March 5 Thursday – Sam reached Hartford and home in the afternoon. He wrote from there to Orion and Mollie Clemens. He thought it best to put off a reading-trip to England and Australia until the next year as he wanted to closely supervise the canvas of Grant’s biography, which Webster & Co. would publish. Upon reflection he wrote,
“Ma seems to be growing young again very fast” [MTP].
March 5 Saturday – Theodore and Susan L. Crane arrived at the Clemens home for a visit [Livy to her mother, Mar. 3, MTP].
March 5 Monday – Samuel E. Dawson, Sam’s Canadian publisher in Montreal, wrote to Sam of his “long commitment to international copyright and his long service to American authors.” Dawson felt he had not received credit for his efforts and enclosed copies of his lecture on copyright he’d sent to Roswell Smith of the Century.
March 5 Tuesday – In Hartford, Sam wrote a one-liner to Frank Fuller on his prior promise (see Mar. 3) to stop on his next trip to New York City. He couldn’t do it on the next trip because of appointments, but he would the trip after [MTP].
March 5 Wednesday – Sam wrote to Daniel Whitford, the letter not extant but referred to in Whitford’s of Mar. 6 [MTP].
March 5 Thursday –Sam wrote to Howard Lockwood to discontinue his subscription to The American Bookmaker, letter not extant but referred to in Lockwood’s Mar. 6 response. He also placed an order with the New England Phonograph Co., also not extant but referred to in Sampson’s Mar. 6 response [MTP].
March 6 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles H. Clark (John Quill or Max Adeler) of the Hartford Courant, denying he hadn’t ever killed any Indians, nor had Dan De Quille. Such a rumor had been “gotten up by the Indians” he wrote.
“Years ago, I was accused of loading an Indian up with beans lubricated with nitro-glycerin & sending him in an ox wagon over a stumpy road. This was impossible, on its face, for no one would risk oxen in that way” [MTLE 5: 34].
March 6 Monday – William Dean Howells returned to Boston [MTHL 1: 392n1].
Sam telegraphed from Hartford to John Russell Young. Sam had written to General Grant for a favor of keeping Howells’ father in his Toronto consulate position. He asked Young to get Grant’s answer and write or send him a telegram, saving Grant the bother [MTP].
March 6 Thursday – Something had changed Sam’s mind on the calendar work for L. Prang & Co.—perhaps Sam’s questioning of the agreement had made Prang reevaluate the deal and offer Sam a way out; or he added to the work needed for the same price. Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster.
March 6 Friday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to Charles Webster, reporting that the furnace had not been improved, even “after spending all that money” to do so. Livy claimed it was even “less capable than it was before.” Get right on it, Charley, and let Sam know what the furnace repairman says [MTP].
March 6 Saturday – Kate Field wrote to Sam from the Victoria Hotel in N.Y. She began by saying she’d heard he didn’t think much of her due to her lectures against Mormonism, but ended by asking if he’d be interested in publishing a history of Mormonism [MTP].
March 6 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam inscribed a copy of P&P for Emma Lane: To Miss Emma Lane, with the kind regards of Mark Twain. Hartford, March 6, 1888 [MTP].
March 6 Wednesday – Sam took a 12:05 p.m. train to Springfield, Mass. and then continued on to Pittsfield, where he got there shortly after 4 p.m. [MTNJ 3: 455]. He wrote in his notebook, probably on the train:
March 6 Thursday – The New York Times, p.8 and the Brooklyn Eagle, p.4 ran articles about the trust fund established for the widow and four children of the late Philip H. Welch (1849-1889) American journalist, humorist and author. In the Eagle, at the front of the list of some 600 contributors: William D. Howells and Mark Twain. This bio sketch from Webster & Co.’s Library of American Literature, Vol. 11 p.604:
March 6 Friday – Howard Lockwood of Lockwood & Co. wrote to Sam, having received his Mar. 5 letter to discontinue subscription to The American Bookmaker. He offered an additional incentive in the form of the American Dictionary of Printing and Bookmaking, which they were about to issue quarterly.
March 7 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood. Howells, in a Mar. 5 letter, passed along a suggestion from Mrs. Charles Fairchild, that Sam should write a burlesque book of etiquette. Howells made the case in language which he knew would appeal to Sam:
March 7 Tuesday – Karl & Hattie J. Gerhardt wrote to Sam and Livy, thrilled with a letter just rec’d from the Clemenses. More about progress on their studies [MTP]. Note: dated Mar. 8 but postmarked 7th.
March 7 Wednesday – According to the Brooklyn Eagle, p. 7, “Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) testified in the libel suit of Captain C.C. Duncan against the New York Times.” Since Sam’s letter of Mar. 9 to Cable referred to a Mar. 8 meeting with Charles Dudley Warner in Hartford, it’s likely that Sam returned from New York either on the evening of Mar.
March 7 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Friday in the night, March 7, the telephone went out of service” [MTNJ 3: 48].
An article ran on page 7 in the Brooklyn Eagle, headlined Duncan’s continuing libel suit:
MARK TWAIN
He Disclaims the Article Libeling Captain Duncan
March 7 Sunday –George E. Waring wrote to Sam, returning one copy of Ambulinia, or Samuel Watson Royston’s The Enemy Conquered (see Gribben 593) [MTP].
March 7 Monday – The Monday Evening Club met at the Clemens home [Livy to her mother, Mar. 3, MTP].
H.M. Olmstead, Treas. Of Crown Point Iron Co., N.Y. sent a printed form letter of a “Preambleand Resolution” adopted at their Mar. 2 meeting [MTP].
March 7 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto, enclosing one of the contracts signed for Library of Humor, but withholding one that pertained to Canada. Sam promised to have one drawn up which would work “up yonder” and noted in the left margin, “It was found that the contract would not answer — in fact, would defeat itself.” Sam gave Apr.
March 7 Thursday – In Boston, Mass. Sam participated in an afternoon Authors’ Readings for the cause of international copyright. Alexander P. Browne had invited him on Feb. 12, allowing him to name his own date, and Dana Estes had followed up on Feb. 23. Since Sam was due to speak in Pittsfield on Mar. 6, the following day made things more convenient.
March 7 Friday – In Hartford on or just after this day, Sam answered Daniel Whitford’s Mar. 6 letter by writing on the envelope to Franklin G. Whitmore, “Please send the Slote Contract to Whitford” [MTP].
March 7 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote a letter to G.& C. Merriam & Co., praising the dictionary, which he called “the most awe-inspiring of all books.” He thanked the company [MTP].
Sam also wrote to an unidentified woman:
I am very slow, but correspondingly sure. The books are sent to you, & with pleasure [MTP].