14 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CtHMTH, UCCL 01207)
Darling Mother
Clara’s beautiful silver set came yesterday— It is just as exquisitely ha as it can be. When Susie’s and Langdon’s came we thought that nothing could be prettier, 1explanatory note but Clara’s I think is— The mug is such a rare, unusual shape— Clara was exceedingly pleased when we showed it to her, she handled it and was very much inclined to bang the mug with the spoon but of course that she was not allowed to do— Susie too was very much interested— I had to get out her silver set so that she could look at hers at the same time—her napkin ring she has not seen yet I shall keep it until her birthday—
Today Susie stood at Ⓐemendation by one of the book cases shelves— I said “Susie “do you want a book?”—she said “yes mamma, but I don’t know which one I want” It sounded as if she was about twenty years old, and was looking for a book to read—
Mr and Mrs Howells came Thursday noon, and left us yesterday (Saturday) noon—we had an exceedingly pleasant time with them—Thursday I invited Mr and Mrs Perkins, and Mammie 2explanatory note —Mr and Mrs Twichell and Mr and Mrs G. Warner to dine with them—we had a good time— 3explanatory note Friday evening we were invited to Mr Perkins— Mrs Howells is not a bit like Mrs Aldrich, she is exceedingly simple in her dress—she reminds me in her manners a good deal of cousin Anna Brown, 4explanatory note and a little of the Mrs Shipman that you met in Fenwick— 5explanatory note She is exceedingly bright—very intellectual, but—sensible and nice, I liked her—she is almost common in her dress— She went into raptures over the table cover that Charlie brought from Turkey. 6explanatory note
Thought the house was the most delightful one that she was ever in— We had a very satisfactory visit and hope that it will be often repeated— 7explanatory note
Will Gillette may go to Elmira when Mr Raymond does, to play in “Gilded Age”— I wish if he does Charlie would hunt him up and have him call at the house, perhaps he will call any way I invited him too 8explanatory note
Good night—mother dear— Youth is going to add a word. I am so sorry that Ida does not get well faster—do make her be very careful— 9explanatory note
Mother dear, the silver is exquisite beyond expression. I do not think I ever saw any before that was so beautiful. I was so acggravatedⒶemendation to think the Howellses could have seen it if their train had been the 1.45 instead of the 12.30.10explanatory note
Langdon, the Clemenses’ first child, had died on 2 June 1872 (see L5 , 97–101).
Mary Russell Perkins.
The Howellses arrived in Hartford on Thursday, 11 March, and stayed for two nights. Twichell remarked in his journal that he and his wife, Harmony, enjoyed a “most delightful evening with some of the best people in the world”; on Friday morning he “took the children over after breakfast to see the Howellses, or rather to let the Howellses see them. They i.e the children behaved well” (Twichell, 1:66). Lilly Warner likewise found the Howellses agreeable, writing to her husband, George (who had just left on a business trip to Iowa), “The Howells went yester. noon, & we ran over to say goodbye. Such friendly folk as they are. I feel as if I knew them well” (14 Mar 75, CU-MARK).
Anna Marsh Brown, the daughter of Mrs. Langdon’s twin sister, Louisa Lewis Marsh ( L4 , 43).
In August and early September 1872, while Clemens was in England, Mrs. Langdon stayed with Olivia at Fenwick Hall, a resort hotel in New Saybrook, Connecticut, popular with Hartford residents. The Mrs. Shipman she met there evidently was Mary C. Shipman (1834–1903), the wife of Judge Nathaniel Shipman and already, or soon to be, a good friend of Olivia’s ( L5 , 112–13, 146, 153 n. 1; “Hartford Residents,” Shipman Family, 1; 21 Feb 75 to Sprague and others, n. 3click to open link; Mary C. Shipman to OLC, 26 Mar 78, CU-MARK).
Charles Langdon visited Turkey in the spring of 1870, while on a lengthy study tour of the world with Professor Darius Ford, of Elmira College ( L3 , 350 n. 3; L4 , 101 n. 4, 140 n. 2).
