September 6 Saturday – Orion Clemens finished his Sept. 5 to Sam:
To-day Ma’s room has that dreadful urinary smell which characterized Mr. Stott’s during the last five or six years of his life. Ma is wild about the box with blue stripes you sent her, and into which you strove to put every thing she could need [MTP].
September 7 Sunday – John Brusnahan, foreman at the N.Y. Herald, wrote to Sam:
I gave my report to Mr. Howland yesterday. He took it home to ponder over it. I am vain enough to think I have fired a pretty heavy shot into the Mergenthaler [MTP].
September 8 Monday – Sam traveled to Hartford in order to sign the contract with John P. Jones. He wrote Joe Goodman.
Dear Joe: I am here 24 hours to sign the written contract — which has been done. From it has been weeded out everything suggested by Jones. Apparently he wants Paige to retain the ¼ gross proceeds, & all other shares just as they stand — has his reasons for wanting these things so.
Jones doesn’t need to sign the added paper unless he wants to — & not until he gets ready, anyway. The papers go to him to-day.
September 9 Tuesday – Sam returned to Onteora [Sept. 8 to Jones].
September 10 Wednesday – Horace L. Traubel for Walt Whitman wrote to Sam:
I want gratefully to acknowledge ten dollars (in check) sent me in trust & on a/c Whitman fund for months April May June July & Aug… [MTP].
September 11 Thursday – In Onteora Park near Tannersville, N.Y. Sam wrote again to Senator John P. Jones, passing on an “official report on the Mergenthaler machine,” which concluded that it was “capricious & unreliable in its working,” and in “average hands, a 2,000-em machine.”
3 or 4 days’ apprenticeship on this machine will enable any young fellow of ordinary capacity to beat the best & ablest Mergenthaler or Rogers expert.
And after one week’s apprenticeship he will beat any two Mergenthaler or Rogers expert [MTP].
September 12 Friday – In Onteora Park near Tannersville, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mary M. Keller (Mrs. George Keller) of Hartford (George was an architect).
I thank you ever so much for sending it to me. And this reminds me to say I have just found out that whereas Kipling’s stories are plenty good enough on a first reading, they very greatly improve on a second [MTP].
September 13 Saturday – Sam returned to Onteora Park, likely this day, and began to ready the family for return to Hartford. Beckwith recorded Sam performing a charades with daughter Jean [Beckwith’s unpublished papers at the Smithsonian; offered by a MT scholar who wishes to remain unnamed].
September 15 Monday – Livy wrote to her mother about the family’s plans to leave Onteora,
We begin to feel that our time here is very short as we expect to leave a week from tomorrow. We have enjoyed our summer exceedingly….Tomorrow morning quite a number of them are going. Mademoiselle [Susy’s French teacher] leaves us and Susy is through with her work for the present.
Orion Clemens began a letter to Sam he finished Sept. 16:
September 16 Tuesday – Orion Clemens finished his Sept. 15 to Sam:
Puss [Quarles] writes that she has been at a picnic at Florida [Mo.] and Mrs. Violet wants Ma to “satisfy some of the folks” by stating who put the first dress on you. Ma does not remember. Puss also wants to know where the house stood that you were born in. Ma don’t remember, and I don’t suppose you do. I have a vague impression it was a little [illegible word] on Main Street, where we ate on a dry goods box, before we bought a table [MTP].
September 17 Wednesday – Beckwith’s notes indicate that Sam dined with Carroll Beckwith and Miss Field at Onteora [Beckwith’s unpublished papers at the Smithsonian; offered by a MT scholar who wishes to remain unnamed].
September 18 Thursday – Dion Boucicault died. Born Dionysius Lardner Boursiquot, he was a famed Irish actor and playwright who specialized in melodramas. The New York Times obituary called him “the most conspicious English dramatist of the 19th century.” See May 17, 1873 and Mar. 9, 1883 entries
Orion Clemens wrote to Sam: “Dr. Bancroft thinks Ma is the worst she has been, and that she may not pull through” [MTP].
