July 25 Wednesday – In the morning Sam talked with Dr. Clarence C. Rice’s brother, and came to the conclusion he wasn’t the man for the job of selling Sam’s stock in the new Paige Compositor Co. Later in the day Sam added in a letter to Livy that “Mr. Rogers doesn’t think much of Rice’s brother” either. Sam opened the letter with:
July 26 Thursday – Jean Clemens’ fourteenth birthday.
In New York at the Players Club Sam wrote to Livy.
I could kick myself for my heedlessness in trying to tell you yesterday when to look for me; for my letter hadn’t been gone half an hour when I remembered that Mr. Rogers & I will almost certainly have to go to Chicago.
July 27 Friday – In his July 29 to Livy, Sam related that he’d gone to Fairhaven with members of the Rogers family on this day, returning the next, July 28.
July 28 Saturday – In the evening Sam returned from Fairhaven, Mass. to New York.
July 29 Sunday – In New York on Players Club stationery, Sam wrote to Livy, telling about the Fairhaven trip, sailing with Harry Rogers, H.H.’s teen-age son, and of hiding $25 in change then forgetting where he put it. He’d “ransacked this room thoroughly,” but found “no trace of it.” Sam expected to be delayed in N.Y. by Webster & Co. business but the lawyers estimated they’d be done with him in about ten days.
July 30 Monday – To avoid the New York City summer heat, Sam spent part of the evening “in a bath tub full of lovely water” [July 31 to Livy].
The New York Times, July 31, 1894 p.12 “Business Troubles” included this paragraph:
July 31 Tuesday – In New York City Sam wrote to Livy that he was going to Hartford for a day or two; that the trip to Chicago being delayed, that Urban H. Broughton proposed to come east after Aug. 12 and that H.H. Rogers was “about half worn out with work & the heat & the trouble of his great loss.” It was a delay that could not be helped, he wrote. Plus, Rogers’ secretary, Katharine I.
August – Part two of Sam’s “In Defense of Harriet Shelley” ran in the North American Review.
Sometime during the month Sam wrote Frank Bliss about a lost letter. He asked Bliss to let Peter (probably an assistant) go to the New York office & get a copy of it for him.
I had it in my hand with my steamer ticket when I came aboard the ship — I am nearly dead-sure of it; but I have hunted everywhere & cannot find it.
In a week the machine will be in the [Chicago] Herald office! Hope it will anyway.
August 1 Wednesday – Sam was in Hartford visiting old friends and staying with the Whitmores (See Aug. 3 to Livy.)
August 2 Thursday – Sam was in Hartford visiting old friends and staying with the Whitmores. He mentioned seeing Susy Warner on this day in his Aug. 3 to daughter Clara. Susy Warner “praised Mrs. Wilson’s character & her abilities as teacher & composer.” Clara was staying with Mrs. Wilson in Canton of Uri, Switzerland, and planned to teach there with her after the family returned to America.
August 3 Friday – The North American Review published the essay, “In Defense of Harriet Shelley” in July–Sept.
In New York at the Players Club Sam answered a letter (not extant) from daughter Clara.
You dear old Black Spider! how glad I was to get your letter an hour or two ago. I was able to read it, too — which is a marvel.
August 4 Saturday – Sam stayed with the Harry Harper family on the Long Island shore.
Harry Harper is open & honest & frank; & was not afraid to tell me (after I said I couldn’t quite afford to let the book [JA] go at the terms offered,) that he was charmed with the book & that Alden would be deeply disappointed if it was allowed to slip out of his hands.
August 5 Sunday – A few minutes after returning from Long Island, Sam wrote to Livy about going after his JA MS on Friday afternoon and leaving with Harry Harper for a two-day visit. No letter from her awaited him. Sam explained that he needed to be accessible to H.H. Rogers, for Urban H.
August 6 Monday – Harper & Brothers wrote to Sam agreeing to amend the contract for JA with the increased royalty from the time they used his real name as author [MTP].
August 7 Tuesday – In New York on Players Club stationery, Sam wrote a paragraph to his brother Orion in Keokuk, Iowa, asking his forgiveness for losing his temper.
…I was infernally provoked to reflect that I had written 200 letters trying to settle that picayune trade & then hadn’t accomplished it.
August 8 Wednesday – In New York at the Players Club, Sam wrote a letter to daughter Susy in Etretat, France. This morning he’d gone to see a palmreader, a young man, 26-years-old, named Cheiro (1866-1936), one of the most colorful and famous occult figures of his day. He was a clairvoyant who used palmistry, astrology, and Chaldean numerology, to predict world events, some of which were frighteningly accurate.
August 9 Thursday – In New York at H.H. Rogers’ office, Sam wrote to Livy an hour before a scheduled meeting with the lawyers and the assignee in the Webster & Co. bankruptcy case.
August 11 Saturday – Sam wrote a letter of recommendation for Mrs. Mary B. Willard to G.W. Knowlton, of Knowlton Brothers, Watertown, N.Y., who considered sending a “young lady,” perhaps a daughter or relative, to Willard’s school for American girls in Berlin, Germany, where Clara Clemens had studied. Sam provided Willard’s address.
She will be well cared for, well taught, & will have the comradeship of excellent girls of her own nationality [MTP].
August 15 Wednesday – Sam sailed for Southampton, England on the Paris [N.Y. Times, Aug. 15, 1894 p.7 “Departures for Europe”]. The New York newspapers reported on Sam’s departure, including the Times and the Sun. The Times, not always the friendliest paper to Mark Twain, included the story within one about Mayor Thomas F. Gilroy sailing for Europe. Comparing adjectives and treatment of the two articles reveals a subtle but definite contrast.
August 16 Thursday – Sam was en route aboard the American Line S.S. Paris for Southampton. An article published Sept. 9, 1894, p.5 and datelined August 22, described the voyage and the weather:
On one day only rain interfered with deck amusements and promenading, a dense fog enshrouded us off the banks and at subsequent short periods further eastward. …Aside from this disagreeable feature, we have had an exceptionally smooth voyage, the glassy surface of the ocean disturbed alone by swells from our huge steamship.
August 17 Friday – Sam was en route aboard the American Line S.S. Paris for Southampton. The second day at sea the Paris made 423 miles distance [Ibid.]
August 18 Saturday – Sam was en route aboard the American Line S.S. Paris for Southampton. The third day at sea the Paris made 429 miles distance [Ibid.]
August 19 Sunday – Sam was en route aboard the American Line S.S. Paris for Southampton. The fourth day at sea the Paris made 430 miles distance. In the evening, Rev. A.J.F. Behrends gave a brief sermon in the grand saloon [Ibid.]. Sam may have attended.
August 20 Monday – Sam was en route aboard the American Line S.S. Paris for Southampton. The fifth day at sea the Paris made 455 miles distance [Ibid.]. The Brooklyn Eagle article (Sept. 9, 1894 p.5 “A Mid-Ocean Letter”) wrote up a charity concert event that included a reading by Sam:
August 21 Tuesday – Sam was en route aboard the American Line S.S. Paris for Southampton. The sixth day at sea the Paris made 447 miles distance [Ibid.]
…an entertainment was given in the second cabin, consisting of songs, recitations, an illusion act and minstrel performance, realizing about $25 for the benefit of a steward, who met with an accident on Sunday last [Aug. 19]. Eighty dollars in addition was raised for him among the first cabin passengers [Ibid.]