August 1 Wednesday – Two days after Sam wanted Charles Webster to “run up” to Elmira, he wrote again to Webster.
The implements of the game, & way to play it—are the patentable features & the only patentable features, ain’t they?…So, just go ahead and take out patents, for US, Canada & England [MTBus 218-19].
August 10 Friday – Charles Webster wrote about business matters: History game, insurance, Barton vineyard scheme (that Joe Goodman claimed a “put up job to make money” using the poorest land [MTP].
August 12 Sunday – In Boston, Howells wrote to Sam, advising he’d given a letter of introduction in order to “launch a lord” at Sam. The candidate was 30-year-old William Hillier Onslow, whom Howells had met on his homeward voyage, and who seemed “to know a lot of artists and literary men,” and who expressed a liking for the works of Mark Twain. The Howellses had rented a house at 4 Louisburg Square in Boston, and extended an invitation to Sam and Livy to visit [MTHL 1: 436-7].
August 14 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Ellen C. Taft, wife of the family doctor, Cincinnatus Taft who had been ill.
August 16 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to his mother, Jane Clemens. He expected to be in Elmira until mid-September. Livy remained poorly and “improves so slowly.” Rosina Hay, their German nursemaid had left their employ, replaced by a new girl who only spoke German:
August 18 Saturday – Sam and Livy spent the evening with Mrs. Langdon in celebration of her 73rd birthday the next day [Aug. 19 letter to Olivia Lewis Langdon, MTP].
August – Sometime during August, Sam wrote a one-liner from Elmira to Charles Webster about someone holding a fifth interest at thirty thousand dollars—“That’s a more valuable game than I realized,” he wrote [MTP]. (Unidentified game.)
August 19 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Olivia Lewis Langdon on her birthday, thanking her for the hospitality of the previous evening and for her gift, the rauchen-geschirr (ashtray?) [MTP].
George E. Waring wrote, “Swear at me, if you will. I deserve it. But I can’t help it.” He had to be in Buffalo and couldn’t leave before the next night. He had wanted to visit him in Elmira [MTP].
August 22 Wednesday – Sam appeared as a witness, ironically for Captain C.C. Duncan, in his $100,000 libel suit against the New York Times [MTNJ 3: 25n41].
Sam wrote from Elmira to Howells. Clemens had just completed perhaps the most productive period of his writing career. With HF drafted and “1002d Arabian Night” completed, he wrote:
August 23 Thursday – From Sam’s notebook:
“I am told, Aug. 23, 9AM, that the Times lawyer proposed to Duncan that if he would let them off they would prove I said it all” [MTNJ 3: 24] Note: Evidently, the Times attempted to deflect blame to Sam. (See Aug. 22 entry.)
Sam’s article “Historical Peg Driving,” ran in Mastery—an Illustrated Weekly Magazine of Useful Pastimes for Young People, p. 248 [Budd’s list furnished by Thomas Tenney citing Baetzhold].
August 24 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster. Sam wanted Webster to “Pitch into Mills’s business & square it up.” He spoke highly of Mills, not identified further.
Sam also reported on Duncan’s lawsuits:
“I have a telegram from Bath, Maine,—the grand jury threw out the bill, to that editor’s vast comfort. Duncan went for a criminal indictment, in that case.”
August 27 Monday – Orion Clemens wrote a short note: “Just deposited William the Conqueror in the American Express Office Herr Bob Ogdon charged me 90 cents a page, and will allow me 30 cents a thousand for setting it up” [MTP].
August 28 Tuesday – Worden & Co. sent statement to July 31 and asked for $1,800 on margin call [MTP].
August 29 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Orion, complimenting on part of the board game he completed, probably the William the Conqueror segment Sam asked about in his Aug. 16 letter to Mollie Clemens.
“You can go on with other reigns, now, but you needn’t print any more till I tell you. Send the printing bill when you please” [MTP].
August 3 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster about the history game. Never mind applying for a patent just yet, Sam advised. He’d written to Munn & Co., sending the $25 fee and asked them to search the records to see “whether my game-idea is old or new, patentable or unpatentable” [MTP].
August 30 Thursday – William C. Hutchings wrote from Brooklyn, where he took his dying wife after doctors in Hartford recommended taking her home. He PS’d an enclosed clipping from the NY World, but it’s not in the file [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “The German Critic’s opinion”—may refer to the missing clipping contents.
William Swinton wrote from NYC, disappointed that since Sam’s reply was marked “Private” he couldn’t publish it, and asked again for a story [MTP].
August 31 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, reporting that “Orion has done his work first rate” on the history board game. Sam diagrammed the game and detailed its layout, directing Charles and Annie to experiment with it [MTP].
August 4 Saturday – George E. Waring wrote from Wash. DC with plans to go to Elmira [MTP].
August 6 Monday – Webb T. Dart for Magnetic Rock Spring Co. wrote they were shipping this day a case of carbonized water, if drank cold would “certainly find relief from any disease” [MTP].
Karl Gerhardt wrote a statement of expenses for July [MTP].
June 14, 1883: Clemens family travels from Hartford to New York.
June 15, 1883: The Clemens family left New York City and traveled by special sleeping car to Elmira
June 22, 1883: Sam traveled to New York City. Unknown how long he stayed...
September 13, 1883: The Clemens family departs Elmira and traveled to new York, on their way home to Hartford.
July 1 Sunday – Dr. Titus Munson Coan (1836-1921) of The Bureau of Revision, wrote that he’d sent “the circulars as you kindly request” [MTP].
July 10 Tuesday – Aboard the S.S. Parisian on his way home, Howells wrote to Sam, reporting on their visit to the Gerhardts in Paris. He described their living quarters as “primitive and simple as all Chicopee, and virtuous poverty spoke from every appointment of the place.” Howells observed that Karl Gerhardt seemed “a little worn with overwork,” suggesting he might learn while resting in Italy [MTHL 1: 434].
July 11 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Samuel E. Dawson, his Canadian publisher, thanking him again for his visit to Rideau Hall and apologizing for being “miraculously, dull, stupid, silent, & unentertaining…” He praised his hosts and confided that “When anybody wants Canadian-copyright information,” he never wasted ink and paper on him but “cut him off with a curt ‘Go to Mr. Dawson’” [MTP].
July 12 Thursday – Edward H. House wrote “a dreary letter” of failing under the curse of gout for the past 10 months, and of Koto’s seizures, which explained their infrequent letters [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Give [word torn away] account of the Reid interview / Hist game"
July 14 Saturday – Sam wrote to the Hartford Engineering Co., letter not extant, but referred to in the Co.’s July 17 reply.
An old letter of Sam’s, written July 6 1859, appeared in the Arkansaw Traveler. See July 6, 1859 entry) [MTL 1: 91-2, n2].