October 4 Saturday – In Bryn Mawr, Penn. Sam wrote to Joe Goodman that he was “just back from Washington,” and that John P. Jones “seems quite well satisfied,” and would soon leave for California.

Susy entered this college as a freshman three or four days ago. It is by long odds the best female college in the world [MTP].

Sam, Livy and Susy stayed at the Summit Grove Inn, J.W. Arthur proprietor, waiting for Susy to be assigned a room; a new dormitory was not quite finished. Salsbury writes:

October 5 Sunday – While at Bryn Mawr waiting for Susy to be assigned a room, Sam aided a visiting history scholar, Miss Wergeland, in ordering her meals, since he spoke fluent German and the lady did not speak much English. He performed this service three times a day during the entire stay. Though one girl claimed the Clemens were there two weeks, Sam was back in Hartford by Oct. 11 [Salsbury 281-2]. Did Livy stay on with Susy until she was assigned a room in Radnor Hall? Sam’s Oct. 12 to his sister suggests Sam and Livy left together this day.

October 6 Monday – John Russell Young wrote to Sam inviting him to attend the dinner for Judge Roger Atkinson Pryor (1828-1919) at the Astor House in New York on Thursday, Oct. 9 [MTP]. Note: Pryor was a veteran of the Third Virginia Infantry and Fitzhugh Lee’s cavalry. He became a distinguished jurist and judge, rising to the N.Y. Supreme Court in 1894-99. See Oct.8.

October 7 Tuesday – James R. Gilmore for James T. White & Co., publishers, N.Y. wrote to Sam asking for “fuller details” on Sam’s life in preparing a “National Clyclopedia of American Biography” [MTP].

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 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:

October 10 Friday – A.B. de Frece for Stanley Reception wrote to Sam asking him to respond to being chosen for the committee [MTP].

Daniel Whitford wrote to Sam that he’d answered Mrs. Lamprecht’s letter to the effect that “it would be idle of her to see you as your contract with Mr. Frohman precludes…dealing with any other party” [MTP]. Note: Mrs. Lamprecht was the child actor Tommy Russell’s mother. Russell was starring in the Edward House version of P&P in Brooklyn. See Oct. 2 article.

October 11 Saturday – In Hartford Franklin G. Whitmore wrote for Sam to Albert S. Towle, whose letter had been enclosed in Hall’s Oct. 7 letter. Permission was granted for Towle to use three sketches in a work being prepared [MTP].

Daniel Frohman applied to the courts for protection in performing his own version (Abby Sage Richardson’s) of P&P as long as he paid Edward H. House a royalty [Brooklyn Eagle, Oct. 12, 1890 p.3].

October 12 Sunday – In Hartford Sam wrote to his sister, Pamela Moffett:

I am very much obliged for the copy of McEwan’s staving good & just eulogy of Sam [Moffett]. I shall mail it to Susy. The last time I saw her was a week ago on the platform at Bryn Mawr. Our train was moving slowly away, & she was drifting collegeward afoot, her figure blurred & dim in the rain & fog, & she was crying [MTP].

October 13 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Mary Mason Fairbanks, who evidently had written asking about the family (her letter not extant).

Susy is a freshman at Bryn Mawr, poor child; we left her there a week ago, & it’s about the longest week the almanac was ever furnished to this fambly. Livy’s health is rather shabby….Clara decides to stay out of college & devote herself to music….We haven’t forecast Jean’s future yet, but think she is going to be a horse jockey & live in the stable.

October 14 Tuesday – C.M. Dally wrote on Hartley & Graham, Arms & Ammunition, N.Y. letterhead to ask Sam for a copy of his letter to the Queen. Sam wrote “Brer Refer him to Harper’s Magazine” [MTP].

Denning & Co. N.Y. dealer returned Sam’s check for $1.40 for a bill paid twice [MTP].

James B. Pond wrote to his dear “Mark,” enclosing a schedule for Stanley’s lecture tour of the US.

October 15 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall about book matters — he’d go along with Hall on a proposed book by Charles Warren Stoddard; he didn’t think much of a book by Edison because he knew Edison wouldn’t have the time to write it and it would only be marginally profitable, perhaps; He planned to send George Lathrop to ask Edison if he might dictate a book using the phonograph. Sam also had Edwin Booth in mind for a book — he’d spent time with him after the Pryor dinner on Oct. 9 and felt a talk with him might be profitable [MTP].

