

November 9 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Richard Malcolm Johnston after hearing that Johnston would be visiting the Charles Warner’s the next Thursday, Nov. 15.

I beg that you will cross the lot to our house on Saturday [Nov. 17] & stay over Sunday [MTP].

November 9 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote for Livy to his mother-in-law, Olivia Lewis Langdon.

…we have been having good times ourselves — a perfectly delightful visit from David Robinson & Miss Nelly; a visit with only one defect — it was too short. They are restful people, & a comfort in all their ways.

November 9 Sunday – Sam’s Nov. 8 letter, “An Appeal Against Injudicious Swearing,” to the New York Sun ran on page six (see Nov. 8).

Frank Curtiss, president of the Sixth Avenue Horse-Car Co. began a letter to Sam he finished Nov. 12, and which ran in the Nov. 13, 1890 N.Y. World p,4 “Mark Twain Gains His Point”:

October 1 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to John W. Sanborn, Indian culture expert. He complimented Sanborn on his “little book” which contained Indian ideas of creation, heaven and what Sam called the “odd coincidence” of immaculate conception [MTLE 4: 107] The book was likely Legends, customs and social life of the Seneca Indians, of western New York, by John Wentworth Sanborn, (“O-yo-ga-weh,”) (Clear Sky.) 1878.

October 1 Friday – Howells wrote from Boston to Sam.

October 1 Saturday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam, “working steadily on my revising.”  He noted Sam was no longer writing for the Atlantic. He was going to subscribe to Scribner’s [MTP].

October 1 Sunday – Sam completed the letter, full of estimates, calculations and budgets he began Sept. 30 to Karl Gerhardt. He wrote they “just had our first brief glimpse of Twichell,” who returned from a three-month trip to Europe. Twichell had visited the Gerhardts in Paris.

October 1 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Edward House. He complained that Twichell’s publication of his letter:

“…broke up some quite extensive plans of mine, & squandered & rendered useless the material out of which I had meant to build an illustrated small book—but that was the smallest part of the plan which he ruined” [MTHL 1: 440n4].

October 1 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Fred Hall, who was acting for Charles Webster during his absence in England. Sam advised Hall to put off some question to General Badeau and Mrs. Grant till Webster came home in a few days [MTP].

October 1 Saturday – Francis Wayland, dean of Yale Law School wrote to Sam, agreeing with Sam that Charles W. Johnson should “spend the coming year in earning & saving money, so that he might come to us, if he chose, at the end of that time, with money enough in hand to prevent him from being wholly dependent on charity” [MTNJ 3: 300n2]. See Sept. 29 entry.

October 1 Monday – In Hartford this morning Sam began hanging out at Joe Twichell’s house in order to get away from the home fires to continue work on Connecticut Yankee. He was under some pressure to finance the Paige typesetter, and so even though his normal summer writing season was over, he pressed on. [Oct. 5 to Crane].

October 1 Tuesday – Pamela Moffet came to visit the Clemens family for a week. She was living with her son Samuel Moffett, a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner [Oct. 7 to Langdon].

October 1 Wednesday – Sam was in Washington, D.C. to visit Senator John P. Jones and probably delivered John Brusnahan’s report [MTNJ 3: 583n36]. Sam wrote a one line note to Franklin G. Whitmore, enclosing a draft for an unknown amount. He asked Whitmore to “Turn in at U.S. Bank to my credit, Brer” [MTP]. Was this another deposit from Jones, perhaps from the two additional investors Jones had pledged to bring in at $5,000 each?

October 10 Friday – Susan Crane gave this as the date the Clemens family left Quarry Farm. If so, they must have stayed with the Langdons in Elmira until Oct. 21 [Susan Crane to Paine, June 14, 1911, The Twainian, Nov.-Dec.1956 p.4].

October 10 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, again about getting “Dean” and about designs for P&P [MTP].

Sam also replied to the Oct. 9 of Stephen C. Massett, with an apology for his last note (see Oct. 7 letter).

October 10 Tuesday – Milicent W. Shinn for Californian Magazine wrote to ask Sam for an article, though they didn’t pay contributors [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Begging letter”

October 10 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. Sam had received and approved of game details Webster suggested. Sam wrote to go ahead and have the game put in type. Orion’s follow through upset Sam.

“—and mind, don’t send me first-proof; & don’t send me first revise, either. Send me the second-revise….Save me what profanity you can. Orion’s MS is infernal….Make a new board, Charley, with all improvements to date, & send it to me” [MTBus 222].