Home at Hartford: Day By Day

October 23 Thursday – G.E. Hutchingson, Newspaper Advertising Agent wrote Sam a note of recommendation for Jesse M. Leathers [MTP].

October 23 Saturday – Sylvester Baxter came to visit Sam [MTLE 5: 183], who then wrote from Hartford to Frank Bliss, introducing Baxter, the young reporter from the Boston Herald; Baxter had interviewed him recently. Baxter wanted to know “all about the subscription book business” and Sam vowed that Bliss could “speak freely to him, for he will not print anything you do not want exposed” [180].

October 23 Monday – In Hartford, Sam typed a letter to Hattie and Karl Gerhardt.

“I STARTED A LETTER OF CREDIT FOR A HUNDRED POUNDS TO PARIS ABOUT THREE DAYS AGO, AND INTENDED TO WRITE YOU AT THE SAME TIME; BUT HAVE BEEN DELAYED IN VARIOUS WAYS. IN FACT MY PRINCIPAL DELAY COMES OF THE UNFINISHED AND APPARENTLY UNFINISHABLE CONDITION OF MY BOOK” [MTP].

George W. Cable attended a Monday Evening Club with Sam [MTHL 1: 420n4].

October 23 Tuesday – Chatto & Windus wrote to Clemens with statement of account and book sales, royalties of £904.7.11 [MTP].

Orion Clemens wrote all about the history game research he was working on [MTP].

** Worden & Co. wrote receipt of Sam’s Oct. 19 order to buy 100 shs O.T. @ 25 [MTP].

October 23 Thursday – In Boston, Howells wrote to Sam, advising he would send the new Sellers play to Osgood by express that day. He diplomatically told Sam that there wasn’t room for Sam’s “fellow-reader” [Cable] should Sam and Livy come to visit. Howells also felt that Silas Lapham wouldn’t sell well until the presidential campaign was over. On the Englishman Henry Irving returning to America and playing to half houses:

October 23 Friday – Joe Twichell wrote a short note, clipping enclosed “Aerial Navigation”: “Don’t you remember how one of us said, when we last walked to the Tower, speaking of aerial navigation, that the problem was bound to be solved sometime, because it was never given up, but there were always men at work on it. / The sight of the enclosed recalled the remark” [MTP]. Note: Steering a balloon had always been a challenge.

October 23 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote a one-liner to Sarah Knowles Bolton (1841-1916), American writer and associate editor of the Boston “Congregationalist” (1878-81), saying that he was “called away from town ten days,” but he would be happy to see her on his return [MTP]. Bolton was working on Famous American Authors (1887), and wanted biographical information on Sam.

October 23 Tuesday – Arthur H. Wright for Webster & Co. sent Sam a biannual financial statement showing a loss of $16,455.66 for the prior six months. The statement also listed the company’s indebtedness to Sam at $72,942.10. Sam’s agreement of Apr. 1, 1887 capped his maximum obligation at $75,000 [MTNJ 3: 429n72].

October 23 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote a scolding apology to Henry Loomis Nelson (1846-1908) who had called on the Clemens home and been mistaken for a peddler. Loomis had been secretary of the American Copyright League and would later become editor of Harper’s Weekly. He was also an author and educator.

Great Scott, what a thoughtless man you are! Why the mischief didn’t you write on your card in the first place? …

October 23 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote a few pages to Joe Goodman, all about typesetter developments and plans. The New York World published an “elaborate & highly complimentary account of the Rogers machine,” which Sam argued produced one-sixth the output of the Paige in a given time.

I guess it is another stock-jobbing operation — it can’t be anything else. The machine has nothing but certain death before it.

October 24 Friday – After a seventeen month absence, the Clemens family returned home to Hartford and their Farmington Avenue house [MTLE 4: 111, 115]. From Twichell’s journal:

“Dear Mark Twain and his family are home again. We called on them in the evening. It seems only yesterday that we parted in Switzerland” [Yale, copy at MTP].

October 24 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion, enclosing $25. Sam wrote simply: “Bliss is dead. The aspect of the balance-sheet is enlightening.” He concluded that “Out of the suspicions” Orion had “bred…years ago” he profited an extra $20,000 on Tramp by making better deals. So, out of gratitude he increased Orion’s monthly stipend to $75, the amount he’d get in interest from the sum he’d saved.

