Home at Hartford: Day By Day

April 20 Monday – In Bryn Mawr, Penn., Susy Clemens wrote to her roommate and best friend, Louise Sheffield Brownell, now in New York City attending to a sick mother.

April 21 Wednesday – Sam finished the letter to Moncure Conway. Sam enclosed Howells’ review of TA. Elisha Bliss was too ill to work so Sam dealt with his son, Frank Bliss, and took it upon himself to order the electros for Chatto, and then wrote Conway [MTLE 5: 75-7].

April 21 Thursday – Clement T. Rice wrote from Brooklyn to ask Sam for his endorsement to be used in securing a position in the customs house [MTP].

April 21 Friday – The Gold Dust finally got underway at 2 AM and at 6 AM paused at Menard, Ill. to let off passengers near St. Genevieve. Sam enjoyed the scenery, passing Chester, Ill., Grand Tower, Ill., and Cape Girareau, Mo., stopping at Cairo, Ill., some 200 miles from St. Louis. It was night when the Gold Dust made Cairo [Ch.

April 21 Saturday – From Lilly Warner’s pen: “Livy is doing well now, under a nurse’s care, and the sweet soft air of these good days” [Salsbury 164].

April 21 Monday – George E. Waring wrote to ask Sam to send him a copy of “Ambulina” [MTP]. Note: see Feb. 18 entry on Ambulina.

April 21 Tuesday – Sam visited U.S. Grant at 9:30 a.m.

Albert H. Dowell wrote a begging letter “for a few dollars” from HahnemannHospital, NYC [MTP].

Webster & Co. wrote, Gerhardt to Webster Apr. 19 enclosed: “We refer the enclosed to you as it is something which you are personally concerned” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Send 1000”

April 21 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam answered Moncure D. Conway’s letter of Apr. 15. Conway had invited Sam to the Author’s Club in New York City for Apr. 22; Sam hoped to be there but Livy couldn’t leave home so he was non-committal:

April 21 Thursday – Charles Webster wrote that he now thought the amount due Mrs.Grant would turn out to be about $33,000 instead of $38,000; Fred Grant “seems disposed not to allow legal expenses,” but Webster argued those were clearly an “expense of publication”; McClellan was selling well and the Pope’s book was “picking up”; he would write when the 2-year accounting was ready [MTP].

Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

April 21 Saturday – This was the intended Canadian publication date for Mark Twain’s Library of Humor, published by Dawson Brothers of Montreal, but it was held up by a shipment error of the printer’s plates [Mar. 7 to Chatto; MTNJ 3: 376n248]. Sam returned home to Hartford from Montreal.

April 21 Sunday – The New York Sun ran Sam’s letter of Apr. 18:

To the Editor of The Sun — Sir: I find the following suggestive derelict wandering about the ocean of journalism:

April 21 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall about a possible book to publish and the way he’d like to respond to suggested books:

Now here’s a simple system, & certain-sure of a result: When you propose to me, & detail your argument for or against, enclose a blank note, & I can fill out & sign & return that note without saying a word.

Sam also said he thought well of “the MacAlister [sic] etiquette book” [MTP] Society as I Have Found It, by (Samuel) Ward McAllister (1890) was published by Cassell Publishing Co. [Gribben 434].

April 21 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote again to Livy at the Radnor House, Bryn Mawr College, Penn. Evidently Livy had written that Sue Crane was coming to visit. He complained that it was “getting pretty homesicky here” [MTP].

April 22 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Frank Fuller. He talked of a “vaporizer” investment (“Mr. Furbish’s stimulant”). “About a fortnight hence,” Sam planned to “run down to Washington for a few days, on a sort of copyright-law project.” Would Frank like to go with him? [MTLE 5: 82].

April 22 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Francis Augustus Teall (1822-1894). Francis was one of the most distinguished proofreaders of his time. He was associated with Appleton Publishing House. He had charge of the Proof Department of their Encyclopedia. He was Assistant Editor of the Century Dictionary published in 1889.

April 22 Saturday – The Gold Dust left Cairo early in the morning. When Sam “turned out” the packet had passed Columbus, Ky. and was approaching Hickman. Sam noted the damage that the “flood of 1882” had caused to New Madrid, Mo. and the unprotected lowlands from Cairo south.

April 22 Sunday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to Laurence Hutton, advising that he would not be able to stay with him Apr. 25 and attend the Salvini banquet on Apr. 27 due to Livy’s condition.

April 22 Tuesday – From Hartford Sam replied to Charles Webster’s Apr. 21. He wanted the raft chapter, which was used in LM, “left wholly out” of HF. He badgered Webster about getting official pledges, called “acceptances” out of Osgood for money owed.

April 22 Wednesday – The Prince & the Pauper play was re-staged by the Clemens and neighborhood children. This may have been the time Sam played the part of Miles Hendon. James B. Pond had been invited the prior Sunday [Apr. 20 to Pond].

April 22 Thursday – Sam went to New York and likely met with Charles Webster and Henry M. Alexander as mentioned in his first letter to Webster on Apr. 20. Sam and Howells split their evening between Hopkinson Smith’s gathering at 7 P.M.

April 22 Friday – In Hartford “laid up, for a day or two,” Sam answered Webster’s Apr. 21 note.

You asked Fred Grant, before the contract was three months old, & he agreed that legal expenses should be a charge upon all concerned. [¶] You told me this. The amount is small, but we must stick to our position [MTP].

April 22 Monday – Anna Hoit Bumstead wrote from Atlanta thanking Sam for his $25 check [MTP]. Note: Sam sent an annual check for this amount to the widow Ware and her children.

April 22 Tuesday – Henry Green wrote from Hartford to Sam about his new invention:

…a new system of mechanical instrument to supplant, or to be as great a novelty as the organette was. I do not expect the earth from it but I should like to find someone to help me take out the patent & put the thing where it will do some good. It is needless to tell you I am a poor man…[Sam wrote on the env., “Inventor of a musical organ. Will go & call on him”] [MTP].

April 22 Wednesday – Sam read the story of “A Scotch-Irish Christening” at the Authors’ Reading, New York City, for the YWCA, as invited and agreed to on Mar. 22 to Annie B. Jennings.

April 23 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Hjalmar Boyesen. He thanked Boyesen for “those pleasant praises” of A Tramp Abroad, and expressed surprise that the first quarter sales were going “as great as that of any previous book of mine.” Sam told of giving a reading at Twichell’s church.