February 15 Monday – Sam wrote in the morning from Ravenna, Ohio to Livy about having her engagement ring made. He left Ravenna “about noon” and that evening gave his “Vandals” lecture in Alliance, Ohio.

February 16 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Titusville, Pennsylvania to Livy the next day that he had:
…sat up until 2 in the morning (because no porter at hotel to call me,) & returned on a coal train to Ravenna—went to bed for one hour & a half & then got up half asleep & started in the early train for this Titusville section of country—had to wait from 1 P.M. till 5, at Corry, Pa., & so found an excellent hotel & went to bed… [MTL 3: 103-4].
Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture at Corinthian Hall in Titusville, Pennsylvania [MTPO].

February 17 Wednesday – In Titusville, late after the lecture, Sam wrote letters to Livy, Joe Goodman, and Mary Mason Fairbanks. To Mary, Sam wrote teasingly:
“I haven’t got nothing more to write, I believe, because there ain’t no topics of interest here to write about, except that Beech was here & the angel of the coal mine went down in an oil well. No damage to either. Oils well that ends well” [MTL 3: 107-8].

February 18 Thursday – Sam telegraphed from Franklin, Pa. to the Young Men’s Association of Genesco Academy to say he would not be able to make the lecture planned there. Sam headed for Elmira again, to see Livy. For a good account of the cancellation and subsequent Mar. 1 lecture, see The Twainian, Nov.-Dec. 1961 p1-4.

The Genesco Academy of Young Men wrote to acknowledge Sam’s telegram [MTP].

February 19 Friday – The Genesco Academy of Young Men wrote again to Sam trying to pin down when Twain could come and lecture [MTP].

February 19–22 Monday – Sam spent four days visiting the Langdons in Elmira. Sam sent three telegrams from Elmira to the Genesco Academy, promising to lecture there Mar. 1 [MTL 3: 110- 111]. Sam left Elmira on Feb.22 with Jervis Langdon, who was headed to New York City on business. Sam stayed with him a day or two [Sanborn 422].

February 23 Tuesday – Sam reached Trenton early in the day. That evening he gave his “Vandals” lecture in Trenton, New Jersey and then returned to New York, where he waited “all day” for a room at the St. Nicholas Hotel. That evening Sam and Jervis tried without success to visit Fidele (Mrs. Henry) Brooks. The Brooks were family friends of the Langdons. Sam probably wrote Livy a letter, which has been lost [MTL 3: 113n2].

February 25 Thursday – Early in the morning, Sam took a train 125 miles north to Stuyvesant, New York, where he gave his “Vandals” lecture.

February 26 Friday – Sam wrote after midnight from Stuyvesant to Livy, and enclosed a photograph of himself taken at Gurney & Son on Fifth Avenue in New York. He had left New York City early in the day. In Stuyvesant, Sam was the guest of Rev. Elbert Nevius [MTL 3: 111-14]. Sam left Stuyvesant in the morning and traveled all day.

February 27 Saturday –Sam traveled all night and arrived in Lockport, some 250 miles. He wrote from Lockport, New York to Livy. Sam wrote much more flippantly about Jervis than he had in the past. The two men were becoming closer friends, and Sam loved to tease Livy, or anyone whom he liked. Sam also wrote to Jane Clemens and family, and started a letter to Mary Mason Fairbanks [MTL 3: 114]. Note: also Sam’s first meeting of John De La Fletcher Slee (1837-1901). See 119n4 in source.

February 28 Sunday – Sam wrote from Rochester, New York finishing the Feb. 27 letter to Mary Mason Fairbanks. He also wrote to Livy:

March – Sam’s OPEN LETTER TO COM. VANDERBILT appeared in the March edition of Packard’s Monthly: The Young Men’s Magazine. The letter was a sarcastic blast at Cornelius Vanderbilt, which parodied the effusive and uncritical press Vanderbilt usually received [Camfield, bibliog.].

