July 9 Saturday – Sam wrote from the Montowese House, Branford, Conn. to Charles Webster:
“So it appears that the scrap book sales have fallen off one half in the past six months; —i.e., from 50,000 copies a year to 28,000. I return to you Slote’s ck, for use in the K[oalatype] eng. Co business. Send Perkins a note for it” [MTBus 161].
June 10 Friday – Sam attended the West Point graduation exercises for the class of 1881. He sat on the dais with the other dignitaries, even though he had no speaking role. General Christopher C. Augur gave the graduation address. There were other speakers as well, including Dr.
June 11 Saturday – Sam said goodbye to his West Point friends and returned to Hartford.
At Hartford Sam wrote to John Henton Carter (“Commodore Rollingpin”) of St. Louis, giving him permission to use “any published sketch of mine you choose,” but Sam added that he couldn’t “furnish anything new,” being “limited by existing contracts” [MTP].
June 12 Sunday – Clemens wrote to Dwight H. Buell asking if he might buy stock in the typesetter early. This letter not extant but referred to in Buell’s June 14 reply.
June 13 Monday – Sam and Livy traveled to Hartford and met George W. Cable, as testified by Cable’s June 14 letter to his wife:
June 14 Tuesday – Dwight H. Buell, Hartford jeweler, wrote to Sam, noting his request of June 12 (not extant) to pay for the typesetter stock in advance [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Consent to my paying Type-Setter stock in advance”
June 16 Thursday – Sam wrote a short note from Branford, Conn. to Frank Bliss requesting unbound copies of each of his books to be delivered to Charles Clark of the Hartford Courant [MTP].
June 18 Saturday – Charles Webster wrote to Sam: “By giving one more turn to the screw we have succeeded in getting $2200 out of Slote instead of $2000”: two notes for $1,200 and $1,000 signed by Alonzo Slote, Dan’s brother (d. 1901). Release enclosed for Sam to sign [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Slote Released.”
June 20 Monday – Sam wrote from Branford, Conn. to Charles Webster about the Kaolatype stock. There was evidently still hope the process would prove productive and profitable:
“The day that Kaolatype arrives at a point where it pays its own expenses, you are to have $900 of its stock. Meantime, I wish to give you $100 of its stock, now, anyhow, & make you Vice President & Treasurer—also Manager” [MTBus 160].
June 21 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Branford, Conn. to Charles Webster in New York, asking Charley or Annie to go to Tiffany’s and have a silver chatelaine-watch expressed to him with Livy’s initials engraved on it [MTBus 161].
June 22 Wednesday – Charles Webster replied to Sam’s June 21: he’d been sick but had ordered the chatelaine watch Sam wanted from Tiffany’s [MTP].
June 23 Thursday – Laura C. Redden Searing wrote from Sherwood, NY to thank Sam for his publishing advice [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “An authoress.”
June 26 Sunday – Sam wrote from Branford to Karl and Hattie Gerhardt. Things were going well for the two families. Sam referred to another protégé he’d helped launch career efforts.
June 27 Monday – Charles E.S. Wood wrote from West Point to Sam that Col. R.C. Morgan “writes vols. of thanks (on a half note) for ‘1601’”. Wood was planning on a visit to Hartford [MTP].
June 28 Tuesday – The New York Sun, ran a comic interview on p.2 titled, “The Lookout of the World / Mark Twain’s Preparations for a Possible Encounter with a Comet” [Schmidt].
June 29 Wednesday – Charles E. Perkins wrote a summary of the directors’ meeting for Kaolatype Engraving Co. at which Sam is listed as attending this day. It was voted that Webster would be VP & treasurer, authorized for all financials [MTP].
June 4 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion that “Everything is packed & the house is ready for the decorators.” They would leave in an hour for Branford, planning to stay through July, then to Elmira till mid-September. Sam used a West Point invitation envelope which had just arrived to send Orion a picture of baby Jean [MTP].
June 5 Sunday – Sam wrote from Branford, Conn. to Webster, confirming his legal actions taken (“…you did right to sue the quack”). Sam concluded that Slote had paid him only about a third ($1,800 or $2,000 per year) of what he should have received on the scrapbook invention [MTBus 160].
June 7 Tuesday – Sam left the family in Branford, Conn. and went back to the Hartford house, which was being decorated for some sort of event. Sam wrote to Livy at 8:45 P.M. that he’d helped Mr. Beals to string flags of countries around the balconies, and nixed a giant arch that bore “letters as big as your head” spelling out “The Home of Mark Twain.” Katy Leary made up a bed for Sam on the study divan [MTP].
June 8 Wednesday – Clara Clemens’ seventh birthday.
Sam gave a speech at the Army of the Potomac Banquet, Allyn House, Hartford: “The Benefit of Judicious Training” was the toast that Sam responded to [Fatout, MT Speaking 151-4]. West Point was the example Sam gave as the basis for his advice:
“All I know about military matters I got from the gentlemen at West Point, and to them belongs the credit” [Leon 148].
June 9 Thursday – Sam went with a party by train to West Point for graduation festivities, otherwise known as “June Week.” The group included Joseph Twichell, General Sherman, Secretary of War Robert Lincoln (son of Abraham Lincoln) and a dozen others.
September 10 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Franklin Whitmore acknowledging receipt of his telegram on the matter of selling stock; he would follow Whitmore’s lead. Sam affected a cockney accent:
“It as been orrible weather ere, otter then we’ve ever seen it before on the summit of this hill. But we shan’t complain, as long as it isn’t killing the President” [Note: Garfield died Sept. 19].
September 11 Sunday – In Belmont, Mass., Howells wrote to Sam:
“That is a famous idea about the Hamlet, and I should like ever so much to see your play when it’s done. Of course, you’ll put it on the stage, and I prophesy a great triumph for it.”
Howells also wrote about Sam’s “very generous willingness” to pay in advance for his “Library of Humor” work. Daughter Winny was still “trying the rest cure” [MTHL 1: 373].
September 12 Monday – Sam went alone to pay his mother, Jane Clemens, and sister, Pamela Moffett, a visit in Fredonia. Livy could not coordinate a nursemaid for the trip. After four hours he stopped in Rochester to rest and spent the night [Sept. 18 Fairbanks letter].
September 13 Tuesday – Sam left Rochester at 10 A.M. and got to Fredonia at 3 PM. While there he checked up on one of his investments. From the Fredonia Censor, Sept. 21, 1881: