Home at Hartford: Day By Day

June 19 Tuesday – Noah Brooks wrote that he’d been subpoenaed on behalf of the prosecution in Duncan’s suit, but that he knew nothing. “I wish you could get the case removed from Brooklyn. That is a bad place for you; Duncan will have things fixed to suit him” [MTP].

June 19 Friday – The Clemens family took a special car from New York to Elmira, a ten-hour trip. They stayed at Mrs. Langdon’s home (See June 14 to Gerhardt). Livy wrote in her diary, “On June 19th we arrived in Elmira, we went directly to Mothers spending a little more than a week with her” [MTP].

June 19 Saturday – John M. Hay wrote from Cleveland, Ohio to Sam: “I find your letter of the 13th on arriving at home from a visit to my mother in Illinois.” Hay hoped to see Sam on his “trip westward,” and promised to go see Edward H. House when next in N.Y. “I am grieved to hear he is in such ill care. He is one of the men still left in this sad dusty world worth talking with” [MTP]. Note: the letter was forwarded from Hartford to Keokuk.

June 19 Sunday – On or just after this date, In Hartford, Sam answered James W. See’s June 17 inquiry. There was no Western manufacturer and See should work with Slote & Co. On scrapbook matters, as Sam was bound by his contract [MTP].

June 19 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to O.E. Dunlap of Niagara Falls, N.Y., who evidently notified him of someone impersonating him on a lecture platform.

I always hear of these frauds a day or so too late.

Sam wanted to hear about someone impersonating him 24 hours ahead of time for a change [MTP]. Note: Dunlap was an editor who would assemble books on the history of Niagara Falls.

June 19 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook:

June 19, 1889 [gave] Susie L. Crane a paper agreeing (upon surrender of said paper) to deliver her paid-up stock representing a One Five Hundredth of the whole of the capital stock “of the company which is to be organized to manufacture, & sell or rent Paige Compositors under the (American) patents, so soon as such company shall be formed & begin the issue of stock [”].

After some remarks of F W [Whitmore], concluded to say nothing about his project & let it drop [3: 493].

June 19 Thursday – Robinson for Collier’s Once a Week (“Fiction Fact Sensation Wit Humor News”) wrote to Sam asking to reprint the “proposal” from GA [MTP].

June 2 Wednesday – Fred. Kingsley, Hartford dealer in “meat, poultry, game, fish & vegetables” billed a monthly statement for $62.56; paid June 4 [MTP].

June 2 Thursday – Charles Webster wrote to Sam, a summary of business activities: the Independent Watch Co. stock, Kaolatype, and the Scrap Book and how to recover what Slote had taken [MTP].

June 2 Friday – Charles Webster wrote to Sam about possible hires and the return of Clarence E. Buckland (1851-1905), whom he thought unsuitable, too slow, and an instigator among the men to organize [MTP].

June 2 Saturday – F.J. Permenter sent a printed poem, “Maud Muller’s Answer to Mr. Whittier The Poet” [MTP].

June 2 Monday – In Boston, Howells wrote to Sam about selling one of his plays to Richard A. Dana of the New York Sun. He also mentioned Edgar W. Howe’s novel, The Story of a Country Town, which he and Sam had praised. Howe was the editor of the Atchison Globe.

June 2 Tuesday – Orion Clemens wrote: thanks for the $150; his history game research; “Ma is well, and takes lots of exercise”; Mollie was not well [MTP].

Pitts H. Burt wrote from Pittsburg about pottery sent and the thanks of the pottery crew [MTP].

Karl Gerhardt sent a telegram from Mt Vernon, NY: “Eve’s Lullaby has been awarded a diploma of honor by the Jury of fine arts at the New Orleans Exposition ward just received” [MTP].

June 2 Wednesday – In Hartford the Putnam Phalanx met and elected new members. Sam had previously been voted an Honorary Life Member along with Henry C. Robinson, Gen. Joseph R. Hawley, and 26 others. The Hartford Courant ran “The Putnam Phalanx” p.3, June 3 listing the “Active Committee” and the honoraries. Sam’s letter of May 22 was read aloud. He may have been in attendance.

June 2 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote a one-liner to Orion on a pre-printed correspondence card which carried the message “Mr. Clemens (Mark Twain) is away for several months, but will answer when he returns.” Sam wrote that he’d told Webster to send Orion the cyclopedia and also wrote him to do so. Evidently, Orion had not received the book, probably necessary for his research into English Kings [MTP].

June 2 Saturday – Sam’s notebook entry lists check # 4145 for $6 to the Norwood House, a New York apartment built in 1847.

Mary Fairchild (age 23) daughter of General Lucius Fairchild wrote to Sam enclosing a program, and a clipping about the production of his play Die Meisterschaft by the German Conversation Club of Madison, Wisc.

June 2 Monday – Magdalene LeViseur wrote a short note from Posen (a province of Prussia at this time, now part of Poland) to ask Sam permission to translate and publish TA. Chatto & Windus’ address written in pencil at the top, appears to be SLC’s hand [MTP].

J.F. Morton in Boston, sent a long printed poem, “Quisque Histrioniam Exercet” to Sam [MTP].

June 2 Tuesday – The N.Y. World May 31, 1891 interview, “Mark Twain on Humor,” was reprinted in the semi-weekly edition, page six.

Open Court Magazine sent Sam several news clippings; no letter or explanation is in the file [MTP]. This was a Chicago weekly “devoted to the work of conciliating religion with science” [MTNJ 3: 635n224].

June 20 Sunday – Sylvester Baxter’s profile article of Sam Clemens ran on p. 10 of the Boston Herald. The piece only mentioned Charles Dudley Warner in passing, and focused on Sam’s writing habits, his home surroundings and biography, with a few comments on his main works [MTHL 2: 314n1].

June 20 Monday – Sam wrote from Branford, Conn. to Charles Webster about the Kaolatype stock. There was evidently still hope the process would prove productive and profitable:

“The day that Kaolatype arrives at a point where it pays its own expenses, you are to have $900 of its stock. Meantime, I wish to give you $100 of its stock, now, anyhow, & make you Vice President & Treasurer—also Manager” [MTBus 160].

June 20 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles W. Fairchild, Howells’ friend and neighbor in Belmont and brother of Lucius Fairchild. Charles had invited Sam to a farewell dinner for James R. Osgood, who was leaving for Europe. Sam decided not to go because the banquet was the same day the family had planned to remove to Elmira. The illnesses in the family no doubt also played a part in his declining the invitation.

June 20 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster about Duncan’s threatened lawsuit:

June 20 Saturday – Waldstein Optician of New York, billed Livy $2.50 for “altering gold E.G.” [MTP].

June 20 Sunday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore about three boxes of cigars, 150 total, which would be sufficient for the family’s five-day stay in Keokuk [MTP, from Anderson Auction Co. Mar.3, 1924 item 97]. Note: With Webster sailing to Europe, Sam relied on Whitmore for such details.

June 20 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to the Tri-State Old Settlers Association, declining an invitation to attend some function.

Dear Sir: — Frankness, candor, truthfulness — these are native to my nature; and so I will not conceal from you the fact that if there is one thing which I am particularly and obstinately prejudiced against, it is travel [MTP].