October 16 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Daniel Whitford, his N.Y. attorney with Alexander & Green, about the continuing saga of the P&P dramatizations in the courts.

Frohman acknowledges that Mrs. Richardson has rights by continuing to pay a portion of her royalties to her. Is that not a confession that I have rights also? Am I to be insulted in this brutal way by this son of a bitch & have no recourse? [MTP]. Note: Amid all the injunctions and legal battles, Sam did not receive royalties on the plays.

October 17 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to James B. Pond, who’d asked about the P&P play controversy:

There are two Prince & Pauper plays — one in the hands of a pirate [House], the other in the hands of a person who is the same thing without the name [Frohman]. God be thanked I have no influence with either [MTP].

Henry Ware Alley wrote urging Sam to send his views on the Single Tax to The Standard [MTP].

October 18 Saturday – William J. Bok for The Bok Syndicate Press, N.Y. wrote to Sam:

“May I not be favored with your literary plans for the balance of the Autumn and the coming Winter? ….Allow me to enclose one of our recent literary letters” [MTP].

George E. Chase wrote from Philadelphia to ask Sam if he would consider the Single Tax [MTP].

J. Hagerty for Hagerty & Sons, Burlington, Iowa wrote asking Sam to use the Single Tax as the basis for a book [MTP].

October 19 Sunday – W.J. Bolton wrote from Poughkepsie, N.Y. (sp?) asking Sam to use the Single Tax as the basis for a book [MTP].

William O. Foley for Ewing & Co. wrote from Greensburg, Ind. asking Sam to use the Single Tax as the basis for a book [MTP].

Edward Herrmann wrote from St.Paul, Minn. asking Sam to use the Single Tax as the basis for a book [MTP].

C.V. Harbottle wrote from Phila asking Sam to use the Single Tax as the basis for a book [MTP].

October 20 Monday – Susy Clemens wrote about life at college:

I am glad of course that I am in Bryn Mawr as I was working all last year to get in and now that I am here there is a great deal that I enjoy most thoroughly. The work is delightful and the people are lovely and altogether Bryn Mawr is an ideal place, but oh! it does not, can not compare with home! [Salsbury 283].

B.C. Stickney wrote from Brooklyn asking Sam to “Please set me down for one copy of your book on the land question, if you should write one” [MTP].

October 21 Tuesday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam:

Our poor dear mother is losing ground. She has almost quit eating and hs long alternations of sleeping and restlessness…weakness increases. We are trying a few drops of King’s cure for consumption for her cough. [Orion included a few pages of history for Sam’s game] [MTP].

James A. Ford wrote from Sioux City, Iowa asking Sam to use the Single Tax as the basis for a book [MTP].

A.P. Freund wrote from Chicago asking Sam to use the Single Tax (land question) as the basis for a book [MTP].

October 22 Wednesday – Edwin Reed wrote from Chicago to Sam: “I take the liberty to send you, by current mail, copy of a brief I have drawn up in he pending suit, Bacon vs. Shakespeare.” Sam wrote “No Answer” on the envelope [MTP].

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 – 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 – Sam and Clara Clemens were in the second day of their visit at Bryn Mawr College with Susy.

Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam that he would be “up next Tuesday on the train that leaves New York at 8 o’clock and arrives Hartford at 11.38” [MTP].

October 26 Sunday – Sam and Clara Clemens were in the third and last day of their visit at Bryn Mawr College with Susy. See Nov. 4 from Burdette.

In Hartford Livy wrote to her mother:

October 27 Monday – Jane Lampton Clemens, Sam’s mother, died at age 87.

Sam and Clara Clemens left Bryn Mawr and arrived back in Hartford by evening where they were met with the news of Jane’s death, probably by telegram from Orion and Mollie Clemens [Oct. 23 to Hall].

James G. Batterson for Travelers Insurance, Hartford wrote to Sam: “News from Bryn Mawr received. I shall be at my office all day to-morrow” [MTP].

October 28 Tuesday – Sam endured the grueling 24-hour turned into 48-hour train trip to Hannibal, Mo., for his mother’s funeral.

From his notebook:

Oct. 28. Left at 8.03 a.m. Left Springfield at 10.32 a.m. Should have reached Chicago at 10.10 next a.m. Really got there 6.45 p.m. Took C.B. & Q at 10.30 p.m. Due at Quincy without change at 8.30 next morning. Hannibal at 9.55 [3: 592].