September 15 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster. John T. Raymond had backed out of doing the new Sellers play. The heliotype was acceptable to Sam at a cost of two cents each. Livy had been:
“…sick—is sick—& will not be able to travel for a week or ten days yet. Keep the Sellers play in your safe until I am done with the platform—then I will send for it & turn it into a novel” [MTP].
September 15 Tuesday – The Clemens family left Elmira and Quarry Farm and traveled to New York City [Sept. 5 to Gerhardt; MTNJ 3: 189].
September 15 Wednesday – In Elmira Sam wrote a few lines to Bacheller & Co.
Wrote that I had a sermon. Would wait a month & if it then could still bear my own inspection, would forward it [MTP]. Note: this “sermon” was “Concerning a Reformed Pledge: A New-Year Sermon.”
Sam also wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore. Only the envelope survives [MTP].
September 15 Thursday – William H. Gillette, at this time appearing at New York’s Star Theatre in a Civil War drama, Held by the Enemy, wrote to Sam:
Only rec. your telegram on arrival at theatre last night — 8 p.m. — too late to send up. I stationed a man at door who said he knew you — but he did not — for he came back and reported that you had not arrived. Sorry not to have had the pleasure of sending seats for the family [MTNJ 3: 318n53].
September 15 Saturday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Baroness Alexandra Gripenberg:
The “Century” folk & I are in a state of armed neutrality just now, & I might do you but small good if I sent you to them; but Mrs. Clemens suggests an introduction to Mr. Alden, editor of “Harper’s Magazine,” & the idea strikes me as being good — & in fact there is no choice between the two magazines, since they stand equally high; so I enclose a note to Alden [Moyne 373].
September 15 Sunday – Sam wrote to Charles J. Langdon in New York, letter not extant but referred to along with Sam’s Sept. 14 as “pleasant” in Langdon’s Sept. 29 [MTP].
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 – Sam wrote from Elmira to Frank Bliss, asking if the “Moses” wood-cut by Walter Brown had been received [MTLE 4: 100].
September 16 Thursday – Sam’s letter to the New York Evening Post, dated Sept. 14, ran in the paper [MTLE 5: 159]. Camfield and Budd list this as “Millions In It” [bibliog.; “Collected” 1019].
September 16 Friday – Sam left Buffalo and reached Elmira in the evening [Sept. 18 Fairbanks letter].
September 16 Saturday – James R. Osgood wrote to Sam: “Your letter of yesterday is received, with the accompanying MS. chapters of the book and the package of ‘Every Saturday’.” / We send you by Adams Ex. a package from Mr. Clarke, containing bill of complaint (in duplicate) in the Belford, Clark & Co. case …” [MTP]. Note: Thomas W. Clarke, attorney.
September 16 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Joe Twichell, who evidently had written recently.
On the contrary, the summer has been lost time to me. I spent several weeks in the dental chair, coming down the hill every day for the purpose; then I made a daily trip during several more weeks to a doctor to be treated for catarrh & have my palate burnt off. The remnant of the season I wasted in ineffectual efforts to work. I haven’t a paragraph to show for my summer.
September 16 Wednesday – The Clemens family intended to spend “a day or two” in New York City before traveling on home to Hartford for the winter [Sept. 5 to Gerhardt].
Susan E. Dickinson wrote forwarding Sadie E. Bond’s note of thanks for Sam’s assistance [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “From the Normal School girl”
September 16 Thursday – In Elmira at Quarry Farm, Sam wrote to an unidentified person.
There are some who do not lie; & they are proof that it is possible for one to get rid of the habit of talking in his sleep [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote a PS that he thought the remark was plain but that “three persons of average intelligence” couldn’t understand it even after explaining it.
Sam also wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore:
September 16 Friday – The Clemens family left New York and returned home to Hartford [Sept. 10 telegram to Whitmore].
F.L. Totten wrote from N.Y. to Sam (clipping enclosed of a poem and a sketch of Will Carleton), asking him to send him a list of “all your works with financial results” for a collection of sketches he was writing of prominent men. Sam wrote on the envelope, “Refer him to Chas. Bolton’s book — get his stuff there” [MTP].
September 16 Sunday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Orion Clemens, explaining his changed plans, which originally included five days spent with the family in Keokuk; ultimately he had to cancel the trip.
Of course I could not leave Sue & Livy to take care of him by themselves on this remote hilltop; so I telegraphed Chicago & canceled my engagement.
Give my love to Ma & Mollie & express my disappointment, which is very great.
September 16 Monday – Clara Spaulding Stanchfield invested $5,000 in the Paige typesetter; she was to receive a five-dollar royalty on each machine sold or rented; Sam increased this to six dollars [MTNJ 3: 277n174; 521&n128].
Sam’s notebook: [chk#] 4410 RR. fares, Sept. 16, $33 [3: 492].
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 – In Belmont, Mass., Howells wrote to Sam about possible visits ahead. Howells was sensitive about “helping to put your brother [Orion] into drama,” as Sam had repeatedly suggested. He offered, “the alien hand might inflict an incurable hurt to his tender heart.” Howells also mentioned seeing George Waring, who had recently seen Sam, thus bringing “us very near” [MTHL 1: 270].
September 17 Friday – Charles E. Perkins wrote to Clemens with the Bissell Bank balance and other financial information. Dan Slote had not answered requests for a statement [MTP].
September 17 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster.
September 17 Sunday – Sam also wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, about a watch chain ordered from Tiffany & Co. that had not arrived in Elmira. Sam enclosed the letter from a Tiffany employee and wrote that he “got the watch chain at last, some 13 hours quicker than I could have got it by the canal” [MTP].
September 17 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Return I. Holcombe.
“I know of only one steel portrait. It is owned by the American Publishing Co….I enclose the only good photograph I can find” [MTP].
In Boston, Howells wrote to Sam offering critical advice of “1002d Arabian Night” that it was second-rate, “and all the way it skirts a certain kind of fun which you can’t afford to indulge in” [MTHL 1: 442].
September 17 Wednesday – Sam wrote two letters to Howells. Even though Howells wrote on Sept. 15 and had not commented on Sam’s opinion of Blaine and Cleveland, Sam didn’t let the subject go.
September 17 Thursday – Sam entered a list of fifteen things to do, an “order of procedure,” relating to the Paige typesetter and business organization for it [MTNJ 3: 187-8].