Home at Hartford: Day By Day

August 5 Thursday – Lucy Adams Perkins wrote to Sam with congratulations and concern for Livy. She related their house being burgled “again…at the same parlor window.” A policeman heard the window slide and came to find the burglar in the parlor; he fired a shot at him as he fled into the bushes, but missed him [MTP].

August 5 Friday – Based on Sam’s telegram of Aug. 6, this is the likely day for the 10-hour train trip from New York to Elmira, this time taking an extra two hours

August 5 Saturday – Orion Clemens finished his Aug. 4 letter [MTP].

August 5–9 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Lt. Charles E. S. Wood, who wrote Aug. 3 asking if Sam would like a proof wood engraved portrait by Timothy Cole.

August 5 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to an unidentified person.

“I apologize for this rag of paper, & explain that I am cruising in strange waters, where paper is scarce. (Paper is always scarce in strange waters—& even in the other kind)” [MTP].

Percy Aylmer wrote from Durham, England to ask Clemens if he’d consent to having them publish a book entirely of his quotations that an unspecified young lady had compiled [MTP].

August 5 Wednesday – From Sam’s Aug. 6 to Livy for this day:

August 5 Thursday – Sam returned to Elmira (probably this day) from New York, a ten-hour trip.

August 5 Friday – In Elmira Sam reported to Franklin G. Whitmore, “Have made splendid progress on my book this week.” This was a comment added below his signature on a letter containing aspects of the Paige machine, threats of lawsuit, bills sent, disputes about a $20,000 contract being fulfilled to Pratt & Whitney for work on the typesetter, and the like.

August 5 Sunday – Philip H. Sheridan died. He was only five feet five inches, which gave him the nickname, “Little Phil,” though through high living he did not stay little. Thin as a youth, he blossomed to over 200 lbs. after the war, and suffered from a series of heart attacks, the final one claiming him this day. His burial at Arlington, the ceremony there helped to shape the reputation of Arlington Cemetery as a national place of honor.

August 5 Monday – In Elmira Sam wrote to William Dean Howells. The letter reflects the degree to which Sam depended on Livy and/or Howells as social censors of his work.

Mrs. Clemens will not listen to reason, or argument; or supplication: I’ve got to get you to read the book [CY]. … The proofs, thoroughly corrected, & then revised & re-corrected, shall go to you as revises, from time to time, from the office in New York.

August 5 Tuesday – In Onteora Park near Tannersville, N.Y. Sam telegraphed to Franklin G. Whitmore:

Tell me by telegraph before night if the alterations have been made in the contract for the delay in damaging the chances [MTP]

August 6 Friday – Lilly G. Warner wrote to Sam, thanking him for his letter from baby Jean, and very concerned after hearing Livy was worse [MTP].

August 6 Saturday – Sam telegraphed from Elmira to Franklin Whitmore.

“BROKE AN AXLE EIGHT HOURS FROM NEW YORK AND TWENTY FIVE MILES FROM HOME LAY STILL & ROASTED TWO HOURS REACHED HOME AT NINE, PM EVERYBODY IS BRIGHT AND WELL TODAY” [MTP]

August 6 Monday – Webb T. Dart for Magnetic Rock Spring Co. wrote they were shipping this day a case of carbonized water, if drank cold would “certainly find relief from any disease” [MTP].

Karl Gerhardt wrote a statement of expenses for July [MTP].

August 6 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Eliot Norton declining an invitation to the annual dinner for the arts in Ashfield Mass., pleading age and rheumatism for “so long a journey in the heats of summer.”

Some day, I hope, you will change your dinner-hour to winter; then I am likely to be close by & idle; also hungry. …

August 6 Thursday – After lying 24 hours in the Capitol at Albany, Grant’s casket, was put on a train for the six-hour ride to New York City. The train slowed passing West Point for the cadets to salute. Once in the city, where tens of thousands waited, the casket was taken to City Hall, where it lay in state another 24 hours [Perry 229].

August 6 Friday – Back in Elmira Sam wrote to Mollie Clemens, responding to her Aug. 2 letter which detailed Orion, Pamela, Ma and herself being poisoned by bad milk while on an excursion:

Dear Molly —

      What a terrific adventure! We are all glad it was no words, though goodness knows it was plenty bad enough….

August 6 Saturday – Sam wrote to Charles R. Brown, letter not extant but referred to in Brown’s Sept. 2 [MTP].

August 6 Monday – Louis Pendleton, young Philadelphia writer wrote thanking Sam for his letter of Aug. 4. “It makes me feel that my literary venture has not been a failure after all.” [MTP]. A “Screaming snake” — sam objected to Pendleton’s use of the term in his piece.

Webster & Co. wrote to Sam explaining the delay in issuing Sheridan’s book. Sam wrote, “Sheridan dead” on the envelope [MTP].

August 6 Tuesday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Francis de Winton (1835-1901), a friend of the Marquis of Lorne who later was appointed by King Leopold to take Sir Henry Stanley’s place in the Congo. He was a recognized authority of central Africa.

August 6 Wednesday – In Onteora Park near Tannersville, N.Y. Sam wrote to Miss Lanigan, who evidently had sought information about Livy for publication. Sam answered with Livy’s thanks but observed,

…she is habituated to obscurity & prefers to remain in it Privately I believe she thinks that to be merely proprietor of a cannon cannot warrant one in letting on to be part of the battery [MTP].

August 7 Saturday – Robert Thornton Lowery (1859-1921) wrote from Petreola, Ontario to Sam:

August 7 Sunday Livy wrote from Elmira to Hattie Gerhardt, and Sam added “God be wi’ ye!” at the end. The letter was about their “long and very tiresome trip from the sea side to Quarry Farm; of baby Jean and her preference for her father; and admonitions for Karl Gerhardt not to work too hard; and an inquiry if they’d seen Mrs. Warner, who evidently was visiting the Continent [MTP].

August 7 Monday – Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers wrote to Sam, Large printed page of stock prices enclosed. They’d rec’d an order from him this day to sell a stock at over 46 (see JB & W sale Aug. 4), which they interpreted as 46 or better [MTP].

Mollie Kane sent Sam a postcard from Union, Mo. full of shaky handwriting, spelling and grammar errors, asking for an autograph and claiming that her “Grandma used to know your uncle” [MTP].

August 7 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Howells.

August 7 Friday – Over 300,000 people passed by Grant’s casket in New York City Hall [Perry 229]. The New York Times reported Sam staying at the Hotel Normandie [p.4 “Personal Intelligence”].