Home at Hartford: Day By Day

March 10 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to George W. Cable, making a formal announcement from a list of leading Hartford citizens, which included Sam and Charles Dudley Warner, Joseph R. Hawley, J. Hammond Trumbull, Richard D. Hubbard (1818-1884), Austin C. Dunham, Edwin Pond Parker, James B. Patterson, William B. Franklin, Joseph H. Twichell, Henry C. Robinson, William Hamersley, A.E. Burt, Edwin E. Johnson, N. Shipman [MTP].

March 10 Tuesday – The Hartford Daily Courant, page one, printed “Grant’s War Reminiscences,” which included Sam’s comments on how he acquired the contract to publish the Memoirs.

Richard Watson Gilder for Century Magazine wrote urging Sam to come and consult with them about the Grant matter. Gilder was reacting to announcements made about Grant’s Memoirs by the Webster Co. [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Had a talk about it”

March 10 Wednesday –Mary Mason Fairbanks wrote to Sam of “financial disaster,” of being forced to lose their Cleveland home, of her son leaving for New York and of her “almost” losing heart sometimes. Her letter discloses a recent visit to the Clemens’ home, dates not specified [MTP].

March 10 Thursday – The New York Tribune editorial of this date, “How Juries are Obtained in This Town,” evoked a spot in Sam’s notebook:

March 10 Saturday – Sam left Hartford for New York City [MTNJ 3: 379].

March 10 Sunday – This was the day of deadlines — first for Abby Sage Richardson to come up with written proof she had procured Elsie Leslie for her P&P dramatization; second for Charley Langdon, his wife and his mother to agree to invest in the Paige typesetter. No one made this deadline.

March 10 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto:

Mr. Ramasso has made translations of some of my sketches, & wishes to publish them in Italy, but I necessarily refer him to you, because the authority to grant or withhold permission rests solely with you.

Sam asked Chatto to send Adolfo Ramasso his books, but nothing earlier than GA [MTP].

Livy wrote her mother, Olivia Lewis Langdon:

March 10 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote a short letter to the Chattanooga Republican, which ran in the Mar. 15 edition of that paper:

My Dear Sir — The original of Col. Mulberry Sellers was never in Tennessee. He was a man whom I knew familiarly during several years in Missouri, and some of the most extravagant performances attributed to him in the book were not inventions but facts of his life — the stove with a candle in it, the raw turnip dinner, etc. I did not burlesque him — he shouldn’t have done it himself.

March 11 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, sharing the plot of Prince and the Pauper, and noting:

March 11 Friday – Frank M. Wilson & Co. “Tailors and Gent’s Furnishers,” Bridgeport, Conn. billed Sam $96.00 for “2 Eng silk lined Sack suits” [MTP].

March 11 Saturday – Arnold, Constable & Co., New York, billed Sam $19.78 for “blankets, gloves, lace, ruffling”; paid Mar. 16 [MTP].

James R. Osgood wrote (Edward B. Dickinson to Osgood Mar. 10 enclosed): “You see by the enclosed that Dickinson cannot go. I have written asking him if he can recommend any one” [MTP]. Note: Sam was looking for a stenographer to go on the Miss. River trip.

March 11 Sunday – An article ran in the New York Times p.4 about Sam’s father.

JUDGE CLEMENS.

HOW MARK TWAIN’S FATHER COMMANDED SILENCE IN THE COURT-ROOM.

Communication to the St. Louis Republican.

March 11 Wednesday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to Charles Casey. He addressed Casey as “Ex-President.” This is probably the Charles Casey Sam wrote to on May 15, 1876, president of a “Mark Twain Fan Club” in Ireland.

March 11 Thursday –Laurence Hutton wrote from N.Y. to Sam of Anna Fitch’s play, thinking that “something might be made of it.” The Hutton’s had visited Hartford recently:

March 11 Friday – Frank M. Scott, cashier and bookkeeper for Webster & Co., was arrested for embezzling $20,000. He had been siphoning off funds each month since his hire in July 1885. From the N.Y. Times of Mar. 13, 1887, p.2 (See Mar. 18 entry for more details.)

A WEAKNESS FOR DISPLAY

FRANK SCOTT HAD IT AND IS NOW IN JAIL

March 11 Sunday – In New York Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder, again about the up-coming hearings and the trip to Washington.

I’m ashamed to have put you to all that trouble for nothing. As I was very anxious to get the best quarters I could for Mrs. Clemens, I set several schemes to work, & the result is, I have secured a first rate parlor bedroom & bath room (connecting,) at the Arlington.

March 11 Monday – Sam’s notebook discloses a new offer made to Abby Sage Richardson, one she did not accept, but one which was similar to that made with Gilbert B. Densmore for stage rights to GA.

March 11 Tuesday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam analyzing the “statements rendered by the experts” and was surprised to note extraordinary outlays that would not occur again, presaging a good outlook for the coming year [MTP].

Daniel Whitford sent Sam a copy of Judge Joseph Daly’s opinion in the House case. “You will see that the decision rests entirely upon the two letters of December 1886 which he construes to be a valid contract” [MTP].

March 11 Wednesday – William Dean Howells and wife Elinor were visiting the Clemenses when T.H. Macdonald arrived from the New England Phonograph Co. with the phonograph Sam had ordered. Macdonald set it up for him [MTNJ 3: 607&n118]. Note: The exact length of their stay is not clear, but in his Mar. 15 Howells wrote it was “too short for the things I wanted to say,” suggesting it was probably not longer than one night.

March 12 Saturday – R.P. Kenyon & Co., New York, billed $4 to Sam for “1 silk hat for coachman del to McLear” (Patrick McAleer); paid Mar. 18 [MTP].

March 12 Monday – “Mark Twain” by H.R. Haweis, in the Elzevir Library, was a biography and criticism which argued though Sam built a reputation as a humorist, he should be taken seriously; emphasized his travel writings [Tenney, Supplement American Literary Realism, Autumn 1980 p170]. See also Feb. 12.

March 12 Wednesday – Frank H. Fenno wrote from Altay, NY to ask Clemens for a piece for “Fenno’s Favorites” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Fenno’s book”

March 12 Thursday – Reginald Cholmondeley wrote having read he was “about to visit England” and asked for him to send his address. He added, “I have been reading Huckleberry Finn with delight. You appear to be inexhaustible & evergreen but is it possible that blood-feuds really existed in Arkansas within 50 years? I want to present you to the original Bilgewater” [MTP].

D.W. Howland wrote. See Mar. 13 to Howells [MTP].

March 12 Friday – This from the New York Times p.3:

THE POPE’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY

MEMOIRS OF LEO XIII TO BE ISSUED

SOME TIME IN 1887

March 12 Saturday – Henry Ward Beecher was laid to rest at the Greenwood Cemetery after a simple funeral, as per his wishes [Brooklyn Eagle, p.6 “Ashes to Ashes”]. Sam did not attend.

Sarah Orne Jewett for Longfellow Memorial Committee wrote from Boston inviting him to read at the Mar. 31 Authors’ Reading in the afternoon [MTP].