October 24 Monday – Sam contracted with the Tiffany & Co. “For the sum of Five Thousand dollars” to cover the ceilings and walls of their library with metal leaf [MTNJ 2: 399-400n149].

Sam wrote to Edward House thanking him profusely for a suggested solution for the baronet error in P&P [MTP].

Sam also wrote two letters to James R. Osgood:

October 24 Tuesday – Charles Webster acknowledged Sam’s check for $500, which was used to purchase a list of Western agents from H.N. Hinckley, who had been sent by Elisha Bliss to open a Chicago branch of Am. Publishing Co. The lists held about 500 agents who had sold Sam’s prior books, and another 7,000 persons who’d applied for agency to sell the books. Also included was Hinckley’s unsold supply of older books.

October 24 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James B. Pond that he’d decided to substitute an enclosed program for the one he’d sent, “All but 5 minutes of it is bran-new—never been played or published.” He asked for Cable’s “2-night program” so he might see how his would coordinate [MTP].

October 24 Saturday – Charles Webster wrote from New York to Sam in Hartford:

October 24 Sunday – Sam was in Washington, D.C. He met with General Sheridan this day or the next.

October 24 Monday – The dinner engagement with Boyesen, Twichell, Charles Dudley Warner, and Count Claes Lewenhaupt at the Clemens home [Oct. 21 to Boyesen, Lewenhaupt].

Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

3875  F.G. Whitmore  100.00  Finances

3876  Estes & Lauriat  2.00  Booksellers

October 24 Wednesday – Reform Club (New Haven) wrote to Sam (envelope only survives) [MTP].

Arthur H. Wright for Webster & Co. wrote to Sam that he’d made an error in his last report [MTP].

A Nov. 1 bill from Postal Telegraph-Cable Co. of Hartford shows a telegram this date to the Murray Hill Hotel for .29 [MTP]. Note: to reserve or notify of Oct. 25 arrival.

October 24 Thursday – Treasurer for the National Park Bank of N.Y. wrote to Sam, acknowledging his check # 4432 for $20 for the Horace Greeley Statue Fund [MTP].

Douglas Taylor, General Mercantile Printer, N.Y. wrote to Sam: “Your welcome note-letter 21st p’m’k 23 just rec’d. / I’d be delighted to run up a day or two to Hartford.” Sam wrote on the envelope, “Interesting letter from Douglas Taylor, Inc. Typesetter & Co. / Oct 1889”  [MTP].

October 24 Friday – Sam and daughter Clara Clemens took the train from Hartford at 12:25 p.m. They got off at New Haven and took a Shore Line boat with a parlor car, all the way to Philadelphia. Sam thought it a “Mighty lovely trip.”

Dining room on the boat, skirting around New York, & an hour & ten minutes to eat (a poor) dinner in. Ben [Clara] ate two buttered rolls at New Haven & nearly a thimble full of baked potato on that boat.

October 25 Saturday – Richard Stanley Tuthill (1841-1920) wrote from Chicago, on The Illinois Club notepaper to invite Sam to the annual meeting of the Army of Tennessee Nov. 12-13. Would Sam agree to be on the program? [MTP]. Note: he did agree and gave the famous “Babies” speech.

October 25 Monday – Sam wrote instructions from Hartford to Charles Perkins. Orion was now to receive $75 a month, beginning with Nov. [MTLE 5: 184].

Paid to Madame Fogarty, New York $495 for various “costumes.” E.L. Bullock billed $11.50 for work on house [MTP]. Note: Bullock later cleaned chimney.

October 25 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster.

Hammersley said the foreman of the Herald composing rooms was here last Saturday to examine the machine [Paige typesetter]; was satisfied with it, & said he should advise the Herald to order $150,000 worth (30 machines.) (More than necessary, I should think, for 30 of them would do the work of 150 men.)

October 25 Thursday – Charles Webster wrote about business matters: canvassing of books; business now good; suggestion to leave 14,000 books bound for the trade [MTP].