Home at Hartford: Day By Day

February 10 Saturday – At about 8 PM, Sam went to the Hartford home of ex-Governor Marshall Jewell, three times governor, minister to Russia, and also Postmaster General in the Grant Administration. Sam stopped by to “beguile an idle hour for him with a yarn or two,” but was “received at the door with whispers, and the information that he was dying.” Jewell “died that night two hours after” Sam left.

February 10 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, again about Marshall Mallory. Sam seems to have cooled off some from the angry tone of his Feb. 8 letter to Webster.

February 10 Tuesday – Sam and Cable gave a reading in Opera House, Delaware, Ohio [MTPO].

Sam wrote from Columbus, Ohio to Livy (continued from above):

….After the show (& a hot supper, Pond & I did play billiards until 2 a.m., & then I scoured myself in the bath, & read & smoked till 3, then slept till half past 9, had my breakfast in bed, & now have just finished that meal & am feeling fine as a bird [MTP].

February 10 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Charles Webster, suggesting mentions in Grant’s Memoirs, volume two, of General Hancock be culled out. He wanted to let a New York Tribune reporter know that the excerpts could be had by sending for them. Volume two was now in production, and Sam was promoting, in light of Hancock’s death the previous day [MTP].

February 10 Thursday – In New York at 2 P.M., Sam wrote to Livy:

…I have memorized 71 lines in a day & kept them in an absolutely exact state during 8 hours of sleep.

I have had a lecture to-day, & shall attend to some business duties the rest of the afternoon. I love you, dearest [MTP].

February 10 Friday – Willard B. Roberts of Sinker & Roberts Investments wrote to Sam about a prospectus that he’d sent the previous fall for the formation of a natural gas company on 60,000 acres in Western Penn. Sam referred this to Whitmore on Feb. 20 [MTP].

Sam’s notebook: Feb. 10 —  ¼ of Trib to-day is handwork [MTNJ 3: 374].

February 10 Sunday – Livy wrote her mother that they would “make the Sages a little visit, that is we shall stay with them two days” [MTNJ 3: 448n136].

Orlando George  wrote to Sam, who labeled it “20 full pages begs…for a novel he has written” [MTP].

February 10 Monday – Franklin G. Whitmore wrote for Sam to Karl Gerhardt, acknowledging receipt of policy no. 333154 of Equitable Life, given as an assignment to Sam for $1,000, but returning same. “Mr. Clemens does not care for an assignment of $1000.00 of your policy for $10,000” [MTP]. See Feb. 8.

Webster & Co. wrote to Sam enclosing a letter from Hall and one from Edward Marston of Samson Low & Co. (neither extant).

February 10 Tuesday – In New York, James Redpath died after being hit by a streetcar. The NY Times for Feb 11, 1891 p.8 reported the tragedy:

JAMES REDPATH DEAD

THE FATAL TERMINATION OF THE ACCIDENT WHICH BEFELL HIM

Mr. James Redpath died yesterday morning at 9 o’clock at St. Luke’s Hospital from the effects of injuries received last Thursday afternoon, when…he was run over by a Madison Avenue horse car.

February 11 Wednesday – Charles B. Andrews replied to Sam’s inquiry and forward of Thomas A. Davis’ letter. Andrews answered that he did not know Davis [MTP]. See Feb. 6 from Davis and Feb. 7 from Sam.

Ellen (Mary) Keily (ca.1816-1901), resident of the Lancaster, Penn. county alms house and insane asylum, began a rambling, sometimes incoherent letter to Clemens that she finished on Feb. 12. In part:

Dear Mark. / I sit down to write to you once more.

February 11 Friday – George Gebbie failed to make his postponed Hartford appointment with Sam, who concluded not to deal with him again (see Feb. 15 entry to Howells) [MTHL 1: 350n1].

Western Union bill of Feb. 28 shows a message sent to New York, recipient unspecified.

