April 20 Tuesday — Sam recorded an incident for this date:
Five days later (April 20), Ashcroft brought me a penciled paper, in the loggia, & said he had directed Mr. Lounsbury to smooth the roadway around the “‘oval,” & this was his (Lounsbury’s) estimate of the cost—$54. Ashcroft said he had told him to go ahead. He asked me if that was right. I said yes. Afterward I wondered what business Ashcroft had to be meddling with the road. It looked like an impertinence. Then I examined the road, & found that it needed no repairing & that there was no occasion to waste money on it. But I found a place beyond the oval that needed repairing, & needed it very much. I went over it with Lounsbury, who said the cost would be $250. I told him to let the oval entirely alone, & proceed with this work—which he did. When Ashcroft next arrived from New York he asked Lounsbury who had authorized him to mend that road? Lounsbury told him. Ashcroft said, “Go on with it, if you want to take the risk.”
Lounsbury couldn’t understand this extraordinary remark. He reported it to me, & I couldn’t understand it. It had a meaning, but at that time it was too deep for me [MTP: L-A MS XVI].
Sam received a bill from The Truth Seeker Company, NYC for one copy of The Worship of Augustus Caesar, etc. (1900) by Alexander Del Mar (1836-1926). The bill was paid on May 3, 1909 [Gribben 184].
Charles W. Leavitt, having learned that Sam had increased his property, wrote to offer Sam his services as a Civil and Landscape Engineer. He listed his clients [MTP].
H. Saito, an English teacher in Tokyo, Japan wrote to Sam of his “mission—that of interpreting the Japanese heart to the world...” and wishing to send him an English translation of a poem. Saito had lectured and quoted Mark Twain so often that he felt as if Mark Twain “was part of himself’ [MTP]. Note: IVL: “Ans’d May 11, ‘09’
Rev. S.C. Thompson wrote from Rensselaersville, NY. In his six page letter he recalled his life’s events and of borrowing money then spending years to repay his debts. Clemens had hired him to be an amanuensis during the writing of GA. After being a sailor and spending time in England he returned to be a minister in a small town that shrunk with the growth of industry there. He enclosed an money order for what he felt he owed. Clemens began a 17 page “Notes” on April 23, 1909 that is noted by De Voto as intended for the autobiography. See entry [MTP].