August 22 Sunday – The Boston Daily Globe ran “Mark Twain As A Wheelman,” p.8, Aug. 23, 1886 about his struggles on the bicycle.
HARTFORD, August 22. — Samuel L. Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, undertook to ride a bicycle at about the same time that his pastor began, and his not happy in the sport. The teacher of Mr. Clemens during the first weeks of his wheeling tells this story of him:
August 23 Monday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore, whose last letter to Sam was written Aug. 19. Sam enclosed a $10 check for , and also “the September checks” which probably were for bills, or for family, since Webster was not in the country. In order to secure the test he’d suggested for typesetting averages at the Hartford Courant, Sam suggested Whitmore confide in Mr. Stephen A.
August 24 Tuesday – Sam was elected “Corresponding Member for Life” of the Scottish Society of Literature and Art, and given a plaque bearing this date [Scott 132].
August 25 Wednesday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall. He didn’t care whether a Mr. Horace King was good or not — he gave Hall his power of attorney to unload all interests in Kaolatype to King [MTLTP 204-5]. Note: Sam’s losses from Kaolatype, an engraving process, amounted to $50,000 [A. Hoffman 302]. Horace King of Thompsonville, Conn. had applied to buy the rights for the process.
August 26 Thursday – Frederick J. Hall wrote Sam about the job of gathering statistics from newspapers:
I have visited nearly all the large Agencies, but they will not undertake the job; however, I think I have some one now who will put it through successfully. Will let you know positively in a few days. They all say it is a very difficult piece of work, and rather out of their line. Rowell refuses to undertake it at any price.
August 28 Saturday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall. Sam continued to work soliciting ems per hour information from newspapers, and directed Hall to make up a form to send to various papers. He suggested they obtain an advertising agency, which would allow the use of their name without them having to do the work. He was after country dailies now, not the big newspapers. He wanted to gauge the size of the entire market for his typesetting machine:
August 31 Tuesday – From Sam’s notebook, a startling plan. One wonders what reaction this idea brought.
September – Sam’s notebook mentions Calvin Ellis Stowe (1802-1886) and his 1867 work, Origin and History of the Books of the Bible, etc. Stowe claimed that no facsimile of the New Testament had ever been taken from the Vatican Bible; Sam thought it might be a “good thing if we could get a scrap for the Pope’s life” [Gribben 669].
September 1 Wednesday – In Elmira Sam wrote a five-page letter to Edward H. House:
Clara Spaulding is to be married tomorrow evening, and I have contributed, among our other bridal presents, a dollar’s worth of horse-car tickets and a poem.
The poem was, “S’KIK! G’lang” and also sent to Clara Spaulding on this day with a short letter:
September 2 Thursday – Clara Spaulding (“Aunt Clara”) wed John Barry Stanchfield (1855-1921) an attorney. They lived in New York City and Islip, Long Island. They would have two children, Alice Spaulding Stanchfield and John B. Stanchfield, Jr. [Salsbury 433]. The ceremony took place at the house of Harry C. Spaulding, Main Street, Elmira at 8:00 p.m., Thomas K.
September 3 Friday – In Elmira Sam wrote a short note to Frederick J. Hall about the report of compositors including all the daily newspapers [MTP].
Sam also wrote a short note to Charles Webster, writing at the top, “Give to Charley first thing when he comes.” Webster was on his way back to New York. This note said that Hall couldn’t tell the Kaolatype buyer (Horace King) how much territory was included [MTP].
September 4 Saturday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall about the George Washington Walling book (see Sept. 3 entry). Sam wanted Webster & Co. To publish the book and suggested a twenty-cents per volume sold royalty, rather than a lump-sum purchase.
September 6 Monday – Frederick J. Hall wrote, advising, “the gentlemen who were negotiating Superintendent Walling’s book have agreed to wait until Mr. Webster’s return.” There was no objection by the Grant’s to Webster & Co. Publishing Adam Badeau’s book on Grant, but put off a definite yes to Badeau till Webster’s return. Hall had offered $300 to Mr. P.B. Bromfield to survey newspapers and would raise it $25 should he balk [MTP].
