June 30 Monday – Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall, responding to Edmund C. Stedman’s “piece of unmitigated impudence.”
The letter accounts for Arthur Stedman [son of Edmund, working at Webster & Co.]: idiotcy runs in the family.
It requires no notice of any kind. Treat it with contemptuous silence — that and all similar letters from that pair of quite too wonderful people [MTLTP 261].
June 4 Friday – Sam paid a $4.37 bill to Solomon & DeLeeuw, Hartford tobacco dealers for two dozen corn cob pipes and tobacco [MTP]. Was Sam really smoking this many corn cob pipes? They do burn out after a time; he may have been passing them to friends at such gatherings as his Friday Evening Club.
June 4 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion that “Everything is packed & the house is ready for the decorators.” They would leave in an hour for Branford, planning to stay through July, then to Elmira till mid-September. Sam used a West Point invitation envelope which had just arrived to send Orion a picture of baby Jean [MTP].
June 4 Sunday – Clarence E. Buckland wrote from Wash. DC to Sam, convinced that “my break with the Kaolatype Eng. Co. was the result of a conspiracy hatched in the fertile brain of Mr. F.C. Raubs.” He’d apologized to Webster for the way he left the firm and agreed upon a contract to work for $24 a month [MTP]. Note: Frank C. Raubs.
June 4 Monday – Upon his return from Canada, Sam saw Pedro Carolino’s book with his introduction and felt it would be a nice gesture to send it to Princess Louise. He also wrote from Hartford to Sir Francis De Winton in Ottawa:
June 4 Wednesday – Charles Webster wrote to Sam: Mr. Williams, Gen. Mgr of American News (book agent) wanted to see a HF dummy before committing to a number to sell [MTP].
June 4 Thursday – Sam, wrote from Hartford to Karl Gerhardt, advising him to tag along with Webster to see General Grant “two or three days in succession” and to observe him in various poses so as to work on a large statue to be presented to the City of New York. Sam hoped for orders of it from other cities.
June 4 Friday – In Hartford Sam responded to Howells’ letter of the previous day, agreeing to the suggestion about the check. As for the Sellers as Scientist play (which became The American Claimant in 1887), Sam wrote:
I am being persecuted by all the unknown comedians between hell & Halifax; they all want our piece. I hope you get your share of the applications.
June 4 Saturday – Robert Bush, in “Grace King and Mark Twain” [38], includes a segment from Grace Elizabeth King’s notebook with this date of her first impressions of Sam. This notebook entry date of June 4, however, conflicts with Bush’s conclusion that Sunday, June 5 was the date of their first meeting. Bush does not address this conflict, so we are left to choose.
June 4 Monday – Webster & Co. per Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam that business was “picking up,” though a good many books went out West, where net 60 days was the rule, i.e., cash flow problem [MTP].
June 4 Tuesday – In Hartford, Sam wrote John C. Kinney, editor of the Courant, declining an invitation as he was “already engaged for the Yale festivities at New Haven for that afternoon & evening” [MTP]. Note: the Yale event was an annual alumni banquet Sam would speak at on June 26, 1889.
June 4 Wednesday – Howard P. Taylor wrote to Sam that he’d seen A.P. Burbank this day “and he informed me you were to leave for Europe shortly.” How could he submit terms to Sam that he might make for the production of CY? [MTP].
June 4 Thursday – Two of the Clemens girls, probably Susy and Clara, went to New York in advance of the family. They likely were accompanied by Katy Leary. Sue Crane would meet the family there as well [June 3 to Moffett].
Sam inscribed a copy of P&P to Anna Körner: To: Anna Körner / from / The Author / Hartford, June 4, 1891 [MTP].
Check # Payee Amount [Notes]
June 5 Saturday – Sam acted as auctioneer for the Grand Bazar for Union for Home Work, Hartford. The Hartford Daily Courant of June 7, 1880, p2, in a story titled “The Bazar,” reported:
June 5 Sunday – Sam wrote from Branford, Conn. to Webster, confirming his legal actions taken (“…you did right to sue the quack”). Sam concluded that Slote had paid him only about a third ($1,800 or $2,000 per year) of what he should have received on the scrapbook invention [MTBus 160].
June 5 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Webster about the Bierstadt Artotype business. He wanted Charles to look into it and see if it was worth investment [MTBus 186].
Sam also wrote to William M. Laffan, letter not extant but referred to in Laffan’s June 7 reply.
June 5 Friday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to Howells. He had read the June installment of The Rise of Silas Lapham in the Century, and “found it as great & fine & strong & beautiful as Mrs.
June 5 Saturday – Alfred P. Burbank and wife arrived at the Clemens home for what was probably an overnight visit [June 3 from Burbank].
At 5 p.m., Sam wrote to Edward H. House after Koto House had returned to New York.
June 5 Sunday – Based on her letter to her sister, this is the day Grace Elizabeth King (1852-1932) met Sam Clemens. King was a budding short story writer from New Orleans, whose aristocratic family had been impoverished by the war. She was visiting the Charles Dudley Warners.
Robert Bush writes of King at this time:
June 5 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to President Cleveland’s wife, Frances F. Cleveland. An excerpt of Sam’s letter relating to Cleveland’s birthday, Mar. 18, when Sam was in Washington, may be seen in that entry [MTP].
Sam also wrote a short note to General Lucius Fairchild:
June 5 Wednesday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam, advising they’d sent the “Cook Book as ordered to Mrs. Moffatt” and laying the matter of a book by Matthew Brady to him for consideration. The book would be “a National Portrait Gallery embracing the Presidents, Judges of the Supreme Court, Cabinet Officers and principal members of the different Senates and Congress, from George Washington down,” and would sell from $15 to $20, bound in morocco [MTP].
June 5 Friday – Sam, Livy, and Jean left Hartford for New York, where they met their other daughters and Sue Crane. The party stayed at the Murray Hill Hotel [June 3 to Moffett; MTNJ 3: 634n222].
June 6 Tuesday – S.J. Ahern, ed. wrote a postcard from St. Paul, Minn. to Sam: “Come back. The circus is in town…” [MTP].
June 6 Wednesday – John Bellows wrote from Gloucester, England, thanking for LM and TA, and offering his opinions about British history [MTP].
June 6 Friday – In the afternoon, Sam played billiards with Sam Dunham, Franklin Whitmore, Henry Robinson, Charles Perkins, and Edward Bunce, while George Griffin, the butler, received telephone updates and announced ballots from the Chicago Republican convention. In mid-afternoon, James G. Blaine won the nomination on the fourth ballot. Connecticut’s twelve delegates cast their votes for favorite son, Joseph R.