1 The third quarter for Innocents ended on 30 April. Bliss’s letter, to which Clemens replied here, has not been found.

2 In Fredonia, about forty miles from Buffalo, the Moffetts and Jane Clemens rented a brick house on Day Street (across from the village common), the former rectory of Trinity Episcopal Church. Pamela may have hoped to buy this house, which the church designated for sale on 24 March, setting the price at $5,000 on 17 May. It sold, however, to Sarah Greene on 18 March 1871. Probably in late November 1871 the Moffetts and Jane Clemens moved to the frame house on Temple Street where they were living by 1875. Local records indicate that Pamela did not purchase the Temple Street house either. In 1912, Paine reported that in recommending Fredonia, Clemens had advised Pamela to “Try to select a place where a good many funerals pass. Ma likes funerals. If you can pick a good funeral corner she will be happy” (MTB, 1:424). According to Douglas H. Shepard of Fredonia, “both the Day St. and the Temple St. homes were on the direct route for almost all funerals in Fredonia” (Shepard to Michael B. Frank, 14 Nov 1993, 26 Jan 1994, 4 Feb 1994, 30 Apr 1994, 8 May 1994, CU-MARK; MTBus, 112, 129, 170).

3 Clemens was anticipating the Langdons’ return. On the day of this letter the Elmira Saturday Evening Review reported that they “are now in Savannah, and are not expected home for two weeks” (“Local Jottings,” 8). See 4 May 70 to Janney, n. 1.

4 Clemens’s first “Memoranda” appeared in the Galaxy for May, published by mid-April (SLC 1870 [MT00883]). The New York Tribune called “Memoranda” a “pleasant admixture of sense and nonsense” (“New Publications,” 15 Apr 70, 6). The Elmira Advertiser observed:

On 26 April, Francis Church wrote Clemens, enclosing a “check for the 12th part of $2000 for the May Memoranda” and an unidentified review or reviews, indicating that “it has made a hit” (CU-MARK). He also reminded Clemens that copy for the June issue was due by 3 May. The June “Memoranda” (SLC 1870 [MT00917]) was also well received. The New York Tribune pronounced it one of the Galaxy’s best elements; the Elmira Advertiser called it “overwhelmingly funny”; and the Elmira Saturday Evening Review said that “Mark Twain’s contributions now constitute a steady and very valuable feature—they are super excellent” (“New Publications,” New York Tribune, 19 May 70, 6; “Editorial Small Talk,” Elmira Advertiser, 23 May 70, 1; “Dramatic Notes,” Elmira Saturday Evening Review, 28 May 70, 5). Clemens’s own confidence in both the May and June “Memoranda” remained strong: he eventually reprinted six of their eleven sketches, both in 1872 with George Routledge and Sons (Mark Twain’s Sketches) and in 1875 with Bliss (Sketches, New and Old).

5 See 22 Jan 70 to Bliss, n. 7.

6 Sarah Robards Bowen (1836–1918), a former Hannibal schoolmate, was the recent widow of Clemens’s good friend and fellow pilot, later captain, Barton W. Stone Bowen, who had died at Hannibal on 21 May 1868 (L1, 340–41 n. 4; Inds, 94, 97, 304, 345; “Death of Captain Bart Bowen,” St. Louis Dispatch, 2 June 68, 1; “Death of a Steamboat Captain,” San Francisco Times, 23 June 68, 1).