May 23 Friday – Rufus Slattery, secretary of the Elmira YMCA, sent Sam an announcement of an amateur photo contest. Slattery wanted to enter a photo he took of Sam, who responded through Whitmore on May 24 [MTP].
Henry (Harry) Edwards wrote from Dunedin, NZ to Sam, enclosing a clipping from an Auckland newspaper which promised a dramatization of P&P in Melbourne in the spring (US Fall). “The colonial rights have already been secured,” the article said. [MTP].
May 24 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote on Rufus Slattery’s May 23 envelope to Whitmore:
Brer, Tell him I would not object if it were a good likeness, but it is not [MTP].
Hamburg-American Packet Co. sent Sam an engraved invitation for a luncheon on board the new steamship, Normannia at the Hamburg Pier, Hoboken, N.J. June 4, 1890 at 1 o’clock. “Decline with thanks,” Sam wrote on the envelope [MTP].
May 26 Monday – H.A.L. Christian wrote to Sam to settle a $40 bet — did Sam serve on the Confederate side? [MTP].
Wesley Washington Pasko (seen also as Pasco) wrote from N.Y. to Sam enclosing articles on various typesetters, which Sam annotated and corrected in six places. Pasko was the recording secretary of the N.Y. Typothetae [MTNJ 3: 555n223]. He wrote:
May 28 Wednesday – The Boston Daily Globe, p.2. declared “Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) is Right at Home in Boston…at the Vendome.” No other evidence of a trip to Boston was found. See also May 21 entry, for identical notice in Globe. His last known stop in Bean Town was Apr. 27 for the Max O’Rell dinner.
May 28 Wednesday ca. † – In Hartford Sam used Franklin G. Whitmore to reply to H.A.L. Christian’s May 26 question — did he serve as a Confederate? Sam told Whitmore to reply that he’d “served 2 weeks on the Confederate side” [MTP].
May 31 Saturday – D.B. S. John Roosa, M.D., New York, receipted $20 “for Mrs Clemens and Susie” [MTP]. Note: Dr. Roosa was an eye doctor.
June – Sometime during the month Sam answered E.W. Stephens’s May 20 invitation. Sam wrote he’d been “ailing for two or three weeks,” and that he’d made passage for the family to Europe and expected to be there “from the end of June till near October,” though this didn’t mean he would be able to go, since “Providence will rip up the engagement when the time comes.” [The Clemens family did not go to Europe this year.]
June 2 Monday – Magdalene LeViseur wrote a short note from Posen (a province of Prussia at this time, now part of Poland) to ask Sam permission to translate and publish TA. Chatto & Windus’ address written in pencil at the top, appears to be SLC’s hand [MTP].
J.F. Morton in Boston, sent a long printed poem, “Quisque Histrioniam Exercet” to Sam [MTP].
June 3 Tuesday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam, enclosing the prior weeks’ reports (not extant). “I presume you will be in the city soon — that is, if you sail on Saturday. Please let me know if you intend on going on that date” [MTP].
Charles S. Fairchild wrote from Boston on Lee, Higginson & Co. stationery (he was a broker at the firm) to Sam;
June 4 Wednesday – Howard P. Taylor wrote to Sam that he’d seen A.P. Burbank this day “and he informed me you were to leave for Europe shortly.” How could he submit terms to Sam that he might make for the production of CY? [MTP].
June 6 Friday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam and enclosed a $4,000 promissory note “which was paid the other day.” A Mr. H.A. D’Arcy was “very much exercised” when told he couldn’t get the plates for P&P to use in the Tommy Russell Prince & Pauper Company. Hall would consult Whitford [MTP]. Note: D’Arcy wrote to Sam on June 11.
June 7 Saturday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam of his need soon to go to Chicago and Minneapolis to organize and get things started in those agent offices. Nobody understood the LAL installment plans except Thomas M. Williams, who was managing it from N.Y. Sam wrote “Important” on the envelope [MTP].
