May 4 Tuesday
William Dean Howells would be much affected by the Haymarket riot (there was actually no riot), which Goodman and Dawson in their biography of Howells write, “marked the culmination of two decades of social conflict and resulted in a trial that gripped the entire country” [276].
May 5 Wednesday – Answering a promise to return in May, Sam and Twichell once again went to West Point Military Academy by way of New York City, where Sam ate a “corn-beef-&-cabbage dinner” at the Murray Hill Hotel.
…it gave me an indigestion & is trying to lodge a cold with me. Joe lost his overcoat in New York…[MTP: May 6 to Livy].
May 6 Thursday – Sam was at West Point, New York. Fatout shows him giving readings without specifying particulars [MT Speaking 657]. The pair rose at 6:30 AM and watched the guard-mount, then had breakfast. Afterward they toured some of the sections of the Academy. Sam wrote to Livy:
This morning the cadets all know us, so we are quite at home. I love you my darling. I must start along. [MTP].
From Susy Clemens’ diary:
May 7 Friday – Before leaving West Point, Sam telegrammed Howells, asking him to answer at Hartford whether he should arrive in Boston the next day or on Sunday, May 9 [MTHL 2:557]. Twichell’s journal fixes their visit as May 5-7.
May 8 Saturday – Sam’s notebook lists an address for Edward “Ned” House in New York City, and a date of “May 8 or 10.” House could no longer walk. Whitelaw Reid described him as “the nearest to a living death of any case I have ever seen, and is most pitiful” [MTNJ 3: 234n26]. The source claims Sam visited House several times when in New York during the spring. In a Feb.
May 9 Sunday – In Boston, Howells wrote to Sam, confused by the delay in telegraphs. Which day was Sam coming? He related the telegrams from West Point, his reply to Hartford, etc. At this point Howells wasn’t sure when Sam would arrive. Sam wouldn’t have seen this letter until he returned home. On the play, Howells was still pessimistic:
May 10 Monday – In Boston Sam went to the Howells’ residence, and after an hour talk with him, they came up with a plan for improving the Sellers as Scientist play and worked on it. He wrote Livy:
May 11 Tuesday – Sam went to New York with the modified Sellers as Scientist manuscript. Sam telegraphed Howells, probably to inform him of the meeting the next day with Burbank and Sam’s attorneys to finalize the agreement for the play (telegram not extant).
May 12 Wednesday – In New York at the offices of Webster & Co. A meeting was held reaching an agreement with Alfred P. Burbank. In attendance was a representative from Alexander & Green, attorneys; and Charles Webster, Frederick J. Hall (now a member of the firm), and Frank M.
May 13 Thursday – Back in Hartford in a rare show of ill-will to Howells, Sam vented, beginning a letter which he added to on May 15 and 17:
No, no, sir — I’m not going to let you shoulder a solitary ounce of the “folly” onto me! Observe:
L.. It was I who had written Webster that no terms in the world would induce me, etc., etc; it was you who said “Why not let Burbank have it?”
May 14 Friday – Alfred P. Burbank wrote to Sam on Lotos Club stationery advising that Frank Mayo “comes into the Lyceum May 24th on ½ gross receipts.” He thought they might “recoup” some of their expenses on the aborted Sellers play [MTP].
Karl Gerhardt wrote that the Beecher bust was “receiving its just deserts [sic] in way of flattering criticism from the New York papers” [MTP].
May 15 Saturday – Sam added to his May 13 scorcher to Howells:
Been interrupted for a day or two. [Probably by Pamela’s visit]
May 16 Sunday – In Boston, Howells had expected more details on the compromise. He’d not yet received the scorcher letter from Sam, heaping all the blame on him.
I suppose you got my note of Wednesday [May 12] acknowledging your dispatch. I’ve been expecting a letter giving some details of the way you found out of our hobble. I don’t feel content to let you bear the brunt of the whole thing. Do write [MTHL 2: 563] Note: Sam did write!
May 17 Monday – In Hartford Sam finished and mailed his scorcher to Howells, begun on May 13 and added to on May 15.
We are the lessees of the theatre for a week, beginning May 24, for that $1000; Frank Mayo has taken it, at half gross receipts. That may reduce the $1000 a trifle, but I don’t expect it [MTHL 2: 562].
May 18 Tuesday – Having received Sam’s angry letter, Howells responded:
Your indictment is perfect, but the trodden work remembers details that escape the recollection of the boot-heel.
Howells related how he’d advised Sam to give up on the play on May 2, after Burbank had left the Clemens house unenthusiastic. And he quoted Sam’s words back to him that “there were 9 chances out of ten that it would fail.”
May 19 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam responded to William Dean Howells’ of May 18. Sam’s tone was much more conciliatory and resigned.
May 20 Thursday – Pamela Moffett ended her visit at the Clemenses, and returned to New York where she again stayed with her daughter Annie Webster and her son-in-law, Charles Webster until mid-June [MTNJ 3:236n33].
May 21 Friday – Charles J. Langdon wrote his sister Livy, mostly about business matters and the “encouraging outlook” financially [MTP].
May 22 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to L.W. Bartlett for Putnam Phalanx, a Hartford military organization that had conferred a life honorary membership upon him. The Hartford Courant ran the full text of the letter on June 3, p.3 under “The Putnam Phalanx” article.
Hartford, May 22, 1886
Mr. L.W. Bartlett, Secretary.
May 23 Sunday – In Boston, Howells responded to Sam’s May 19 letter:
I never read a more pathetic story than that you tell me of your mother. After all how poor and hackneyed all the inventions are, compared with the simple and stately facts! Who could have imagined such a heartbreak as that? Yet it went along with the fulfillment of duty, and made no more noise than a grave underfoot. I doubt if fiction will ever get the knack of such things. How could it represent them? [MTHL 2: 569].
May 24 Monday – Richard W. Gilder for Century Magazine wrote to Sam as “editor of the Century magazine” about “Lehman’s paper” having “strict attention in this office” though he didn’t know if it could be “made to suit all the editors of ‘The Century’,” naming Howells, Stedman, Roswell Smith, Johnson, Buel, etc. — in other words past contributors. It seems a light-hearted spoof of a letter [MTP].
May 25 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam telegrammed Charles Webster, asking for a discount on “that sixty-dollar book that Orion wants,” and directing it be shipped without deducting his monthly stipend [MTP]. On the reverse of the telegraph form: “Check as usual. 155 — / P.H. Ghendun — 10000” which suggests the book was a bit more expensive than thought. The normal check at this time was $155 — $5 for Puss Quarles, $50 for Ma, and $100 for Orion and Mollie.
May 26 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote a longish letter to Edward H. House, relating a supposed conversation with Livy about Koto being unable to visit, and Livy’s supposed anger over a future visit Koto promised to the Goldthwaiths. The conversation was full of swearing, but Sam added this disclaimer:
May 28 Friday – Orion Clemens wrote acknowledging a draft from Webster & Co. For $155 — $5 for “Puss” Quarles, $50 for Ma, and $100 for himself. “Ma is going 3 blocks to the opera-house to-night to a home-children’s performance. Prefers walking; saves hack-hire” [MTP].
Frederick J. Hall wrote thanking Sam for the advancement in position and salary [MTP].
May 30 Sunday — In Theatre Magazine on this date appeared the following: