Rescued by Rogers: DBD

August 29 Tuesday – Sam and daughter Clara sailed from Bremen for New York in the Spree, Captain Meissel [NB 33 TS 30].

August 30 Wednesday – The Spree stopped in Southampton, on the south coast of England for more passengers [Sept. 2 Times article]. Sam’s notebook:

At Southampton 2.30 p.m. Aug 29 [Aug. 30] about 25 hours out from Bremen. / Consul Kelly, General Agent of the N.D.L. / The widow lady & her sons got off here. Ask for her at Hillman’s Hotel, Bremen, they will find her for us. / Clothes to come by next ship — probably Wm. II [NB 33 TS 30].

August 31 Thursday – Sam and daughter Clara were at sea on the Spree.

December 1 Friday – In New York on Players Club stationery, Sam wrote a short note to Charles Willey in Bay Shore, Long Island:

My Dear Sir: / I have great confidence in Huck Finn’s judgment in these matters; therefore I am quite willing that you should use the design [MTP].

Sam visited William Dean Howells in his N.Y. apartment but “had to leave there …because so many people came there was no satisfaction in the visit” [Dec. 2 to Livy].

December 10 Sunday – Sam returned to New York and wrote from the Players Club to the Secretary of the Millicent Library in Fairhaven, Mass. This was Henry H. Rogers’ boyhood town to which he later gave many gifts, including the Fairhaven High School, the Town Hall, a Masonic Hall, Cushman Park, and Millicent Library, named for his deceased daughter who had a love of books. At age 20 Rogers left the town to seek his fortune in the oil fields of Pennsylvania.

December 11 Monday – In New York Sam came down with a bad cold, and called in Dr. Clarence Rice to administer. He kept an appointment (unspecified) at noon [Dec. 14 to Trumbull]. Evidently, he did not go with Rice to a play as proposed in his notebook [NB 33 TS 43].

Livy wrote to Sam. He received the letter (not extant) on Dec. 25 with three others from her (Dec. 9, 10, 12), after his return from Chicago [Dec.25 to Livy].

December 12 Tuesday – Livy wrote to Sam. He received the letter (not extant) on Dec. 25 with three others from her (Dec. 9, 10, 11), after his return from Chicago [Dec.25 to Livy].

William A. Goodhart (Law offices of Goodhart & Phillips, N.Y.) wrote to Sam:

December 13 Wednesday – In New York on Dr. Clarence Rice’s letterhead, Sam wrote to Clarence C. Buel, asking if he might get “that Thursday talk put off?” due to his bad cough and cold. He was scheduled to give a lecture to the St. George’s Church Men’s Club on “Reminiscences of a Mississippi Pilot” on Dec. 14.

Sam also wrote on Players Club letterhead to Henry H. Rogers:

Dear Doctor Rogers:

December 14 Thursday – In New York and still laid up, Sam wrote to Clarence C. Buel:

I am still in bed, & waiting for Dr. Rice to come & withdraw his prohibition.

I have been obliged to eat — couldn’t wait any longer, because I had a long fit of coughing which had to be stopped somehow or other. So don’t keep a place for me at table.

December 15 Friday – The N.Y. Times, p.1 reported Sam failed to meet his Dec. 14 speaking engagement at St. George’s Church because “his medical adviser forbade it.”

December 16 Saturday – In New York Sam moved to a better room at the Players Club. He completed the “Tale of the Dime-Novel Maiden,” which he began in a letter to Livy on Oct 17. In his Dec. 17 to Livy he wrote of moving into his new quarters on this evening and running across the tale which he’d misplaced.

December 17 Sunday – In New York Sam wrote to Livy, enclosing the “Tale of the Dime-Novel Maiden,” and describing his new digs, and the difficulty of waiting:

December 18 Monday – In New York Sam dined with the Laurence Hutton family and wrote of it on Dec. 19 to Livy:

I dined with the Huttons yesterday [Dec. 18] evening — family dinner, no dress — & we had a delightful time till 11 o’clock. Mr. Hutton thinks Pudd’nhead opens up in great & fine style. The fact is I get a great many compliments on that story & the promise it holds out to the reader [MTP].

