August 31 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Sarah A. Sage (Mrs. Dean Sage).
I find my youth renewed by that lark in the mountains, whereas it is to be hoped that Dean Sage is just as old as he was before, for throwing away his opportunity. I believe he would have profited by staying and letting business run it’s [sic] self for a while. Come to think of it, Joe ought to have been there, that was just the place for Joe [Twichell] [MTP].
August 4 Tuesday – Sam wrote from New York City to Livy, describing the black draped buildings and how much more so the City was for Grant than it had been for Garfield.
“I think I have seen a thousand big portraits of the General, set in the centre of a desert of black, on store-fronts” [MTP].
August 5 Wednesday – From Sam’s Aug. 6 to Livy for this day:
August 6 Thursday – After lying 24 hours in the Capitol at Albany, Grant’s casket, was put on a train for the six-hour ride to New York City. The train slowed passing West Point for the cadets to salute. Once in the city, where tens of thousands waited, the casket was taken to City Hall, where it lay in state another 24 hours [Perry 229].
August 7 Friday – Over 300,000 people passed by Grant’s casket in New York City Hall [Perry 229]. The New York Times reported Sam staying at the Hotel Normandie [p.4 “Personal Intelligence”].
August 8 Saturday – Grant’s funeral and procession included 60,000 members of the military assigned by President Cleveland. Sam was not in the funeral, but took a place in the window of Webster & Co. overlooking Union Square. He stood for five hours watching as the procession worked its way north through the City, passing along 14th Street toward Fifth Avenue [Perry 231]. Kaplan says 40,000 military. A lot, anyway.
August 9 Sunday – Sam had arranged “business…with Hartford people” on Tuesday (Aug. 11), but moved it up to Sunday so he might return to Elmira the next day [Aug. 15 to Johnson]. The nature of his business with Hartford people is unknown. It is possible that the Hartford people referred to came to New York.
June 19, 1885: The Clemens family took a special car from New York to Elmira,
June 27, 1885: In the morning, the Clemens family left Mrs. Langdon’s home for Quarry Farm.
July 1 Wednesday – At Mt. McGregor, New York, Sam telegraphed and then wrote Livy that he would leave for Hartford at noon the next day. He added that Gerhardt took a good photograph taken of Grant and that the bust done of Jesse Grant’s child was:
July 11 Saturday – Sam wrote a short note from Elmira to Orion. Evidently Mollie had suggested a pension for Puss Quarles Greening, rather than a thousand dollar investment in a Kansas hotel. Sam offered to have Webster set one up and send money to her monthly. “I hate complications,” Sam wrote [MTP]. (See June 26 entry.)
July 12 Sunday – Pamela Moffett wrote from Kinsgburg, Calif. about the letter she’d sent and her son’s concerns about it; the letter they’d both written him. Her son was upset thinking Sam would take his troubles with locusts as a plea for help [MTP].
July 12 to 13 Monday – Sam was in New York, where he saw “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” show “two days in succession” [July 14 to Cody].
July 13 Monday – Charles Webster wrote of business matters & details [MTP].
July 14 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to William F. Cody (“Buffalo Bill”).
I have now seen your Wild West show two days in succession, enjoyed it thoroughly. It brought back to me the breezy, wild life of the Rocky mountains, and stirred me like a war song.
Sam felt the show was genuine and suggested he take it to England, where “it is said the exhibitions …are not distinctly American” [MTP].
July 15 Wednesday – Livy wrote in her diary that she and her children were “reading together” Grace Aguilar’s (1816-1847) The Days of Bruce; A Story from Scottish History (1834). Livy added the girls enjoyed it “very much,” and Clara Clemens later remembered it as one of their favorite books. Sam may have read this to his girls also.
July 16 Thursday – Sam’s response, “On Training Children,” to the article, “What Ought He to Have Done” was reprinted in The Christian Union (see June 11 entry). Note: This is sometimes given as the first printing. Also ran in August issue of Babyhood, p. 275-6.
Robert U. Johnson for Century Magazine about Sam’s help in the copyright effort; Gen. Grant’s name on the list would help the effort [MTP].
July 17 Friday – The Brooklyn Eagle ran an article with Sam’s letter about the pension mixup. Other newspapers reprinted the story. Note: Camfield lists the Boston Daily Advertiser on this for July 18 [bibliog.].
July 18 Saturday – The final details of volume two of Grant’s Memoirs was handed to Charles Webster in Mt. McGregor, New York [July 24 to Livy].
Sam wrote a scolding note from Elmira to Orion telling him to settle the Puss Quarles Greening matter; that her “$200 proposition ought to have been accepted instantly” [MTP]. (See June 26, July 11 entries.)
July – Frank M. Scott was hired as a cashier and bookkeeper by Webster & Co. He had previously worked for Haney & Co. of Newark, N.J. Scott was arrested for embezzlement on Mar. 11, 1887 [N.Y. Times, Mar. 18, 1887, p.5, “Confessions of a Thief”].
July 19 Sunday – Orion Clemens wrote more about helping Puss (Tabitha Greening (Puss) to Orion July 17 enclosed)
Karl Gerhardt wrote from Mt. McGregor: “your very nice letters are with me—Josie has again made the fatal mistake of letting my private correspondenced get out…” And, “Josie and baby have come here to the mountain and are all the rage” [MTP].
July 2 Thursday – Sam said his goodbyes to General Grant, left Mt. McGregor and went to New York City [Powers, MT A Life 503].
July 20 Monday – Joseph Blackburn Jones wrote from Chicago, having been to Hartford twice and missing him both times. He hadn’t seen Sam since the “babies” speech in Chicago. He mentioned the time they roomed together at Tom Fitch’s in Va. City. He just returned from Europe and told how popular Twain was there [MTP].
July 21 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Edward House, marking the letter “private.” Sam covered again the events leading to his publication of Grant’s Memoirs, the sales figures and royalties, comparing what the General would have received if he had signed the Century contract vs. Sam’s.
July 22 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to A.H. Warner (no connection found to the Hartford Warners). “Dear Sir: I thank you very much—& also your friend—for the enclosure.” [MTP].
Charles Webster wrote that he’d sent no proof pages as he had none to send. He thought “it very dangerous to cart those proofs about,” feeling better when they’re in the safe. Details added about the Grant volumes [MTP].
July 23 Thursday – General Ulysses S. Grant died. Sam took a ten-hour train ride to New York City, arriving in the early evening [July 24 to Livy].
From Sam’s notebook:
On board train, Binghamton, July 23, 1885,—10 a.m. The news is that Gen. Grant died about 2 hours ago—at 5 minutes past 8.
July 24 Friday – Sam wrote from New York City to Livy:
Livy darling, I reached here so drowsy & dull with railroading that I forgot to telegraph you till 9 o’clock; so I was probably too late with it, considering the slowness of the Western Union service.
I woke refreshed about half past eight; & now am through with today’s business & ready to take the 4.30 train for Hartford.