This was Olivia Clemens’s and Elinor Howells’s first meeting (see 4 Mar 74 to Howells, n. 1click to open link). In a letter to his father the day after the visit concluded, Howells expressed his enjoyment, but without quite sharing his wife’s pleasure in the house:
We had a really charming visit, not marred by anything. The Clemenses are whole-souled hosts, with inextinguishable money, and a palace of a house, to which, by the way I really prefer ours,—and we met all the pleasant people whose acquaintance I made last year, except the Warners, who are now up the Nile. (14 Mar 75, MH-H, in MTHL , 1:70 n. 1)
For the Warners’ travels, see 3 Oct 74 to Howells, n. 3click to open link.
William H. Gillette (1853–1937), Lilly Warner’s younger brother, had begun a long and successful career as an actor and dramatist. After graduating from Hartford Public High School in 1873, he studied acting in St. Louis and New Orleans, playing minor roles with a stock company. Assisted by Clemens’s personal recommendation and financial support, he secured a role in Raymond’s touring production of the Gilded Age play. According to Albert Bigelow Paine,
The Sellers play was given in Hartford, in January (1875), to as many people as could crowd into the Opera House. Raymond had reached the perfection of his art by that time, and the townsmen of Mark Twain saw the play and the actor at their best. Kate Field played the part of Laura Hawkins, and there was a Hartford girl in the company; also a Hartford young man, who would one day be about as well known to playgoers as any playwright or actor that America has produced. His name was William Gillette, and it was largely due to Mark Twain that the author of Secret Service and of the dramatic “Sherlock Holmes” got a fair public start. Clemens and his wife loaned Gillette the three thousand dollars which tided him through his period of dramatic education. Their faith in his ability was justified. ( MTB , 1:539)
If Gillette appeared in the 11 and 12 January Hartford performances, neither the Hartford Courant nor the Hartford Times mentioned him or “a Hartford girl.” The troupe performed in Elmira on 31 March, and again on 15 May. Gillette received no mention on either occasion, but he may have been in the cast. He played the counsel for the defense during the run at the Globe Theatre in Boston from 19 April to 1 May, and on 6 May, when the play returned to Hartford, he again, “very creditably,” played that role (“Col. Sellers,” Hartford Courant, 7 May 75, 2). On 7 May, Twichell noted in his journal:
Will Gillette, one of our boys and one of our best was missing last winter i.e all we knew was that he was in New York—“studying”—they said. It finally transpired that he had been on the stage all that time acting in “The Gilded Age”—M.T’s play. (Geo. Warner told me that for the first part of the time he was foreman of the jury in the Trial Scene, and all he had to say—every word—was “not Guilty.”) (Twichell, 1:96)
Gillette played still a different part in New York in August (see 12 May 75 to Raymond, n. 1click to open link; Cook, 3, 7–8, 10–13, 87, 90; Elmira Advertiser: “The Gilded Age,” 30 Mar 75, 4; “John T. Raymond as Col. Sellers,” 1 Apr 75, 4; “The Gilded Age,” 15 May 75, 4; Boston Advertiser: “Music and the Drama,” 19 Apr 75, 2; “Amusements,” 1 May 75, 1).
Ida Langdon had recently given birth to a son (see 27 Jan 75 to Langdon, n. 1click to open link).
After the two days in Hartford, Howells returned to Cambridge, presumably taking the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad’s 12:13 p.m. express to Boston, while Elinor took the 12:33 p.m. express to New York. Howells joined her there, with their children, in a week or ten days. Then, following a visit with Elinor’s mother in New Jersey, the family went to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, arriving on 27 March (“Railroad Time tables,” Hartford Courant, 13 Mar 75, 3; Howells 1979, 92–93).
MS, Jervis Langdon Collection, Mark Twain House, Hartford (CtHMTH).
L6 , 411–414.
The Jervis Langdon Collection was donated in 1963 by Ida Langdon.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.