June 8 Sunday – Clara Clemens’ sixteenth birthday.
June 9 Monday – Robert J. Burdette wrote to Sam, informing him that Susan Coolidge (Sarah Chauncey Woolsey 1835-1905) was the “fellow who wrote ‘Forget what did’” [MTP]. See Apr. 14.
Wm. B. Smith & Son, Flour, Grain, Feed, Baled and Loose Hay and Straw, Hartford, billed $16.95 for May 2, 3, 16, 30: meal, bran, etc.; Paid June 23 [MTP].
June 10 Tuesday – Jane Clemens wrote a short paragraph of delusion to her long-dead parents; Orion Clemens added to it a letter to Sam finished June 15 [MTP].
Richard W. Gilder for Century Magazine wrote to Sam:
I don’t know why you should say that the paragraph you send me has a “doubtful look.” If matrimony is a good thing the more of it the better. To be sure I never heard of the young lady whom, according to the papers, I am to marry in June, but probably this proves that the match was truly made in heaven [MTP].
June 11 Wednesday – Sam referred to this as “that first day” in New York (by calculation from his June 14 to Livy). In that letter Sam talked of being with Joe Goodman in New York. He also wrote about the stay there:
June 12 Thursday – Sam and Joe Goodman were still in New York; Sam wrote Livy on June 14 that “there was nothing to write” this day.
Mackenzie Bell of London, England wrote to Sam requesting biographical information. Whitmore would answer for Sam on June 25 [MTP].
Orion Clemens finished his June 11 to Sam. See entry.
June 13 Friday – In the afternoon, Sam and Joe Goodman took the six-hour train trip to Washington, D.C., arriving at night. The pair ate “an enormous supper & went right to bed & to sleep.” Sam wrote to Livy the next day about the trip:
June 14 Saturday – In Washington Sam wrote Livy about the stay in New York with Joe Goodman, the trip down the day before; Joe “has gone to call at Senator Jones’s & make a business appointment” [LLMT 256-7].
James B. Pond wrote from Liverpool, England to Sam:
You have doubtless seen by the papers that I have engaged Stanley, & will begin in N.Y. about Nov. 11, and Boston to follow. Don’t you want to bring Mrs. Clemens to Boston & meet the charming Mrs. Stanley (to be) & introduce Stanley again? [MTP].
June 15 Sunday – H.E. Harrington for Mutual Life Ins., N.Y. wrote an estimate to Sam for an “investment policy” [MTP].
Orion Clemens wrote below Ma’s June 10 delusional paragraph to her parents:
Ma wrote this on the 10th. She was excited, nearly crying with joy once the expected reunion of the family. / She is very weak, this afternoon, drooping to the left, and staggering [MTP].
June 16 Monday – Orion Clemens finished the June 15 letter:
When I offered to bring Ma down to breakfast this morning she found herself too weak on the left side, and liable to fall. She said she had not use of her left side, from her hip down [MTP].
June 18 Wednesday – ‡ See addenda
June 19 Thursday – Robinson for Collier’s Once a Week (“Fiction Fact Sensation Wit Humor News”) wrote to Sam asking to reprint the “proposal” from GA [MTP].
June 20 Friday – William J. Hamersley wrote to Sam about a “personal loan” he’d made to Sam and a note from Whitmore regarding it. Hamersley was relying on Sam’s “promise to take care of it sometime next month.” No amount is mentioned but on Apr. 3 Hamersley sent Sam $2,500 [MTP].
June 21 Saturday ‡ – See Addenda: Sam and Joe Goodman returned from Washington by this day.
June 22 Sunday – Joseph T. Goodman wrote from the Hoffman House, N.Y. to Sam: “Mrs. Goodman concluded to come over to the city and stay for a week or so — or until we knew if Jones is disposed to do anything about the machine. Her health is very poor.” Sam wouldn’t hear from Joe again unless he had something to say about Senator John P. Jones or John W. Mackay, the two big fish they angled for [MTP].