December – “Traveling with a Reformer” first ran in the Cosmopolitan. It was later included in How to Tell a Story, and Other Essays (1897), and The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays (1900) and My Debut as a Literary Person, etc. (1903) [Budd, Collected 2: 1001]. The second installment of Tom Sawyer Abroad appeared as a serial in the Dec. issue of St. Nicholas Magazine.

December 19 Tuesday – In New York, Sam went to the Standard Oil office at noon to arrange the Chicago trip they’d planned. While waiting he met Wayne MacVeagh, now Minister to Italy, and father to Margaretta, friend of Susy’s. When told they hadn’t heard from Susy, Sam filled him in.

December 2 Saturday – In New York Sam wrote to Livy. He enclosed Howells’ Dec. 1 request that he not wear his dress coat, writing a paragraph on the back:

Livy darling, I shall go in a dress coat just the same. I had to leave there yesterday because so many people came there was no satisfaction in the visit. Several of them called Howells out for extended private interviews. Heretofore there have been many people. But they stayed in the parlor.

Sam then wrote the balance of his letter on other pages:

December 20 Wednesday – In New York Sam arrived home (Players Club) at 3 a.m. from unspecified engagements. Some powders were waiting for him for his cold, sent by Henry H. Rogers. He stayed awake for an hour and took them, got a few hours sleep and wrote Rogers his thanks at 9 a.m.

I got the shoes on my way home from your office, & when you see them you will be paralyzed with admiration [MTP].

December 21 Thursday – In New York, Sam finished the letter to Livy at 2 a.m.

December 22 Friday – Sam and Rogers continued on to Chicago, eating breakfast in their parlor car after 9:30 a.m.

The colored waiter knew his business, & the colored cook was a finished artist. Breakfasts: coffee with real cream; beefsteaks, sausage, bacon, chops, eggs in various ways, potatoes in various — yes, & quite wonderful baked potatoes, & hot as fire. Dinners — all manner of things, including canvas-back duck, apollinaris, claret champagne, etc.

—

December 23 Saturday –In Chicago Sam and H.H. Rogers had a wake-up call at 7:45 a.m. The plan was for Rogers to confer with Mr. Walker and the others, while Sam would make a quick trip to the Columbian Exposition’s “White City,” the area at the Court of Honor so-called because the buildings were made of a white stucco, which, in comparison to the tenements of Chicago, seemed illuminated.

December 24 Sunday – Returning from Chicago, Sam and H.H. Rogers “insisted on leaving the car at Philadelphia so that our waiter & cook (to whom Mr. R gave $10 apiece), could have their Christmas-eve at home.” Rogers’ carriage was waiting for the men at Jersey City. Sam was “deposited” at the Players Club “close upon midnight” [Dec. 25 to Livy].

December 25 Monday – Christmas – In New York at the Players Club Sam wrote Livy a full account of the “Chicago campaign,” offered to “make up for the 3 letterless days.” See entries from Dec. 22 to 24.

Sam also wrote to Elsie L. Leslie:

December 27 Wednesday – In New York at the Players Club, Sam wrote to daughter Susy. He wished she could be with him at Dr. Rice’s gathering the following night. He also told of how happy his speech had made Brander Matthews, quoting him as saying the delivery was “masterly!” Also, he told about his ruined Christmas dinner due to a lady he detested (See. Dec. 25 entry). Sam finished the letter after a six-hour interval, at midnight.

December 28 Thursday – In New York Sam wrote daughter Jean.

Dear Blatherskite: I am glad you are having good times at your school, but I kind of wish they had none but French girls in it.

December 29 Friday – At 1:30 a.m., Sam finished his Dec. 28 to Livy

2 in the morning, now, & I better go to bed. I love you my darling & think you are the dearest woman in this world. / Saml [MTP].

Later in the day Sam was able to write Livy a longer letter. He’d had two business calls while putting on his shirt. When he got downstairs for coffee, George Warner was waiting for him to tell him about Dr. Whipple, “mind curist,” and take Sam to see him.