October 15 Friday – Sam telegraphed at 10 AM from Boston to Howells in Belmont, Mass.:
“I will bet you thirty (30) dollars to ten (10) cents that you wont get this telegram before supper which comes of living out in the woods and the money is up in House’s hands but we start at eleven fifteen 11.15 any way—” [MTLE 5: 175].
October 15 Saturday – Sam’s July 24 letter to the Australian public, ran in the Adelaide Observer (see July 24 entry).
Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to Orion, that “his entire day” had:
…gone to the devil with answering letters…send us another sack of those big hickory nuts, like those that came a year or so ago [MTP]
October 15 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. Orion’s “skeletons” for the board game had arrived, though he’d been sick. He sent them on to Webster. Sam noted a check received from American Publishing Co. and that they’d “sold as many old books in the last 3 months as Osgood has new ones.” Also, the secretary for Livy had arrived [MTBus 223].
October 15 Wednesday – Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to James B. Pond: no, he wouldn’t read in Elmira; “Thank George W. for the suggestion about ‘lendin to de po’.”; Gerhardt was in New York for a few days [MTP].
October 15 Thursday – Jacob L. Greene for Grover Cleveland wrote thanking Sam for a letter. “I am glad you have voiced to him [President] the satisfaction of the Hartford Mugwumps with him” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “From the President of the U.S.”
October 15 Friday – J. Chester for Lincoln University, Negro Education in Cincinnati, Ohio, responded to Sam’s “Your confession received” note of Sept. 14, identifying Willis as the student who intended to study for the ministry:
What you mean by my “confession,” I do not understand. The “Arab proverb” is all right, but its application I don’t see [MTNJ 3: 255-6n93; MTP]. Sam wrote on the envelope, “From that bilk” [MTP].
October 15 Saturday – Sam wrote John Brusnahan, foreman for the New York Herald’s compositors. Sam was able to gain inside information from Brusnahan on the progress of the Mergenthaler Linotype machine in trials at the Herald. Sam confided that the Paige machine was almost complete [MTNJ 3: 344n138].
October 15 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Orion about the typesetter; letter not extant but referred to in Orion’s Oct. 19 [MTP].
Sam also responded to Rev. George Bainton’s Oct. 6 letter. Bainton had asked if Sam used any particular methods in his composition work, and Sam’s answers are instructive and insightful into his thoughts on composition theory.
October 15 Tuesday – The New York World ran a piece about the Earl of Galloway rape case in England, in which the earl was acquitted on Oct. 14. Sam made an entry about it in his notebook. The article implied that the earl was found not guilty because of his power and wealth [MTNJ 3: 523n135].
Joseph T. Goodman wrote from Fresno:
October 15 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall about book matters — he’d go along with Hall on a proposed book by Charles Warren Stoddard; he didn’t think much of a book by Edison because he knew Edison wouldn’t have the time to write it and it would only be marginally profitable, perhaps; He planned to send George Lathrop to ask Edison if he might dictate a book using the phonograph. Sam also had Edwin Booth in mind for a book — he’d spent time with him after the Pryor dinner on Oct. 9 and felt a talk with him might be profitable [MTP].
October 16 Thursday – Sam was drafted as a speaker for a Republican Meeting in Elmira to introduce General Joseph R.
October 16 Saturday – Sam gave a speech welcoming General Grant at Hartford’s Bushnell Park. Fatout in Mark Twain Speaking [136]:
October 16 Sunday – Kate (Kitty) D. Barstow (Mrs. William H. Barstow) wrote from Washington to Sam, who had not heard from her since she “suddenly disappeared from our sky” back in 1870, owing $157.40 for unpaid copies of IA. At that time Sam recommended her to Bliss as an agent for the sale of his books; ultimately he had to reimburse Bliss.
October 16 Monday – From Hartford, Sam typed a letter to George W. Cable. A date for Cable’s visit had evidently been set. The weather was beautiful; they’d seen a comet and Sam hoped to finish LM this week,
“FOR I HAVE ALREADY FINSHED WRITING ALL I DON’T KNOW ABOUT NEW ORLEANS” [MTP].
October 16 Tuesday ca. – Sam typed a letter in Hartford to Howells:
“TWICHELL AND I WENT DOWN TO NEW BRITAIN, BUT FOUND NOBODY DOWN THERE IN THE AGRICULTURAL MANUFACTURING BUSINESS. HOWEVER, THEY TOLD ME WHITHER TO GO…” [MTP]. Sam set Webster on the task, whatever it was.
October 16 Thursday – In Boston, Howells wrote to Sam.
Osgood has asked me to let him see the copy of the Library of Humor, and is waiting for me to get it a little more in shape. You can’t suffer any disadvantage in any event from his looking it over…I am glad that there is a reasonable hope of our having Mrs. Clemens here with you when you come to read in November. I’m sorry to hear that poor Ben [Clara] is under the weather [MTHL 2: 510].
October 16 Friday – In Boston, Howells wrote to Sam of his new agreement with Harper & Bros. Conditions of his employment forbade his name from appearing save over their imprint, so it affected his part in the Library of Humor book. Howells suggested he sell out at a “sacrifice” to Sam, settling for $2,500, or half of the original agreement. He suggested Sam call the work “Mark Twain’s Library of American Humor” [MTHL 2: 537]. (See Oct. 18 entry.)
October 16 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: Oct. 16, ’86, subscribed for $3,000 of Laffan’s telegraph stock [MTNJ 3: 262]. (See also Oct. 3, 1887 Laffan to Sam.)
Dora Wheeler wrote from N.Y. to Sam:
October 16 Sunday – A.E. Thayer wrote from Vienna, sending Sam a long German word [MTP].
October 16 Tuesday – See Oct. 14 for Sam’s disposition of his letter to Hartford City Government.
October 16 Wednesday –Hartford. Sam, laid up in bed, wrote again to Frank Fuller. After a paragraph about his old tendency to speculate and his eventual lack of interest in it, Sam talked about his health.
October 16 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Daniel Whitford, his N.Y. attorney with Alexander & Green, about the continuing saga of the P&P dramatizations in the courts.
Frohman acknowledges that Mrs. Richardson has rights by continuing to pay a portion of her royalties to her. Is that not a confession that I have rights also? Am I to be insulted in this brutal way by this son of a bitch & have no recourse? [MTP]. Note: Amid all the injunctions and legal battles, Sam did not receive royalties on the plays.
October 17 Friday – Sam’s article “Our Georgia Visitors” ran in the Hartford Courant [Camfield, bibliog.].
C. Jensen, custom officer wrote from Stubbekøbing, Denmark to ask for an autograph [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Preserve this remarkable letter”; though English is clearly not the writer’s first language, nothing explains Twain’s envelope comment.
October 17 Sunday – Wm. P. Woolley, Hartford livery, billed $9.75 for: May 20 hack to circus; June 10 2 ¼ hrs; June 11 1& ½ hrs; Sept. 30 from cars, express from cars; Oct. 9 use of hack [MTP].
October 17 Monday – Hartford Probate Court sent Sam a printed announcement postcard on the estate of John S. Ives [MTP]