September 19 Friday – At Onteora Park, Carroll Beckwith’s journal notes that Sam sat one last time for the “finished” portrait [Beckwith’s unpublished papers at the Smithsonian; offered by a MT scholar who wishes to remain unnamed].
September 20 Saturday – A long biographical sketch, “Modern Men: Mark Twain,” ran in the Edinburgh Scots Observer [Tenney 17]. After praising and discussing all of Sam’s prior works, granting some the level of masterpiece, the article turned to CY:
September 22 Monday – Beckwith’s diary notes the Clemens family left for New York [Beckwith’s unpublished papers at the Smithsonian; offered by a MT scholar who wishes to remain unnamed].
A.G. Hales wrote from New South Wales, Australia to Sam, sending his “latest effort in the journalistic line” (not extant). Could Sam drop a line and tell him what he thought? Sam wrote “Smiles” on the envelope, with the quote marks, which may have been the title of the work sent [MTP].
September 23 Tuesday – This is the planned day for the Clemens family to return to Hartford (see Sept. 15 entry). They may have spent a day or two in New York City on their return, as was their habit when summers were spent at Quarry Farm.
Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam enclosing reports (not extant) for the past two weeks; they had “sold 2297 volumes…from our home office, which is, of course. exclusive of general agents’ sales…” [MTP].
September 24 Wednesday – Daniel Whitford wrote to Sam about James G. Batterson investing in the Paige typesetter. Batterson had seen the machine and was impressed with it, but was not “so situated that he could take any financial interest in it now as his legitimate business requires all his time” [MTNJ 3: 583n35]. Note: Batterson was founder and head man at Travelers Insurance Co.
September 25 Thursday – T.E. Roessle for The Arlington House, Washington, wrote to Sam and returned Sam’s check for $25 overpaid, since “Mr. Paige’s a/c was, as you will see, included in yours” [MTP].
September 27 Saturday – Back home in Hartford Sam wrote to Senator John P. Jones, enclosing more clarification on the “expert’s report on the Mergenthaler machine,” which Sam noted was a “private document,” of which he had a copy.
These facts, added to the fact that those machines will prove wholly unendurable in a daily newspaper office, make the coast clear [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Ladies of the Onteora Club, thanking them for their gift of a picture, “Mort de Léandre” [MTP].
September 29 or August 23-28 – Sam spoke at the National Wholesale Druggists Association Banquet, Washington, D.C. Fatout reports this as questionably September [MT Speaking 261-2]. Sam may have gone to Washington sometime between Sept. 29 and 30; he was there on Oct. 1. This would leave only a day or two in September for such a speech, but six possible days in August.
September 30 Tuesday – In New York, Susy Clemens wrote to her sister Clara of their shopping in New York, her excitement at going away to college and of missing her.
Dearest, dear Clara; I am sitting in a bright sunny room just now, and would realy be perfectly happy for the time being if only you were here….
I have been rushing around till now with Mamma; and she has gotten me a lot of beautiful undressed kid gloves.
October – Mollie Clemens wrote to Sam [MTP]. Marked “Missing” in the MTP files.
Webster & Co. sent Sam a “Books sent report”: 7,564 total ; 2,699 CY [MTP].
Samuel Spaulding, Hartford, receipted $30 for “Sprinkling Farmington Ave in front of premises during the season of 1890” [MTP].
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 2 Thursday – The Brooklyn Eagle, p.4 ran an article about the upcoming drama of P&P by Edward H. House, “How a Woman Bids Fair to Outwit Mark Twain”:
October 3 Friday – Unknown person for the N.Y. Sun sent Sam a printed, three-page folded form signed by Theo. L. De Vinne, president of the New-York Machine Type-setting Co.,which sang the praises of the McMillan typesetting machine [MTP].