May 18 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers. I am lying fallow here, all these days, & drowsing & resting. Life begins to stir in me at last, but I’ve no use for it yet, for my stenographer is delayed & I can’t begin work until 3 days hence.
I do prodigiously like this air, this altitude, this deep silence, this unneighbored solitude. By the end of the month we shall be entirely settled & wonted & smoothly going, & ready for you & Mrs. Rogers to come to us & get a breath of brisk unsalted back-country air. We are 80 miles from Boston, by excellent ‘mobile roads.
If you sent for that check your order went to Dublin, Ireland. Do it again, & do it right.
Brer Duneka is slippery beyond imagination! I must tell you about it when you come. I mean another now, that he played slippery once before. I had forgotten it. In minor ways he is slippery a good 3 times out of 5. I want to get my Christian Science book out of his hands without raising a coolness. I must think of a way [MTHHR 607]. Note: Christian Science was published in 1907.
H.H. Rogers wrote from N.Y.C. to Sam.
My dear Clemens: / I sent you yesterday a statement of the Directors of the Standard Oil Co. to its Stockholders, which I hope you will read when you have time, between now and the 1st. of January.
I am reminded to write you because I have just had an interview with Charles Fairchild, a gentleman of pleasant memory, whom you will recall. He is trying to sell me some property in Boston. I did not “catch on.” He looked somewhat depressed and dilapidated. I told him I would not buy the City of Boston if I could get it for $5,000. He thought it an amazing remark, and I told him I thought it would have your endorsement.
Mrs. Rogers, Dr. Rice and I are going to Fairhaven to-night. It is needless to say we would like to have you along, but that is impossible. I hope you reached Dublin in safety. The stock I had advised you to buy did not work as well as I thought it would, and so I have done nothing in the matter. / With kindest regards / P.S. I cannot lie. I did not use your name with Fairchild. That remark crawled in [MTHHR 606-7].
William Dean Howells wrote from N.Y.C. to Sam.
After a great toil and fret in a boiling temperature, I have found those letters of yours, which I will send to any exact address you give me. When you have autobiographied from them, will you send them back? We find ourselves unable to part with them, because there is surely great pleasure and perhaps profit in them. I suppose we can trust you, but I will feel better if Miss Lyon says you will do it.
We expect to sail for Kittery Point by the 11 p.m. express next Thursday. Till then, here.
I hope you got to Dublin in good shape, and feel young.
I went to the Schurz funeral yesterday. But how futile all funerals are! A man might as well live. One discourse in English which I could not hear, and one in German which I could not understand. Such is death [MTHL 2: 806-7].
I do prodigiously like this air, this altitude, this deep silence, this unneighbored solitude. By the end of the month we shall be entirely settled & wonted & smoothly going, & ready for you & Mrs. Rogers to come to us & get a breath of brisk unsalted back-country air. We are 80 miles from Boston, by excellent ‘mobile roads.
If you sent for that check your order went to Dublin, Ireland. Do it again, & do it right.
Brer Duneka is slippery beyond imagination! I must tell you about it when you come. I mean another now, that he played slippery once before. I had forgotten it. In minor ways he is slippery a good 3 times out of 5. I want to get my Christian Science book out of his hands without raising a coolness. I must think of a way [MTHHR 607]. Note: Christian Science was published in 1907.
H.H. Rogers wrote from N.Y.C. to Sam.
My dear Clemens: / I sent you yesterday a statement of the Directors of the Standard Oil Co. to its Stockholders, which I hope you will read when you have time, between now and the 1st. of January.
I am reminded to write you because I have just had an interview with Charles Fairchild, a gentleman of pleasant memory, whom you will recall. He is trying to sell me some property in Boston. I did not “catch on.” He looked somewhat depressed and dilapidated. I told him I would not buy the City of Boston if I could get it for $5,000. He thought it an amazing remark, and I told him I thought it would have your endorsement.
Mrs. Rogers, Dr. Rice and I are going to Fairhaven to-night. It is needless to say we would like to have you along, but that is impossible. I hope you reached Dublin in safety. The stock I had advised you to buy did not work as well as I thought it would, and so I have done nothing in the matter. / With kindest regards / P.S. I cannot lie. I did not use your name with Fairchild. That remark crawled in [MTHHR 606-7].
William Dean Howells wrote from N.Y.C. to Sam.
After a great toil and fret in a boiling temperature, I have found those letters of yours, which I will send to any exact address you give me. When you have autobiographied from them, will you send them back? We find ourselves unable to part with them, because there is surely great pleasure and perhaps profit in them. I suppose we can trust you, but I will feel better if Miss Lyon says you will do it.
We expect to sail for Kittery Point by the 11 p.m. express next Thursday. Till then, here.
I hope you got to Dublin in good shape, and feel young.
I went to the Schurz funeral yesterday. But how futile all funerals are! A man might as well live. One discourse in English which I could not hear, and one in German which I could not understand. Such is death [MTHL 2: 806-7].
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