September 7 Tuesday – In Elmira Sam wrote a short note to Franklin G. Whitmore in Hartford, sending funds he wished safe-deposited, with notes to Bissell & Co., his Hartford banker [MTP].
The Israel Putnam Monument Commission awarded the contract for an equestrian statue of the colonial soldier to Karl Gerhardt. This came after months of deliberation [MTNJ 3: 253n84].
September 8 Wednesday – In Elmira Sam wrote to J.M.G. Wood (on the letter addressed to Jack G. Wood, Aurite City, La. Sam’s letter is obviously a response to one received (not extant), an invitation to read:
I wish I could but I can’t. I never venture to read when I am writing anything, lest I get my attention diverted from my work, & have a long, hard pull of it getting back into the swing again.
September 9 Thursday – Life Magazine, which began as a humor periodical, ran a center spread cartoon captioned “Literature at Low Tide,” characterizing several American authors as carnival barkers. In the foreground, dispensing laughing gas through a hose, Mark Twain takes a coin from Buster Brown who takes in the gas.
September 10 Friday – In Elmira Sam wrote to J. Chester, and headed the letter “Private.” This is a response to Chester’s Sept. 8 letter for Lincoln University. Since 1882 he had contributed to the support of several Negro students at Lincoln. When a student, Willis, decided to stay on for graduate studies, Sam chose to cut his support.
September 11 Saturday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall, asking again when Webster would arrive back from his trip to Europe. Sam submitted a proposed reply to someone who had asked why Webster & Co. Needed data about compositor production.
September 13 Monday – Jane Clemens wrote a rambling two-page letter for Sam & Family about not knowing what to write, of wanting to leave Keokuk, of dead relatives and of her daughter “Mela” (Pamela) being there for a visit on her way to see her son Samuel. Jane signed the letter, “An Old Citizen” [MTP].
Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam of progress and several details at the Webster & Co.
September 14 Tuesday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto, who had sent a statement and notes for deposit, as well as a pamphlet of compositors’ prices. Sam noted that the English (as now) always seemed to make their own systems that don’t always translate across the Atlantic:
…I seem to discover a most curious thing: that over there you measure type by the 1000 ENS instead of ems, & have done so all this century. I can’t see how we came to change [MTP].
September 15 Wednesday – In Elmira Sam wrote a few lines to Bacheller & Co.
Wrote that I had a sermon. Would wait a month & if it then could still bear my own inspection, would forward it [MTP]. Note: this “sermon” was “Concerning a Reformed Pledge: A New-Year Sermon.”
Sam also wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore. Only the envelope survives [MTP].
September 16 Thursday – In Elmira at Quarry Farm, Sam wrote to an unidentified person.
There are some who do not lie; & they are proof that it is possible for one to get rid of the habit of talking in his sleep [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote a PS that he thought the remark was plain but that “three persons of average intelligence” couldn’t understand it even after explaining it.
Sam also wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore:
September 17 Friday, before – Sam wrote in his notebook plans for a one-day outing to Springlake Beach, New Jersey during the ten-day stop in New York after the family’s return from Keokuk [MTNJ 3: 256n94]. No evidence of the considered side-trip was found, though there certainly was time for such a side-trip and Frank M. Scott’s letter of Sept. 18 hints the trip may have been made Sept.
September 18 Saturday – Webster & Co., per Frank M. Scott wrote of Frederick J. Hall being “obliged to go West in regard to the account of R.T. Root, he owing us some $36,000.” Whitford felt Hall should go see Root. Scott wrote of trying to catch Sam at the Normandie Hotel, then the Gedney House and finally the Murray Hill, where Sam had just left for Hartford and home.
September 19 Sunday – The Chicago Tribune, p.12, ran an interview of Sam by Edwin J. Park, “A Day with Mark Twain / The Genial Humorist at His Summer Home.” Budd summarizes: “Many small details on Quarry Farm setting; SLC has done no writing there during past summer” [“Interviews” 5]. See this entire interview in Scharnhorst, p 91-4.) Note: This also ran in the Boston Daily Globe on Sept.