Home at Hartford: Day By Day

January 8 Sunday – Back in Hartford Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto, and informed him of the progress of Library of Humor, after discovering that Chatto had answered him about interest in the book. Chatto had sent a reply to Webster & Co. Sam declined to take up some offer from a “Mr.

January 8 Tuesday – John Brusnahan for N.Y. Herald wrote to thank Sam “for the great and important information” sent. “It is, without doubt, the greatest achievement of the age. The whole civilized world is your oyster now.” Howland was less joyful, “having been disappointed so often” [MTP].

January 8 Wednesday – From Hartford Sam wrote to his brother Orion Clemens of a Hartford epidemic of the grippe (flu or influenza). Even the doctors in town were laid up.

The cases in our house were Clara (now slowly convalescing,) four servants (all out of bed but one, now,) & one of Patrick’s [McAleer] children. Susie seems to be attacked since dinner, & the doctor has been notified [MTP].

January 8 Thursday – In Hartford Sam responded to an invitation (not extant) by Thomas L. Gulick.

…It could bring peace to this family who have heard me sigh for the Islands every year for twenty years, yet have never heard me sigh to return to any other place I had seen before. But I know we can never go — although I shall never entirely give up the intention [MTP]. Note: tragically, Sam would be at anchor off the Sandwich Islands in 1895, but quarantine would prevent his disembarking.

January 9 Friday – William Hooker Gillette (1853-1937) was back in Hartford in a play he’d written, which Andrews calls “miserable” [99]. The play was “The Professor” and Gillette lost all the money that Sam had lent him [257n56]. Though by 1880 it was no longer considered shameful to attend the theater in Hartford, Joe Twichell retained reservations about acting and faith mixing. From his journal:

January 9 Sunday – Clara Clemens was much better in the morning after “good nursing & dosing.” Sam wrote from Hartford to his mother, Jane Clemens. Another fire began in Jean’s crib in the nursery, started when a spark flew through the fire-screen while Julia (Sam’s personal barber) was in Susy’s room making up a bed.

January 9 Monday – At 11 A.M. Sam and Edward H. House called at the hotel where John Russell Young had been staying but he’d left on the 10:30 train. Later, Sam wrote from Hartford to Young:

“The prospective pleasure of writing that book [LM] grows with the moments; & already I foresee that in the building of it I am going to find a delight comparable to going to heaven.”

January 9 Tuesday – George W. Cable wrote a postcard from N. Orleans asking if there was a 2nd volume by a man named Stuart in the books he’d sent. “Made a speech last night—50 minutes—audience made no complaint” [MTP].

January 9 Wednesday – The Clemenses entertained the Aldriches in the evening. Livy sent out invitations a few days before (see Jan. 7 entry). The Aldriches stayed with Sam and Livy for a few days (see Jan. 14 to House) [MTP].

James B. Pond wrote after hearing “what the trouble was” on the “2d night in Louisville” and offered some sort of confusing explanation [MTP].

January 9 Friday – The party left Springfield for St. Louis at 6:35 AM. A train accident delayed them; the engine and baggage car derailed at the bridge over the Big Muddy. Sam joked that he would have been all right if he’d made it into the River, because he knew it well. The party walked across the bridge, took a car to the Southern Hotel, and were set for the evening’s performance [Cardwell 37].

January 9 Saturday – The Clemens children were rehearsing for their performance of the P&P play. Sam wanted to see Clara’s part, the Lady Jane Grey, given more lines in her scene with the Pauper, played by Margaret (Daisy) Warner. From Daisy’s diary (with her charming spellings):

January 9 Sunday – Robert M. Yost wrote from St. Louis to Sam and enclosed Mrs. Yost’s Jan 11 request for a “souvenir” — “Won’t you please send me a scrap of one of your neck ties [?]” Mr. Yost was born in Shelbyville, Mo. and wrote of going back to Hannibal and “shaking hands with the old Florida people who ‘knew Sam Clements,’ as they call you” [MTP].

