Home at Hartford: Day By Day

April 28 Saturday – James R. Osgood wrote (envelope only survives) [MTP].

April 28 Monday – Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to Charles Webster, directing him to call at Laurence Hutton’s “Wednesday morning, & walk up to the station with me….Remind me to give you all of Huck Finn that Howells has revised for the artist & printer” [MTBus 251].

April 28 Tuesday – Sam, Livy, and thirteen-year-old Susy Clemens went to New York for a four-day outing, which included a reading up at Vassar in Poughkeepsie on May 1. Sam conferred with Webster and General Grant and gave a reading on Apr. 29 [MTNJ 3: 140n48].

April 28 Wednesday – Sam signed another “Articles of Copartnership,” (“No. 4”) making Frederick J. Hall a co-partner (junior partner) in Webster & Co. [MTLTP 171; MTNJ 3: 224].

April 28 Thursday – Sam and Livy went to New York, where they checked into the Murray Hill Hotel. In the evening they used the tickets sent there by Augustin Daly, to attend a theater performance. It was farewell week for Taming of the Shrew at Daly’s Theater. Either Daly obtained tickets to another show or Livy and Sam wished to see Shrew again (they’d attended on Apr. 13).

April 28 Saturday – Likely Sam made a trip to Hartford to check on Livy, then returned to New York (since he wrote to Susan L. Crane from Hartford on this day and spoke at the Edwin Booth breakfast on Apr. 29). To Susan:

Dear Aunt Sue, the trout arrived in perfect condition. They furnished Livy 3 unsurpassable meals, & the rest of the family shoved in & took a chance too….

April 28 Sunday – In Hartford, Sam sent regrets to Clarence W. Bowen, advising that “At the last moment I find myself obliged to remain at home,” and gave up his seat at the banquet for the Centennial Celebration in New York of Washington’s taking the oath of office [MTP]. See Apr. 8.

April 28 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Annie E. Trumbull agreeing to a visit for May 10, probably a young ladies’ Saturday Morning Club appearance [MTP].

Orion Clemens wrote to Sam having received the monthly $200 check.

I hope you are not offended by my suggestion to compromise with House which I made before the case came to trial. I find no fault with you, as you have never studied law. I blame your attorneys for encouraging you to defend a suit that they foreknew you would lose. I claim no transcendent legal knowledge [MTP].

April 28 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to William Smith to “annul all our guest-engagements,” due to sickness in the family, “one member…in the doctor’s hands & no better” [MTP].

April 29 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells about sending a copy of the proposed Atlantic piece “A Telephonic Conversation” to an English magazine. Sam enclosed a copy “enveloped & stamped for transmission at the proper time”. Publication of an article first in America and soon after in England would cover copyright considerations.

April 29 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster.

April 29 Saturday –Sam’s notebook records a mule race staged to benefit the Southern Art Union, a group promoting New Orleans artists:

Mule race with Burke & Houston. Later mentioned the Voudoo superstitions. Among old creoles if one meets a funeral he removes his hat & walks back with procession one block.

April 29 Sunday – Hattie J. Gerhardt wrote a short note to Sam & Livy, concerned about Livy’s illness. She added, “…one thing I know will make you happy—every one says Karl has made a decided jump in his art & he is received in the salon & I am happy” [MTP].

April 29 Tuesday – Sam gave a speech at a breakfast for Edwin Booth in New York City [Fatout, MT Speaking 656]. He likely spent the night at Laurence Hutton’s house, for he’d directed Webster to meet him there at 9 AM the next morning [MTBus 251].

April 29 Wednesday – Sam gave a reading on this second day at Madison Square Theater, Author’s Reading given for the Longfellow Memorial, an entertainment managed by George Parsons Lathrop (1851-1898). Charles Eliot Norton introduced the readers [MTB 817]. Note: Paine mistakenly identifies this event as “early May.”

April 29 Thursday – Henrietta C. Cosgrove (Mrs. Aruna Phelps Cosgrove), Joplin, Mo. writer, philanthropist, political worker (1849 – ) responded to Sam’s letter about her interview with his mother.

April 29 Friday – The New York Times reported on p.4, under “Personal Intelligence” that Samuel L. Clemens was at the Murray Hill Hotel.

April 29 Sunday – In New York, Sam spoke at a breakfast for Edwin Booth. Henry Irving was host at this gathering of Kinsmen Club. Charles Dudley Warner, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Whitelaw Reid, Lester Wallack, and William Winter attended [Fatout, MT Speaking 658].

April 29 Monday – C.B. Baker wrote from Oakland, Nebr. to Sam:

Oh Mark! What an old selfish fraud you are! That “World” article was inspired by a provoked public. How you led [illegible word] that poor actor write his own play! Col. Sellers. John Raymond was one of a thousand victims. I am another. I took four of your books to a 2d hand book store yesterday. I see the people at last are “going for you” [MTP]. Note: obviously either a put-on or not a fan

April 29 Tuesday – The Hartford Courant, p.2, “Open Hearth Concert Tonight,” announced the Open Hearth Benefit at the Foot Guard Hall in Hartford. Sam read from CY.

April 29 Wednesday – Henry Alden for Harper & Brothers wrote to Sam that he had not fixed a price on his MS “Mental Telegraphy” — how much compensation did Sam expect? Alden liked it, “of course” but didn’t feel it had the value that a humorous story from Mark Twain would have [MTP].

April 3 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Melville E. Stone (1848-1929), founder of the first penny newspaper in Chicago, the Chicago Daily News. Evidently Stone inquired about a controversy between a “Mr. Wakeman” and “the Club”—(probably the Press Club of Chicago). Sam offered five corrections to an article, which ran about the Army Reunion [MTLE 5: 63].

April 3 Monday – Sam typed a note from Hartford to Charles Wood, at West Point. He enclosed “the original of” the 1601 manuscript as Wood had suggested, and explained there were a few archaic spellings that Wood should feel free to fix. According to Leon, Wood agreed to use West Point’s printing press to run off about 60 copies [228].

April 3 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote an aphorism to John Bellows in Gloucester, England: “I would rather tell seven lies than make one explanation” [Sotheby’s catalog at MTP].

From George W. Cable’s letter to his wife:

Dear old Mark Twain sends kindest word to all of you, beginning, of course, with Nellie.

April 3 Thursday – Charles Webster wrote to Clemens: enclosed Am. Exchange stock; Hooper, artist for Life and the Graphic, “a very cheap man” so he gave him 2 chapters on trial to illustrate; Edward W. Kemble quoted $1200; offered to bring drawings up Mon or Tues to see who they would hire [MTP].