March 30 Monday – E. Clendemis wrote from Phila. to Sam praising P&P and asking him to write more like it. The letter is obviously from a child [MTP].
Mrs. E.A. Reeves wrote from Rochester, Penn. to Sam. The lady was chosen to present a sketch about Twain “to The Literary and Scientific Society of our city” and asked for “a few words in your own hand writing.” Sam wrote on the envelope, “Unanswered letters” [MTP].
March 31 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Moncure Conway about the mix-up and mess between Elisha Bliss and Andrew Chatto over engravings for TA. Sam asked Conway to intercede and clear things up [MTLE 5: 56].
Charles E. Chapin wrote a postcard to advise Sam of new rates for Hartford Ice Co. [MTP].
March 31 Thursday – In Hartford Sam, soured on the brass-engraving process, wrote two letters to Dan Slote:
March 31 Friday – Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers wrote two notes: sold stock and bought J. B. & Y Western @ 45 ½ [MTP].
March 31 Saturday – In Hartford, Sam typed a letter to Charles Webster, conveying Livy’s apologies for not saying a proper goodbye to Annie after the opera in New York. Sam wrote that the “type setter company are going to have a meeting next week, April 4th.
March 31 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Charles Webster, seeking the man who would be hired as the illustrator for Huckleberry Finn, Edward Windsor Kemble (1861-1933). Sam had seen Kemble’s work in Life magazine, at the time an illustrated comic weekly. He especially liked Kemble’s cartoon, “Some Uses for Electricity” [Oxford MT edition of HF, 1996, after-notes by Beverly David & Ray Sapirstein].
March 31 Tuesday – Sam spoke at the Tile Club Dinner for Laurence Hutton in New York City—the title of his talk “On Speech-Making Reform” [Fatout, MT Speaking 190-3]. Note: Fatout says this speech is conjectural for this date.
Sam inscribed a copy of HF to Mary Mason Fairbanks: “To / Mother Fairbanks / with the love of her eldest, / The Author. /~ /March 31, 1885” [MTP].
March 31 Thursday – Sam read “English As She Is Taught” for the Longfellow Memorial, Boston, Mass. Charles E. Norton (1827-1908) presided, and Sam was the third to read, as he recalled 20 years later in an interview [N.Y. Times, Feb. 24, 1907 p.4]. The following Boston Globe article, however, puts him first. The program began at 2 P.M. and he barely made his 4 P.M. train to New Haven.
March 31 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to William Dean Howells, enclosing his speech “Knights of Labor — The New Dynasty” which he’d given at the Monday Evening Club back on Mar. 22, 1886. This letter is evidently a response to one sent by Howells and now lost, which included “Anarchist” pamphlets, probably William M. Salter’s Cure for Anarchy, and possibly John C.
March 31 Sunday – With the Booth Supper beginning at midnight, Sam thus spoke afterward. Augustin Daly read a letter from George William Curtis, who could not attend. Stephen H.
March 31 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Joe Goodman of returning Arnot’s check and suffering from an “empty purse.”
Dear Joe — If you were here, I should say, “Get you to Washington and beg Senator Jones to take the chances and put up about ten or” — no, I wouldn’t. The money would burn a hole in my pocket and get away from me if the furnisher of it were proceeding upon merely your judgment and mine and without other evidence. It is too much of a responsibility.
March 31 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam responded to James B. Pond, his old lecture manager, who was now promoting a lecture tour for Henry M. Stanley. Sam couldn’t come to the Apr. 11 dinner of Pond’s for Henry M. Stanley, due to the arrival of “special guests” on that date [MTP].
March 4 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, enclosing a letter from Jesse M. Leathers, a distant relative of Sam’s on his mother’s side who claimed to be the “rightful earl of Durham.” Sam thought Leathers was a great source for literary grist:
March 4 Saturday – Howells arrived at Sam’s for a two-day visit to collaborate on a play, a lecture tour, a book of travel and the encyclopedia of humor proposal [MTHL 1: 392n1].
Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood, obviously in a good mood and practicing dialect.
March 4 Wednesday – General Grant had resigned his commission rather than wait till retirement, which left him without retirement income. Upon failure of Grant & Ward brokerage firm on Wall Street, the General was bankrupt. Chester A.
March 4 Thursday –Orion Clemens wrote to Sam about $100 sent to their Ma:
I told her you had sent her $100, and now she might get her lower teeth. But she said no. She has a badly fitting metal set, for which she lately paid $15, and the idea of so soon paying $20 to a better dentist for a rubber set is not to be entertained, though she mostly carries her lower teeth in her pocket.
Mollie Clemens included a letter with Orion’s, telling about their mother’s ups and downs:
March 4 Friday – In Hartford Sam responded to an unidentified man about Professor Loisette’s memory system, probably one of many questions he was pestered with after allowing his name to be used in Loisette’s advertisements (see 1887 beginning entry).
March 4 Sunday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder about the up-coming Washington hearings on international copyright legislation, and on the authors reception given by President Cleveland on Mar. 19. Sam wanted to take Livy but Mother Nature would intervene.
March 4 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Edgar W. “Bill” Nye and James W. Riley about the Feb. 28 event where he introduced them:
March 4 Tuesday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam having recieved the $200 check. “I read to Mr. Clark what you said about him. He was much gratified, said he was glad you were pleased, and wanted a copy [of Sam’s remarks]. Orion quoted Sam: “If all the critics could handle a book as intelligently and discriminatingly as Mr. Clark does, life would be much pleasanter for us than it is.” Orion told Clark he could use the quote publicly [MTP].
March 4 Wednesday – Frederick J. Hall wrote a short note to Sam enclosing a debt-note “to cover the one just taken up.” Hall reported a rush on the Sherman book and a good outlook for sales of it; he also expected a mockup of Sam’s memory game this day [MTP].
March 5 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion agreeing to look at Orion’s manuscript. He answered questions about Kaolatype patent, rights, etc. He ended the short letter by saying he’d:
“…added 114 pages to Prince & Pauper. I thought that might almost complete it, but it doesn’t bring it to the middle, I judge” [MTLE 5: 32].
Sam also wrote to Howells in Belmont, Mass.
March 5 Saturday – In Boston, Howells wrote to Sam and declined to follow up on Leathers’ story.
I should think the American earl’s autobiography would be delightful; but I dread to have him put in possession of my name as that of one having anything to do with his MS. While he lived, I don’t see how I could use his history; and that kind of man survives everybody. Really, it seems to me that I can’t do anything about it; and if I can’t, I suppose you want your letters back [MTHL 1: 359].
March 5 Monday – At the opening of the Guelph Club for billiards in New York, Sam introduced the great French billiards player, Maurice Vignaux and several other players, including George F. Slosson, Joseph Dion, and William Sexton, for an exhibition warm up match anticipating a large tournament in Chicago later in the month [N.Y. Times Mar.
March 5 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, complaining of Webster “writing & telegraphing conundrums…which remain unguessed.” Webster had send a play proposal for a play with Marshall Mallory based on a gross percentage of the take. He also wrote of another sick child.