February 11 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to E.B. Peck, to decline an invitation for a dinner at a gathering that called itself “Tom Sawyer’s Gang.” Sam was too busy “crowding his work forward” in order to take his trip up the Mississippi [MTP]. See also The Twainian, Jan-Feb 1957 p.4 for more on this club.

February 11 Monday – In Boston, Howells wrote to Sam. He’d sent the “Library of Humor” to Osgood for his evaluation. Howells would be happy to complete his work on the volume and “have it off” his hands.

February 11 Wednesday – Sam and Cable gave a reading sponsored by the Union Library Association, at the First Congregational Church, Oberlin, Ohio. Reviews were mixed [Cardwell 58]. Clemens included: “Tragic Tale of the Fishwife,” “A Trying Situation,” “A Ghost Story,” and “Incorporated Company of Mean Men” [MTPO].

Horace E. Rounds wrote from Milwaukee for autograph & photo [MTP].

February 11 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote a one-liner in German to Franklin G. Whitmore.

Dank’ schön! Es wird herein zehn Thaler sich befindet. Ihr achtŭngsvollen [MTP].

February 11 Friday – Sam returned to Hartford [MTNJ 3: 278n180].

William Carey, editor for Century Magazine wrote to Sam enclosing Caroline Le Row’s Feb. 11 to Robert Underwood Johnson. Le Row’s note informed them of changes she’d made in the proofs. Carey wrote, “As you suggested we forwarded a proof of “English as she is Taught” to Miss Le row, with the enclosed result.” If Sam wanted further changes, it would have to be done on the plates [MTP].

February 11 Monday – Sam and Livy went to New York City on this day, and then on to Albany to visit the Dean Sage family the next [MTNJ 3: 448&n136].

Daughter Jean wrote two letters, one to her father and one to her mother. Sam enclosed these to his Feb. 15 letter to Orion [MTP]

February 11 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam responded to William Dean Howells’ last letter (now lost) that included James A. Herne’s desire to produce The American Claimant. Sam called Herne’s letter “a fine straight-forward utterance,” and told Howells to save the comment for when it was time to write a contract.

February 11 Wednesday – Sam’s one “watched basket” fell apart when Senator John P. Jones sent a telegram. He also wrote a letter on Senate letterhead:

I have received your note of 9th and telegraphed you today that within the time named it is impossible to accomplish anything, and that even with time, so far as my investigations have gone, the difficulties seemed almost insurmountable…I shall be glad to do anything I can to help you…there cannot be a doubt as to the future of the machine [MTNJ 3: 602n96].

February 12 Thursday – Ellen (Mary) Keily finished her Feb. 11 to Sam.

February 12 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood pressing him to work out a contract with George Gebbie, a Philadelphia subscription publisher who had approached Sam to edit an encyclopedia of American humor. Sam had cooled on the project, especially after Gebbie had postponed a Feb. 4 appointment and failed to show on Feb. 11.

February 12 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood. Unwilling to admit that publishing by subscription was no longer the viable method it once was, Sam found every other possible reason for the failure of P&P to generate sales in line with his past successes.

February 12 Monday – “American Humorist. Mark Twain” New York: Funk & Wagnalls, by H.R. Haweis was a biography and criticism which argued that though Sam built a reputation as a humorist, he should be taken seriously; emphasized his travel writings [eBay Antique Book Central, Sept. 28, 2009, Item 400075870148]. Note: in the Sept. 1998 issue of Firsts 8.9 p.45, Mac Donnell writes: “Issued separately in wrappers and also bound in cloth by the publisher with others in the series.

February 12 Tuesday – George W. Cable was well enough for Sam to discharge the private nurse he’d ordered for him [MTHL 2: 471]. Sam telegraphed James B. Pond: “…nothing but the impossible can prevent his being ready for the platform four or five days hence” [MTP].

February 12 Thursday – Sam and Cable gave a reading to a packed house at Whitney’s Opera House, Detroit, Michigan. Even though there was a scheduling conflict with a high society event, the Light Guard’s Grand Levee Honors for Governor Russell A.