September 8 Wednesday – The Clemens family returned home to Hartford, as reported by the Hartford Courant the next day [MTL 6: 532n2].

September 11 Saturday – In Chesterfield, N.H., Howells wrote, again complimenting Sam on his “Gondour” piece, saying it moved “that eminent political economist,” Mrs. Howells. He also wrote:

“In comment on Charles Reade’s letters (I wish the man wasn’t such a gas-bag), don’t you wish to air your notions of copyright in the Atlantic?” [MTHL 1: 97-8]. Note: Reade had sent thirteen letters to the London Pall Mall Gazette opining on international copyright issues.

September 12 Sunday – Richard M. Milnes (Lord Houghton) wrote from St. Louis: “I recvd to-day your kind note to Niagara & hasten to thank you for it. I go to-night to Cincinnati & expect to arrive in New York about the 24th. …I fear therefore that I have no chance of being able to bring my son to see you.” He remarked about St. Louis being more like a European manufacturing city [MTP]. Note: his handwriting is abysmal, but some brave soul has transcribed it, likely through supernatural means.

September 13 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to the Staff of the Hartford Courant asking for his paper delivery to be changed from Newport to Hartford [MTL 6: 532].

September 14 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Howells about copyright issues. Howells had written about the letters by Charles Reade on the subject printed by the New York Tribune. Sam calculated more might get done with a petition personally carried to Congress. The first copies of Sketches, New and Old were soon to arrive, and Sam related he’d told Bliss to send a copy to Howells before anyone else.

September 16 Thursday – William H. Barttell wrote from Yonkers, NY that he was making good on the promise he’d made to Sam at Bateman’s and was sending a “little work” on Modern English literature [MTP]. Note: the work is unidentified.

September 17 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Dan De Quille, still at the Union Hall Hotel nearby. Sam liked collecting “queer letters.” He asked Dan to:

“…write Fair, Mackey & O’Brien [Comstock Lode Millionaires], & ask them if they won’t save all the begging letters that come to them & send them to me from time to time” [MTL 6: 535]. Note: John William Mackey (Mackay) (1831-1902).

September 18 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Howells about the petition to lengthen copyrights. Sam wanted the country to make a stand to European thieves with “Thou shalt not steal.”

“If we only had some God in the country’s laws, instead of being in such a sweat to get Him into the Constitution, it would be better all around.”

September 21 Tuesday – From Prospect House in Chesterfield, N.H., Howells wrote to Sam, saying he would be welcome at his house “in November, or any other month of the year.” After announcing his plans to travel on to Quebec to see his father, Howells wrote:

“Then, please the pigs, I shall stick to Cambridge for one while. I can’t tell you how sick I am of enjoying myself—that’s what it is called” [MTHL 1: 102].

September 22 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to James Redpath, explaining why lecturing would cost him money and interrupt his book (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer).

“I never HAVE lectured without losing a great deal of money by it (no matter what the fee,) & so you can understand my reluctance to meddle with fire that has burnt me so often. And, besides I absolutely loathe lecturing, for its own sake!” [MTL 6: 540].

September 24 Friday – Phineas T. Barnum wrote two letters to Sam. The first informed that they had changed the date of their Hartford visit to the 29th, and that “the tribe of Barnum will number 6.” The second: “Yours recd—since I mailed a letter to David Clarke for you. We are to be in Hartford Wednesday next as that letter will inform you” [MTP].

September 25 Saturday – The first 100 copies of Sketches, New and Old arrived at the publishers from the bindery [MTL 6: 535n2].

September 26 Sunday – Sam saw the first copy of Sketches, New and Old [MTL 6: 541].

September 27 Monday – Phineas T. Barnum wrote, repeating his aim to bring his daughters to meet them for only 10 minutes on the 29th [MTP].

Jesse Madison Leathers (1846-1887), third cousin of Sam’s, wrote from Louisville, Ky.

September 28 Sunday – Charles L. Webster married Annie Moffett in Fredonia by Rev. A.L. Benton.

September 29 Wednesday – The Hartford Courant published a letter from Sam wrote (probably on Sept.

October – Sam’s unsigned sketch, “The Curious Republic of Gondour,” attacked suffrage and suggested weighted votes based on property and education. The piece ran in the October Atlantic Monthly. Sam sometimes preferred his more serious pieces to be published anonymously, so that readers would not suspect hidden humor connected with his trademark name, Mark Twain.

October 2 Saturday – Phineas T. Barnum wrote to Sam that conflicts wouldn’t allow Sam’s visit the next Saturday [MTP].

October 5 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Jesse Madison Leathers, a distant relative who had inquired about the feasibility of claiming part of the English Durham estate. Citing the cost that the Tichborne claimants spent unsuccessfully, and the 600 plus years the present heirs had held the lands, Sam wrote “It would be too much like taking Gibraltar with blank cartridges” [MTL 6: 545-6].

October 6 Wednesday – Sam and Livy attended “Our Big Wedding,” the marriage of Governor Jewell’s daughter Josephine to Arthur M. Dodge of New York. Joe Twichell pasted a clipping by that title from the Hartford Courant into his journal. The wedding was at Asylum Hill Congregational [Yale 126]. Andrews gives details:

October 7 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to John C. Underwood. Sam identified the “professor” who’d fraudulently solicited funds for a “southern school” as George Vaughan, and asked Underwood to endorse him. Unfortunately, Underwood, a district court judge, was deceased, as was another on Vaughan’s list he showed to Sam [MTL 6: 550].

October 8 Friday – Phineas T. Barnum wrote to Sam: “I recd your telegram yesterday & write you that even one day would be beter than nothing. I hoped you would come early next Monday…” [MTP].

October 9 Saturday – James G. Blaine (1830-1893) replied to Clemens, who had written asking Blaine to verity his endorsement of George Vaughn (“a fraud”)

Jubes renovare infandum dolorem / O Clementia!!

October 10–31 Sunday 1875? – Sam wrote a short note to Samuel H. Church about twins “born at the same time but of different mothers” [MTL 6: 551].

October 11 Monday – In Hartford Sam replied to the Oct. 9 from James G. Blaine about the fraud, George Vaughan. Sam was now impassioned; the fact that Vaughan had written a “marvelously foul & scurrilous letter to the Courant in reply” set Sam off [MTL 6: 552].

Dr. John Brown wrote from Edinburgh, Scotland: