Home at Hartford: Day By Day

April 18 Wednesday – James R. Osgood replied to Sam’s Apr. 17: “Perhaps you are correct: but I don’t quite believe it. The sequel will show” [163]. Sam did give way a bit, allowing Osgood and Webster to do as they preferred on The Stolen White Elephant [MTP].

April 18 Friday – Charles Webster wrote to Clemens: rec’d MS all right (HF?); unable to find Parsloe or Aldrich; Osgood was there, Howells the next day [MTP].

April 18 Sunday – From Susy Clemens’ diary:

Mamma and papa Clara and Daisy have gone to New York to see the “Mikado.” They are coming home tonight at half past seven [Papa 212].

According to Susy’s Apr. 19 entry, a game of croquet was played in the evening, with Aunt Clara Spaulding and Susy besting Sam and Clara Clemens [Papa 215].

April 18 Monday – Sam went to New York, where he wrote a brief note to Edmund W. Gosse (1849-1928), English poet, author and critic, who evidently had requested a photograph. Gosse at this time was an important critic of sculpture, writing for the Saturday Review. Sam owned a copy of Gosse’s Thomas Gray, English Men of Letters Series (1882), which was purchased Apr. 28, 1884:

April 18 Thursday – In Hartford, Sam wrote a letter about how to remove tattoos to the editor of the New York Sun. The letter ran in the Apr. 21 issue — see entry.

April 18 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Joe Goodman having received his telegraph of the day before and his earlier letter. A. Hoffman puts Joe in Washington at this time, attempting to hook Senator Jones into backing the Paige machine [359], but from his Apr. 17 telegram and letter of this day it’s clear he was in Fresno. Sam wanted Joe to go inspect the new Mergenthaler Linotype machine, because he and Paige weren’t allowed to sit and watch it run now.

April – Sam, in Hartford, inscribed a copy of A Tramp Abroad to Clara L. Spaulding [MTLE 5: 57].

April? – Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to Frank Fuller.

April – Before Apr. 29, Sam hired his niece’s husband, Charles Luther Webster to take over dealings in the Kaolatype and brass ventures. Webster was 29, a civil engineer and real estate man in Fredonia. Sam realized he couldn’t see to the business details of his investments and give his writing the focus needed. (See Apr.

April – Sam’s notebook has an entry “Gillette ask Chas W Butler about Mrs. Bruner’s play—‘A Mad World’.” Butler was an actor [Gribben 107]. Sam also jotted notes about Mike Fink [229]. Also in his notebook: “War Diary of Gen. Geo. H. Gordon,” referring to A War Diary of Events in the War of the Great Rebellion (1882) [268]. Another entry reads, “Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason—Max Muller’s translation. Macmillan, N.Y.” [363].

April – Sam wrote a maxim on stationery of the Alpha Literary Society, Greenville Ill. to an unidentified person: “It is easier—& nearly always more judicious—to tell seven lies than make one explanation…” [MTP]. Note similarity with Apr. 3 to Bellows.

April – On an unknown date in April, Sam telegraphed Howells that Webster had gone to Providence to make John T. Raymond another offer to take the new Sellers play [MTHL 2: 482]. The communications between Sam, Howells, Webster, and Raymond took place over several months. More certain success rested with Raymond, who’d been successful as Sellers in the past.

April – On an unknown Friday evening in April, Sam wrote from New York City to Charles Webster of his plans to go home to Hartford in the morning and stay there for the time being unless Webster needed him back in New York.

April – Sam wrote a sketch named “Luck” about a military officer whose stupidity results in success and fame. It was not published until 1891 in Harper’s Monthly Magazine [MTNJ 3: 226]. From the Mark Twain Encyclopedia, Craig Albin contributor:

Spring – Profits on Grant’s Memoirs: Sam, $93,481.34; Webster $25,942.37; Mrs. Grant $394,459.53 [MTNJ 3: 316n47].

April – J.G. Rathbun & Co. Hartford Pharmacists billed $51.10 for goods from Jan-Mar; paid Apr. 4:

April – St. Nicholas Club, N.Y. sent Sam an engraved invitation and ticket to the May 1 Centenary celebration of Washington’s inauguration [MTP]. Note: Sam would not attend.

April – Sometime during the month, William J. Hamersley loaned Sam $2,500 to help with typesetter expenses. This was a three-month loan but still unpaid a year later. Since Sam expected “Ham” to kick in with one-fifth of ongoing expenses, he may have seen this as an offset. (See July 11 entry.)

April – With Livy, Susy Clemens left Bryn Mawr for good and returned home. Powers claims she was “underweight and overwrought” [MT A Life 537]. Note: Charles Langdon’s Apr. 2 to Sam mention’s Livy’s “thin and worn” condition, which suggests he saw her in N.Y. on Apr. 1 or 2. Significantly, Langdon made no such evaluation of Susy.

April 19 and 20 Tuesday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to William Dean Howells.

I have just “wrotened” this stuff to-day—as Bay [Clara] says—may-be you may need it to fill up with.

April 19 Tuesday – Sam completed the Apr. 11 letter to the Gerhardts by adding a paragraph about Livy being too busy to add to his letter [MTP].

April 19 Wednesday – “This morning struck into the region of full goatees—sometimes accompanied by a mustache, but only occasionally” [Ch. 22, LM].

Noon: Sam changed trains in Indianapolis.

Afternoon: “—At the railway-stations the loafers carry both hands in their breeches pockets; it was observable, heretofore, that one hand was sometimes out-of-doors—here, never. This is an important fact for geography.”

April 19 Saturday – Lucius Seth Huntington wrote to Clemens, more about her book of the lost child. She asked for a letter from him to any press people, and she’d send him advance sheets [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Let press people alone / troublesome Huntington”

April 19 Sunday – Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to James B. Pond, inviting him to the Clemens’ home Wednesday evening, Apr. 22 for a presentation of P&P by Susy and crew. Jean Clemens added scribbles to the top of the note, to which Sam referred:

“The above is a postscript—I should say an ante-script—by Jean—& she has gone off without translating it”[MTP].

April 19 Monday – Pamela Moffett wrote to Sam from Quincy, Ill. on her way to New York. She was spending “a few days” in Quincy after having stayed with Orion and Mollie for two weeks. She asked Sam not to say anything about what Orion owed her, “in case of Ma’s death,” as she wanted to contribute her share toward taking care of Ma.

April 19 Tuesday – Sam wrote to Rev. John Davis of the Trinity Rectory, Hannibal, Mo., enclosing a form letter he’d written six weeks prior explaining his experience with the Loisette memory “system.” Sam was still sold on the method, and among the remarks he added to the form letter was this: