Home at Hartford: Day By Day

October 8 Wednesday – From Bryn Mawr, Penn., Sam telegraphed John Russell Young in New York that he would be at the Astor House dinner for Judge Robert A. Prior: “I shall be there & hungry” [MTP].

John Brusnahan of the N.Y. Herald wrote from Brooklyn to Sam: “Yours from Washington received in due time. Presuming that you may have arrived home before this I address you at Hartford.” He’d made a bet with his boss, Mr. Howland, who said that the Paige wouldn’t be ready for another year, though he thought it was probably the best one [MTP].

October 9 Thursday – Sam had received Howells’ letter of Sept. 17, which called writing about Orion by “an alien hand” as heartless. Howells planned on traveling “northward and westward…either the first of October or the first of November” [MTHL 1: 270]. Sam responded that he’d intended to mark the religious squib “Private,” but forgot to. He then wrote a litany of Orion’s schemes and intentions he’d received in the past month.

October 9 Saturday – Sam purchased “1 Eng[lish] Suiting (silk lined)” from Frank M. Wilson & Co., Bridgeport, Conn. tailors and Gents Furnishers $50.00 [MTP].

The Oct. 31 bill from Western Union shows a telegram sent to New York, recipient unspecified.

October 9 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Karl and Hattie Gerhardt (see also Sept. 22-23 entry).

October 9 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to his mother, Jane Clemens. He told the news that Livy and Clara Spaulding had “gone shopping to New York…for a few days.” Sam wrote how he’d sent Charles Webster to Fredonia “with a very savage article exposing that watch company,” and how they’d paid him on the spot not to publish it.

October 9 Tuesday – Charles Webster wrote about a personal matter—a desk for Livy [MTP].

October 9 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Mervyn Drake, identity not known. Sam wrote six and a half lines in German and then recalled a Professor Ihne, who, with his wife and daughter, called on Sam and Livy on May 26, 1878 in Germany (See MTNJ 2: 89n85). Ihne was the author of several works on Roman history. Note: corrected name & date by Hirst email, May 17, 2007.

October 9 Friday – William Tecumseh Sherman wrote having rec’d Sam’s of Oct. 5. Sherman agreed with Sam’s judgement—he would not publish his travel notes of 1871-2 [MTP].

October 9 Sunday – George C. Bidwell wrote from E. Hartford to Sam arguing on behalf of convicts unfairly charged in England. Sam wrote on the envelope, “From that d___d convict” [MTP].

October 9 Tuesday – In Hartford Franklin G. Whitmore wrote for Sam to Frank Bliss, sending a receipt for $569.50 and advising that Bliss was correct to send both the statements and checks directly to Sam, not to the Webster & Co. [MTP].

October 9 Wednesday – In Hartford, Sam wrote his sister, Pamela Moffett, who had sent a postcard from New York he received this morning.

October 9 Thursday – Sam and Livy left Susy at Bryn Mawr and traveled to New York. (They may have left the day before, Oct. 8, after receiving Young’s invitation, as Sam did not like to travel on the same day he was to give a speech.) In the evening, Sam gave this short humorous dinner speech at the Roger A. Pryor Dinner, Astor House:

September 1 Wednesday – Park & Tilford billed Sam for “1 doz Glen Whisky” total $14; Sam ordered nineteen badges from Tiffany & Co. These badges were made for the young women of the Saturday Morning Club, and receipted for on Sept. 17 [MTNJ 2: 371-2n49; MTP].

September 1 Friday – In London, England, Howells wrote a longish letter to Sam about the travels, the luncheons, the artists and others he’d met and about how far the dollar went there compared to Boston [MTHL 1: 413-4].

Dr. Thaddeus S. Up de Graff  (1839-1885) wrote a bill on a card in Elmira with July 21 visitation, payment date Sept. 5 [MTP]. See insert.

September 1 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Andrew Chatto.

I’ve just finished writing a book; & modesty compels me to say it’s a rattling good one, too—“Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” (Tom Sawyer’s comrade.)

Osgood & I leave for Canada the 26th of November, arriving in Montreal the same evening, where I shall remain a couple of weeks, on copyright bent [MTP].

Sam also wrote to James R. Osgood.

Welcome home, & drink hearty! …

September 1 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster. Frank Bliss had offered terms too difficult for Sam’s plan of offering a discount for a paired sale of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, so Sam commented that the “question appears to answer itself.” The Frank Coker News Co. of Talledega, Ala. had been running ads for Mark Twain books in Frank Leslie’s News

September 1 Tuesday – Jesse R. Grant wrote giving Henry A. Taylor’s NYC address and saying he’d advise Taylor that Sam would call on him regarding the Turkish railroad scheme [MTP].

Frank C. Raubs wrote from City Prison, NYC to beg for a loan of $50 for bail [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “From the scoundrel Raubs” who had stolen from Webster & Co.

September 1 Wednesday – In Elmira Sam wrote a five-page letter to Edward H. House:

Clara Spaulding is to be married tomorrow evening, and I have contributed, among our other bridal presents, a dollar’s worth of horse-car tickets and a poem.

The poem was, “S’KIK! G’lang” and also sent to Clara Spaulding on this day with a short letter:  

September 1 Thursday – From Sam’s notebook:

Sept. 1 ’87. Two [books] in a year & a half. Loss upon the one, $32,000; profit on the other, $15,000. Expenses, $30,000. Net loss, $17,000 [MTNJ 3: 310&n31].

September 1 Saturday – Sam’s notebook:

“Why, Jean what have you got on such thin clothes for?”

“Mamma, I saw the sun signed (signified) a hot day.”

Sept 1/88 [3: 420].

Also, check numbers:

4314 Geo. Elmendorf Sept. 1 $48.75

4319 Patrick [McAleer], Sept. 1 $100

4320 John Sept 1 $120 [3: 477].

Park & Tilford, N.Y. Grocers, billed $1.35 for “Aug 16 1 doz. Bohemian Beer”; Paid Sept. 15.

September 1 Sunday – In Elmira Sam telegraphed William J. Hamersley about Charles Langdon and the latest offer Sam made to him:

He drove up this morning to talk. Was surprised at my proposition when I re-stated it. He wouldn’t touch it. Said he supposed I was proposing to sell a perpetual lien, parting with it out & out, a stipulated sum for each thousand dollars cash [MTNJ 3: 516].

September 1 Monday – In Tannersville, N.Y. Sam wrote a short note to Sherrard Clemens II, who evidently had written asking about one of his English ancestors. Sam answered:

…I am wholly ignorant. I knew of the patriot Clemens, & of his execution as one of Charles’s judges, & also that he had at an earlier day been English Ambassador at the Spanish court; but I had not heard until now that he married a Spanish wife [MTP].

September 10 Wednesday – Sam and Livy made a quick trip to Fredonia to visit Sam’s mother, and sister Pamela Moffett. They left the children at Quarry Farm with the Cranes. (Referenced by Sam’s letter to Pamela of Sept.

September 10 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Franklin Whitmore acknowledging receipt of his telegram on the matter of selling stock; he would follow Whitmore’s lead. Sam affected a cockney accent:

“It as been orrible weather ere, otter then we’ve ever seen it before on the summit of this hill. But we shan’t complain, as long as it isn’t killing the President” [Note: Garfield died Sept. 19].

September 10 Sunday – The New York Times ran an article on page 3: “Mark Twain’s Summer Home”.