April 14 Thursday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto, William Lyon Phelps (1865-1943), visited Sam for about an hour, noting that Sam “was 68 years old, but looked older….During this hour’s interview, Mark smoked three cigars; there was a constant twitching in his right cheek and his right eye seemed inflamed” [Hill 83]. Notes: Phelps was the “unrepentant duck-killer,” who as a boy killed five of Sam’s white ducks at the Farmington ave. house. (no relation to William Walter Phelps, American Minister to Germany). Note: Hill is quoting from Phelps’ article, “Some Notes on Mark Twain. With Some Unpublished Letters,” in the May 5, 1910 The Independent. In that article Phelps also writes:
On a memorable afternoon at Florence, the fourteenth of April 1904, I had an hour’s conversation with him and his daughter Jean. …
When I entered the room in Florence where he and his daughter were sitting, I found him absorbed in reading the latest news of the Japanese-Russian war, and it was with difficulty that I could induce him to talk on any other theme. He was tremendous partisan of the Japanese, and rejoiced greatly in their victories. “The real reason,” said he dryly, “why the Russians are getting licked is because of their niggardly policy. Look at General Kurapotkin! I read in the papers that he has taken out with him only eighty holy images! Just like the Russians! They never make adequate preparation for battle. Why, eighty ikons are not half enough; they ought to have two or three for every private soldier if they expect to beat those clever Japs. But that’s just the way the Russians do business; they are economical with their holy images when they ought to order them out by the carload.” I remarked that I had just read in the New York Sun a poem by Miss Edith Thomas, in which she hotly defended the Russians because they were Christians, and earnestly hoped that they would triumph over the heathen Japanese. He impatiently replied, “Edith doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
I finally persuaded him to talk a little about himself. I asked him which of all his works he thought was the best. In Yankee fashion he asked which I put first, and I said Huckleberry Finn. After a moment’s hesitation he remarked: “That is undoubtedly my best book.” Then I asked if, leaving aside the pleasure of artistic creation, it was not a source of great happiness to him to think that from a river pilot on the Mississippi he had risen to be an honoured and welcome guest at royal courts, and that this change in his circumstances had been wrought not by the accidental acquisition of a great fortune or by success in war, but wholly by the power of his own mind. (For from this point of view Mark Twain’s career is unique in the history of America.) He drawled out very slowly: “I do look back on my life with considerable satisfaction” [215-17].
Sam’s notebook: “Prof. Gelli” [NB 47 TS 9]. Note: Sam sat for his portrait. See Mar. 11 insert.
Sebastiano V. Cecchi of Haskard & Co. Ltd. Bankers. wrote to Sam, sending checks for £6.1 to the order of Dr. Donald MacAlister (brother of John Y. MacAlister, who had examined Livy). “I have placed the equivalent as Lire 151.50 to your debit” [MTP].
Harper & Brothers, London wrote to Sam, having rec’d his of Apr. 11 and were sending him by parcel post a copy of “The Dictionary of Dates.” Howells’ Stops of Various Quills (1895), however, could only be obtained in America [MTP].
Odoardo Luchini wrote from Florence to Sam. “The letter of Miss Lyon has reached me. Your instructions shall be strictly executed either by Mr Traverso or by me. Untill now, Senator Barsanti has not spoken to me about the Countess, and I do not make any step of advance” [MTP]. Note: Luchini returned Sam’s check, enclosed, for 160 Lire. Sam wrote on the check after lining through it, “Canceled & defaced by me, Apl. 15/04. SL Clemens
John Y. MacAlister wrote again from the Sanatorium Leysen in Switzerland.
I am anxious to know the result of the consultation & should be grateful for a line when you have a minute to spare. I had a note from my brother yesterday to say he was going with Dr. Kirch to see Mrs. Clemens but that he would have no time to write before he left Florence.
I earnestly hope the verdict was favorable. I feel very deeply the trouble you are in & wish I could help— but I cant even help myself now [MTP]. Note: John’s brother, Dr. Donald MacAlister, had evaluated Livy. John added he could get Sam any book from London)