Home at Hartford: Day By Day

February 3 Friday – W.H. Babcock for Southern New England Telephone Co. Returned Sam’s check for $85 and pointed out the bill was for 85¢ [MTP].

February 3 Sunday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam: “All right. I will leave Loisette alone. / We are greatly pleased to learn that there is no abatement of confidence in the machine. / There has been no leak of information here. / Glad to hear Mr. Crane is improving. / We are pleasantly engaged in planning for the new house. We are to get possession on the 15th of this month….” More Ma delusions — she thought at times that Orion was “her deceased Uncle Green Casey” [MTP].

February 3 Monday – Sam returned to Hartford [Livy to her mother, Feb.2, MTP].

In Boston, William Dean Howells answered Sam’s Jan. 31:

All right: I return both your letter and B.’s [Burbank’s] so that you can have the true text before you. I haven’t heard from Herne since he carried off the play. It’s well to get it out of B.’s hands anyway, if he’s willing [MTP] Note: See Jan. 28 from Howells.

February 3 Tuesday – On or about this day Livy left with Mrs. Beach to visit Susy Clemens, who came from Bryn Mawr to stay with them at the Continental Hotel in Philadelphia. A week later Sam was writing Howells about never separating himself from Livy again “in this foolish fashion” [Feb. 10 to Howells].

February 4 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Frank and Elizabeth (“Lil”) Millet, congratulating them on the birth of their first child. “The Clemenses congratulate you heartily, notwithstanding their irritating disappointment—they were hoping it was going to be triplets” [MTLE 5: 17].

February 4 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, who wrote on Jan. 17 that he was “heartily in for” the “Encyclopedia of Humor” project, if he could gain from $3-5,000 for his work, preferably the higher amount as it was “somehow more attractive to the imagination.” Sam wrote:

February 4 Saturday – Wm. H. Jackson,  mfr. grates, New York, billed $17 for “1 large Brass wire Fireguard, special mesh, boxing” paid Mar. 2 [MTP].

Charles H. Clark for Hartford Courant wrote to thank Sam for the prior evening at his home [MTP].

February 4 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Laurence Hutton about a campaign for a new copyright law he’d discussed with Warner on Feb. 2 and thought about since (see Feb. 3 entry).

February 4 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Chicago to Livy:

February 4 Friday – In Hartford Sam finished the letter begun Feb. 3 to William Smith. He’d received Smith’s books and expressed a desire to visit Morley on his next trip to England. Both he and Livy enjoyed the “beautiful and interesting” books by Smith.

February 4 Saturday – Sam had long been outspoken in support of international copyright legislation. The lack of protection for foreign writers caused several problems, and not simply to the writers. First, the spread of writing without royalties paid created a competitive disadvantage for domestic writers. Second, increased demand abroad for American writers led to increased piracy there. Third, American readers were hindered from full development of their national literature. Fourth, American booksellers were hurt financially.

February 4 Monday – In Washington, the House of Representatives was scheduled to vote on a motion to take up the international copyright bill. “A filibuster by opponents of another bill prevented this vote and effectively killed the proposed international copyright legislation” [MTNJ 3: 445n123]. With this development, Sam returned home [446n131].

February 4 Tuesday – Mrs. H.W. Beall wrote from Mayesville, S.C. to thank Sam for books sent [MTP].

Webster & Co. wrote a short note to Sam with weekly reports (not extant): “Not hearing from you in regard to the last cable we received from Mr. Hall saying that trade house had offered $30,000 in cash and 50% and that he would sail on the 5th” [MTP].

February 5 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Moncure Conway.

February 5 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells:

February 5 Tuesday – Livy telegraphed from Hartford to James B. Pond: “Mr Cable is improving and feels much better today” [MTP].

February 5 Thursday – Sam wrote from South Bend, Indiana to Livy:

Livy dear, we are grinding out the days pretty fast, now that we are at last fairly into the last month & unquestionably on the homestretch. Major Pond [James] is with us, now. He wanted to send his brother Edward, but we needed an expert, not a novice.

He also told of the Jan. 31 argument with Cable over traveling on Sunday (see Jan. 31 entry).

February 5 Friday – Orion Clemens wrote Sam, acknowledging receipt of $155 check, from which he gave $5 to “Puss” Quarles and deposited $50 into his mother’s account. He’d heard from Theodore W. Crane that the Clemens family was well and from Ed F. Brownell that the papers contained word of the quarter million given to Mrs.

February 5 Saturday – In Hartford Sam responded to a Mrs. Thornburgh (identity unknown), saying she wasn’t “troubling him too much,” but that he’d been away from journalism some seventeen years and knew only “two newspaper men in all the east” [MTP]. Her request must have had something to do with journalism. (Her earlier letter is not listed in the MTP’s Incoming file.)

February 5 Tuesday – H.B. Wetzell of Knoxville, Tenn., wrote to Sam on Wetzell & Co. Timberlands letterhead after hearing from one Mr. Risden who claimed to have played hookey with Sam as a boy in Tennessee — was this true? Sam wrote on the envelope, “Will dictate answer” [MTP]. Note: this man may have confused Orion with Sam.

February 5 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam answered Dean Sage’s Feb. 2 letter and wrote a long narrative of the misdeeds of Edward H. House.

February 6 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Mary Mason Fairbanks, enclosing a picture of their house made by Dan Slote’s engraving process. Sam denied the rumor that he “coveted a seat in Congress.” Livy was “an invalid again in a small way”; the girls were “well & hearty” [MTLE 5: 18].

Rev. Thomas A. Davis wrote to Clemens. In part:

February 6 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood, announcing that Livy had informed him he was “going to the Papyrus orgie.”

“A remark of that sort, emanating from that quarter, has this resemblance to the moving of the precious question: it is not debatable” [MTP].

February 6 Monday – Sam cabled Karl Gerhardt that the idea of him taking private lessons from “The Master” was an excellent idea [MTP, see Mar. 21 letter to Gerhardt].

Lillie Edmunds wrote from NYC, a begging letter for help with her design schooling [MTP].

February 6 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to C.L. Fleck thanking him for the honor from the “Philo Society” (unidentified) [MTP].

Sam finished the letter of Jan. 25 to Karl and Hattie Gerhardt. Sam ordered a letter of credit for the Gerhardts to continue his patronage of their training in Paris [MTP].