Home at Hartford: Day By Day

February 22 Friday – Thomas W. Knox for Lotos Club wrote to Sam that the matter he’d been trying to see Sam about was to urge him to accept the Club presidency for the coming year [MTP].

February 22 Saturday – † On or just after this day Sam sent the Feb. 21 Webster & Co. inquiry about Lounsbury to Twichell: Dear Joe:/ ? / Ys Ever/ Mark./ ~ [MTP].

The Critic reviewed CY:

We do not at all approve of Mark’s performance; it is very naughty indeed: but — and that is all he and his publishers want — we cannot help laughing at it [Tenney 18].

February 22 Sunday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall about the mock-up of Mark Twain’s Memory Builder and his new book that would become The American Claimant:

When you get the dummy finished, steal a few hours from work & bring it up yourself & we will make some plans concerning the new Col. Sellers book which I am writing [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Joe Goodman about Senator John P. Jones:

February 23 Monday – Frank Fuller wrote from NYC to Sam.

February 23 Wednesday – Sam traveled to Boston [MTHL 1: 350, 360n3].

Robert J. Burdette wrote from Syracuse, NY., stuck in a snowstorm and unable to lecture this night in Union Springs, “where ever it is to night.” He felt Twain had “abandoned the rostrum too soon,” as this was the “boss” winter. “I am going up town to hear the Jubilee Singers”. After his signature he drew a humorous sketch of a train buried by snow.

February 23 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Edward House. Koto left her shawl behind and Livy was getting it ready to mail as Sam typed the letter.

February 23 Saturday – Kingsland Smith, of St. Paul Roller Mill Co. wrote to Sam that he’d been forced to postpone his visit; he’d rec’d Sam’s “kind note” of Jan. 15; they’d agented their flour in Hartford and sold a car load of it; it was 18 below zero there [MTP]. Note: Sam’s of Jan. 15 not extant.

February 23 Monday – Sam and Cable gave a reading at the Opera House in New Haven, Conn. [New Haven Evening Register for Feb. 18, 21 and 23].

J. Chipchase wrote from Baltimore about losing money on an offer by Bissell’s [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Bissel’s victim & my reply”

February 23 Tuesday – Sam’s PS added to the letter to Karl Gerhardt written by Livy the day before:

February 23 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam’s sister Pamela arrived from California for a six-day visit.

Paine writes of Sam’s Browning Class, which met every Wednesday during this period (see 1887 begin):

“Once, at a class-meeting, after finishing ‘Easter Day,’ he made a remark which the class requested him to ‘write down.’ It is recorded on the fly-leaf of Dramatis Personæ as follows:”

February 23 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Henry Edwards (Harry), actor. Sam’s note was a response to some invitation (lost) by Edwards to join a “movement.” Sam expressed the difficulty of declining.

This is a singularly difficult letter to write, brief as it is. It — no, it is impossible to word it just right — that is, have in it no ungracious suggestion, but make it wholly odorless in that regard [MTP].

February 23 Saturday – Dana Estes, acting as secretary for the International Copyright Association, Boston, wrote Sam urging him to appear at the Mar. 7 benefit at the Boston Museum for the copyright cause. Estes declared, “your co-operation is deemed absolutely essential to the success of the Reading” [MTP].

February 23 Sunday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam:

Last night we gave Ma a soapsuds injection, and she was relieved for the first time since last Sunday. Then slept through the night, for the first time in a week or two [MTP].

February 23 Monday – Mary Mapes Dodge invited Sam and Livy to dinner at her New York City home. Since Livy was ill and in bed, the invitation was likely declined [MTNJ 3: 603n100; Feb 24 to Howells].

Arthur Duffuer in Furtwangen, Black Forest, Germany wrote a short note to Sam — in German, writing he would be “fortunate to own a few lines written by your hand” [MTP]. Note: Thanks to Holger Kersten for the translation.

February 24 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Frank Fuller.

      Enclosed please find the original draft of recipe for infants’ food.

February 24 Thursday – Sam gave a dinner speech at the Papyrus Club Dinner, Revere House, Boston, for the annual “Ladies’ Day” [Fatout, MT Speaking 148-50]. The speech was a funny account about no vacancies on a sleeping-car. Sam was given a sleeping car berth when a colored porter recognized him as a famous man. The only problem was, the porter thought Sam was “Jennul McClellan.”

February 24 Friday – Sam gave a reading at Twichell’s Asylum Hill Congregational Church, Hartford, Reported in Hartford Courant, Feb. 25, page 3: “Additional City News” [Schmidt].

February 24 Sunday – Karl Gerhardt wrote to Sam and Livy; their baby Olive was better after someone volunteered to pay for a nurse and going out of the city to find good air; he gave a sheet of expenses [MTP].

February 24 Wednesday – From Susy Clemens’ diary:

February 24 Thursday – William H. Gillette wrote enclosing a $1,000 check which he said “is to go into the ancient acct ‘Professor’” [MTP]. Note: Sam gave William his start on the stage by funding the play of that name.

February 24 Friday – John Brusnahan of the N.Y. Herald wrote to Sam that he’d received his letter of Feb. 23 and “read with great satisfaction. It is a pleasure to feel that the end is near at hand at last.” He also reported he had not been allowed to examine the Tribune machines (Mergenthalers), so concluded they would “not stand much scrutiny” [MTP].

February 24 Sunday – In Hartford Sam responded to Feb. 18 & 19 letters from Thomas W. Knox, saying that if the office of Building Inspector for Hartford was offered it would be the only office he would take, but,

…not any other office that is namable, not even a kingship…I do thank you, each and every one, but I couldn’t dream of accepting, old friend [MTP].

February 24 Monday – The U.S. Congress approved Chicago over New York as the site of the Columbian Exposition of 1892/3. From the New York Times, Feb. 25, 1890 p.2:

CHICAGO FRANTIC WITH JOY

 — — —

PURELY A COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE

WITH NO SPARK OF SENTIMENT.

February 24 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to William Dean Howells. Livy had been “sick abed for near two weeks” (which would put her return from Philadelphia at about Feb. 12). Sam looked forward to a visit by the Howellses in March. Sam then asked if his new novel stirred an interest in Howells: “Colonel Mulberry Sellers, American Claimant of the Great Earldom of Rossmore in the Peerage of Great Britain,” which would become, simply, The American Claimant [MTHL 2: 636-7].

February 25 Friday – Sam gave a reading at Twichell’s Asylum Hill Congregational Church, Hartford. He wrote of this reading in his Feb. 27 letter to Howells:

“…the thing that went best of all was Uncle Remus’s Tar Baby” [MTLP 394-5].

Sam also wrote from Hartford to Charles Perkins asking if he had “Mills’s agreement for Colorado.” This was a contract for Kaolatype work. Sam requested a copy [MTP].