Home at Hartford: Day By Day

July 24 Saturday – Sophie Degen billed Sam $36.00 for June and July daily milk? Deliveries. Bill marked paid [MTP].

July 24 Sunday – Sam wrote from Branford, Conn. to the Australian public, a letter which was printed in the Adelaide Observer on Oct. 15. After discussing that someone had been “scattered all over Australia pretending to be him,” Sam informed Australians that he’d never been in any part of the country and that he suspected the man to be “a pretty shabby sort of rascal.” He closed with:

July 24 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster.

   Yes, I received & banked both of those checks—and then forgot it.

   Damn that Bliss statement. I forgot to return it to you—I wish you had sent me only a copy. I have left the blamed thing in my portfolio of business letters under the table in the billiard room at home. If you shall find that you need it, write George Griffin, “(with S.L. Clemens”) & he will find it in the pocket marked “K.”

July 24 Tuesday – The Hartford Courant ran an account of Sam’s history-memory game from information supplied by Twichell, much to Sam’s consternation. Howells noted the article in his letter of Aug. 12 [MTHL 1: 437 & n2].

July 24 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, asking if a small change in the title page to Huck Finn might still be possible. Sam wanted it to say “Time, forty to fifty years ago,” rather than simply “Time, forty years ago.” If printing had started, “let it go” [MTP]. Note: Sam’s change appears on the facsimile Oxford copy.

July 24 Friday – Sam wrote from New York City to Livy:

Livy darling, I reached here so drowsy & dull with railroading that I forgot to telegraph you till 9 o’clock; so I was probably too late with it, considering the slowness of the Western Union service.

      I woke refreshed about half past eight; & now am through with today’s business & ready to take the 4.30 train for Hartford.

July 24 Sunday – In Elmira Sam wrote his mother, Jane Clemens about being away for daughter Jean’s seventh birthday in two days; teaching a new dog to “let the cats alone” and how they’d love to visit but “it’s a long way, & even the dead can’t travel in such weather, without spoiling.” His paragraph about Jean is revealing:

July 24 Tuesday – K.A. Jones wrote from Halifax, Nova Scotia asking Sam to “honor…with a contribution from your pen” a piece for the School of Art & Design’s “World fair.” Sam wrote on the envelope, “No, I won’t” [MTP].

R.B. Westbrook wrote from Pascoag, R.I. to Sam, having rec’d his letter addressed to him at Phila. “I have just written the G.B Lippincotte Company of Philadelphia to send you by mail on my account, one copy of Girard’s Will and Girard College Theology [MTP].

July 24 Wednesday – Back in Elmira Sam wrote to William Dean Howells, sorry they hadn’t been able to meet while he was in Hartford. Sam suggested a surreptitious meeting:

July 24 Thursday – Back in New York City Sam sent a telegram to Franklin G. Whitmore, about moving the Paige typesetter. Now that the machine was “finished,” they were required to move it from Pratt & Whitney’s workshop (see July 29 to Goodman).

Have it moved to union place at once I shall be up in a day or two [MTP]. Note: The move was to 42 Union Place, Hartford, Paige’s workshop [MTNJ 3: 566n263].

July 25 Monday – Hubbard & Farmer, bankers & brokers, telegraphed Sam that they’d purchased 100 shares of Omaha Pfd. And 100 of Denver & Rio Grande for a total of $20,200 [MTP]

July 25 Tuesday ca. – Shortly after his letter of July 24 to Howells, Sam followed up with a P.S.

“O, I forgot to say, that I forwarded the biography, & that it reached the Century all right. Jean’s well at last!” [MTP].

July 25 Friday – James B. Pond issued a circular announcing the joint appearance of Mr. Sam’l L. Clemens and George W. Cable “in a unique series of literary Entertainments” [MTNJ 3: 60n143]. See Lorch, p 166-7 for the entire text.

July 25 Saturday – From Sam’s notebook:

Home (Hartfd) July 25/85 (Saturday) noon. James W. Paige has just told me that I can dispose of his telegraphing machine & have half of the proceeds for my trouble. Each of us is to give a certain share of said result to Hammersley [MTNJ 3: 170].

July 25 Sunday – Charles Dudley Warner wrote that Sam’s note, “made me blush with pleasure, which is saying a great deal for such an old stoger. Nothing that has happened in connection with the serial has been so welcome to me as your opinion.” Sam wrote on the envelope, “A value letter from Chas Dudley Warner” [MTP]. The serial may have been Warner’s novel, Their Pilgrimage (1886).

July 25 Monday – In Elmira Sam wrote to his brother-in-law Charles Langdon for Livy, requesting $1,500 be remitted to Bissell & Co., Hartford bankers, with the check mailed to Franklin G. Whitmore. In the afternoon, Sam left for N.Y.C., and read the fourth volume of Metternich’s memoirs on the train in the evening (a ten-hour trip). He stayed at the St.

July 25 Wednesday – In Elmira Sam wrote a one-liner to Franklin G. Whitmore he wished copied and sent to William J. Bok, 23 Park Row, New York.

No — no, I would not consent to that [MTP].

July 25 Thursday – William Lindon wrote and sent a manuscript for Sam’s comment. Whitmore responded that Sam had no time to read the MS [MTP].

July 25 Friday – Franklin G. Whitmore wrote Sam that he was forwarding 50 blank royalties as requested. Royalties were payments to be made upon each machine’s sale, and therefore were in a superior position to stock. These were a form of investment in the Paige typesetter [MTNJ 3: 565n260].

July 26 Monday – Livy gave birth to a seven pound baby girl. They named her Jane Lampton Clemens, after Sam’s mother, but from the first she was called Jean. She was the last child Sam and Livy would have. The delivery was without complications; Livy began to recover in a few days [Powers, MT A Life 444]. Sam wrote to Howells about the new baby:

July 26 Tuesday – Jean Clemens’ first birthday.

Hubbard & Farmer brokers wrote they’d purchased 100 shares of Omaha at 39 & 1/4 [MTP].

Charles Webster wrote he could not come up this week. “Would next Monday do?” [MTP]

July 26 Wednesday – Jean Clemens’ second birthday.

Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, about a variety of business matters—Sam had received the “expert’s report” [auditor] of American Publishing’s books, but Sam still didn’t know “whether 50,000 ‘Sketches’ have been sold or not?”—as the man did not specifically mention that book [MTBus 192].

July 26 Thursday – Jean Clemens’ third birthday.

Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster in New York City. Sam asked him to run up to Elmira “about Monday or Monday night” and lend him his head “for a couple of hours” [MTBus 218]. It was only a ten-hour trip, after all. Sam wanted to discuss the new memory game as a commercial product, and get Webster to begin the marketing.

July 26 Saturday – Jean Clemens’ fourth birthday.

Charles Webster wrote to Clemens: statuette safe at his office; conferred with Pond who didn’t think a treasurer was needed, but an advance agent was; he referred Pond to Sam on the question; would alter the title page as Sam requested; he hadn’t forgotten the furnace or the game; please return proofs [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “return the pages”

July 26 Sunday – Jean Clemens’ fifth birthday.

Sam returned to New York City, from whence he traveled back to Elmira, since he wrote from there on July 27.

From Susy’s unfinished biography of her papa:

It is Jean’s birthday to day. She is 5 yrs. old. Papa is away today and he telegraphed Jean that he wished her 65 happy returns.