January 9 Monday – The Players Club sent Sam a formal notification of his election to the club (he was a charter member and present at the Jan. 6 first meeting). A bill was enclosed for a $100 initiation fee and semiannual dues payable on or before Nov. 1, 1888. Sam wrote on the envelope, “Won’t pay it,” and evidently got the fees reduced, as he was receipted for half the amounts asked on Nov. 13 [MTNJ 3: 429n73].

January 9 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Richard Malcolm Johnston and marked the note “private.” He advised of changed plans, to “sneak down to Baltimore on Wednesday, 16th…& go into hiding from all save you.” Sam felt the trip would wear him out and that he’d need a “whole day’s rest.” He wanted to be incommunicado there before Thursday. He ended with,

Let Capt. H.P. Goddard tell you what he wrote to me & what I have answered [MTP].

January 9 Thursday – The Post Orders, Circular No. 2 at West Point announced the January 11th appearance at 7:45 p.m., of Mark Twain [Leon 77].

On or just after this day Sam answered through Whitmore that Pattison’s Jan. 7 request was for a paper now out of print, but that the “Bermuda paper” (“Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion”) was in Stolen White Elephant [MTP].

January 9 Friday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam enclosing a Dec. 1 report, which he thought “remarkable” considering “no new books had been published that have had any great sale” [MTP].

Webster & Co. wrote to Sam that his request for two sets of his books to be sent to J.D. Pyatt would be filled today (Pyatt Jan 2 encl) [MTP]. Note: See Jan. 2.

July – Edward McGlynn, Roman Catholic clergyman and social reformer was ex-communicated for his support of Henry George for Mayor of New York. Webster & Co. Had planned to publish a book by McGlynn but the action by the church killed the market for the book. Such losses led Sam to list McGlynn, Beecher, the Hawaiian King, and Stanley in his notebook, together with, “Let’s insure Lt. Gen.

July 1–18 Sunday – Sam wrote sometime between these dates from Elmira to Charles Eliot Norton (1827–1908). Norton was an American educator, writer, and editor who founded the Nation (1865). Sam declined an invitation to some event for the arts and sciences. He wrote,

July 1 Sunday – Dr. Titus Munson Coan (1836-1921) of The Bureau of Revision, wrote that he’d sent “the circulars as you kindly request” [MTP].

July 1 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, wanting to know how much was paid for the elder Mr.

July 1 Wednesday – At Mt. McGregor, New York, Sam telegraphed and then wrote Livy that he would leave for Hartford at noon the next day. He added that Gerhardt took a good photograph taken of Grant and that the bust done of Jesse Grant’s child was:

July 1 Thursday – William J. Hamersley wrote to Sam from Hartford about the London exhibition of typesetters at the American Exhibition, costs for space, etc. The event would open May 2, 1887 and continue for six months. Patents needed, foreign and domestic, would need to be secured beforehand.

July 1 Friday – Charles J. Langdon wrote enclosing $200 from the Beech Creek RR bonds [MTP].

Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

3733  F.G. Whitmore  125.00  Finances

3734  Patrick McAleer  50.00  Coachman

3735  John O’Neil  60.00  Gardener

July 1 Sunday – James L. Cowles for the Reform Club (New Haven) wrote to Sam, inviting him to join the newly formed tariff club. Sam, as one of…

…the mugwumps of 1884 [should join in support of Cleveland’s tariff policies]. We shall need a great deal of money and shall be compelled to perform an immense amount of labor to insure success but we shall succeed [MTNJ 3: 392n318]. Note: See July 9 entry for check Sam sent in support.

July 1 Monday – In Elmira Sam wrote to his brother Orion Clemens and sent him complaints about Charles Webster, whom he had no more use for:

Read it & forward to Pamela. If she answers, I would rather she should do it under cover to you. I have never hated any creature with a hundred thousandth fraction of the hatred which I bear that human louse, Webster.