March 1 Monday – Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture at Concert Hall in Geneseo, New York [MTPO].
Sam wrote from Rochester, NY to Livy:

March 3 Wednesday – Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture, which had been postponed from Feb. 27, in Arcade Hall, Lockport, New York [MTPO].
Reverend Joseph L. Bennett (b. 1823 or 1824) called on Clemens in the evening. Referred to in Sam’s Mar. 4 to Livy:

March 4 Thursday – Sam wrote from Lockport to Livy:
“My last lecture (for some time, at least,) is delivered, & I am so glad that I must fly to you (on paper,) & make you help me hurrah. The long siege is over, & I may rest at last. I feel like a captive set free” [MTL 3: 134].
Sam was not through lecturing, but he would have a twelve-day rest. He left Lockport for Hartford, traveling all night and part of the next day.

March 5 Friday – Sam arrived in Hartford, where he wrote Livy. Sam called on the Courant office during the day, but Gov. Hawley had traveled to Washington, D.C. to see Grant’s inauguration. Hawley was to arrive back in Hartford this evening and call on Sam at his hotel. Sam then visited the Twichells and left at half past eleven, refusing their kind offer to stay with them while in Hartford. Sam stayed instead at the Allyn House Hotel [MTL 3: 136-8, 143].

March 6 Saturday – Sam wrote twice from Hartford to Livy. He’d seen “a dozen or two” of the illustrations for Innocents Abroad, and wrote that they were “very artistically engraved.” He praised the talents of the engraver, Truman “True” Williams.

March 7 Sunday – Sam wrote a “long newspaper article…till 11 o’clock [PM],” probably “The White House Funeral,” a scathing mock report of President Andrew Johnson’s final cabinet meeting before Grant’s inauguration of Mar. 4. The article was in proofs and not published, most likely due to reports of Johnson’s severe illness [MTL 3: 148, 151n2]. Note: In those days, the press still had some class.

March 8 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Livy about writing the article the night before and being unable to sleep until daylight. He rose at 9:30 AM and wrote letters. “I’ll call on the Hookers or die. Saw Mr. Hooker a moment after I left Mrs. B. He was the very man I wanted to see. Because I like him, in spite of prejudice and everything else” [MTL 3: 149]. 

Sam also wrote to John Russell Young, editor of the New York Tribune, sending the “Funeral” article [MTL 3: 150].

March 9 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Livy about his love for her, the up-coming trip to California, and the wisdom of “sowing oats” early in life, etc. Sam had thought it over and spoken with Rev.

March 10 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Livy and her brother [MTL 3: 158]. Before leaving Hartford, Sam discovered that the directors of the American Publishing Co. wanted out of the contract to publish Innocents Abroad. When Elisha Bliss threatened to publish it on his own after Sam had threatened suit, the board of directors relented and Bliss went forward with the book, which would not appear until July.

March 12 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Livy.
I am not all afraid of the Hookers, now—dine there tonight. Woe! WOE! WOE! you blessed little rascal!….P.S.—I go to Boston to-morrow, at Nasby’s request, to spend two days with him & the literary lions of the “Hub.” Monday night I leave there for New York—lecture Tuesday in Newtown, & the—very—next—evening, I spurn the U.S. Mail & bring my kisses to my darling myself! [MTL 3: 161-5].

March 13 Saturday – In Hartford, Sam wrote at midnight on Mar. 12-13, again to Livy. “Had a really pleasant time at Mrs. Hooker’s last night, Twichell & I” [MTL 3: 173].
He also wrote a short note to Horatio C. King and John R. Howard of Beecher’s Plymouth Church, declining their offer to lecture in New York, informing them that it was too late since “he must make ready for a short visit to California.”

March 14 Sunday – Sam met Oliver Wendell Holmes and other literary lights of Boston. He was accompanied by David Ross Locke (Petroleum V. Nasby) who had been lecturing in Boston [MTL 3: 174; MTPO notes Sept. 30 O.W. Holmes].

March 15 Monday – After Boston socializing, Sam left for New York City in the evening [MTL 3: 174].