April 29 Thursday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Arthur Kyle Davis, Chairman Program Committee, Petersburg, Va.. [MTP]. See Insert below: Jpg from www.liveauctioneers.com
Sam also wrote to Frances Nunnally.
April 29/09, 4.30 pm.
Snowing hard
No, it has just stopped. But it did snow hard, for 1 until a minute ago—4.30. Only the third snow of the winter—if one may call it by that large name.
You are very dear Francesca, & you are a very sweet Francesca; but all the same you don’t give me any dates. Why are you so abstemious about dates? It’s an angel-fish failing—they don’t care anything for dates. I am under command to be at Margaret’s school to see a play, along about the end of May, but I can’t get the date out of that child, And you don’t tell me when I am to be at St. Timothy’s. Give me some particulars, dear. Come! I rather expect to go to Baltimore all by myself. I shall get lost, I know it well.
1. Tell me on what date I must reach Baltimore—leaving Hoboken, or Jersey City, or one of three places about 1 p.m.
2. Tell me what hotel to anchor in, in Baltimore.
3. Tell me how to get to Catonsville, from Baltimore, & what time o’ day to start.
4. Tell men how to get to St. Timothy’s after I get to Catonsville.
Now you dear indolent child, sit down & answer me these questions. You don’t want me to go astray & get eaten by the cows, You would always regret it. Are there many cows? And what kind are they?
I have needed & used the afghan you made for me almost constantly for these past 6 months. I was expecting to pack it away, now, but I see that that idea was premature.
Lovingly / SLC
5. Dear heart, one more: what is the name of the hotel in Catonsville?
There’s 5 questions. Answer all of them!—do you hear?
I’ve been reading about myself in Harper’s Monthly for May, & I do feel that some people can write most truthfully [MT],
Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote to Sam.
April 29, 1909,/ Dear Mr. Clemens: / I saw Mr. Rogers at his office this morning, at his request. His auditor will be here in a day or two, and will go over your accounts and affairs for the last two years; so that, in a very few days, your mind will be set at ease on that score, and your present worries lessened by the knowledge that your affairs have been honestly and conscientiously looked after by Miss Lyon and me.
Mr. Rogers seems to be of the same opinion that many of your other friends are, viz. that the ghastly treatment accorded to Miss Lyon during the past few weeks by a member of your family is a mightily poor return for the way in which she has, since Mrs. Clemens’ death, looked after you, your daughters and your affairs. While it is, of course, impossible for her calumniator to make any reparation, I and other of your friends hold trust that you will, in this matter, uphold your reputation for fairness and justice, and make what reparation you yourself can, As you have already stated, the charges emanated from a brain diseased with envy, malice and jealousy, and it is only when one views forgets this fact that one views them seriously. However, irresponsibly conceived or not, they have been and are serious in their effect upon your comfort and well-being, and upon that of others, and must therefore be viewed from that standpoint.
There is no reason on earth why the rest of your days should be spent in an atmosphere of artificiality, restraint and self-sacrifice: and, while I don’t suppose that the happiness that was your lot during the last six months of 1908 will recur in all its fulness and entirety, still I trust that you will, regardless of your philosophical theories, exercise your prerogatives of fatherhood and manhood in a way that will be productive of the greatest benefit to yourself, This I say regardless of what effect the expression of the sentiment may have on my relationship with you.
I am, / Yours, most sincerely, / [signed:] R. W. Ashcroft [MTP: L-A MS XIV].
[MTP]. Note: on a page of notes in the L-A MS, Sam wrote “Apl. 29 Ash’s letter,” then boxed and lined out the following: “About same date A’s giveaway remark to Harry about selling my house” [L-A MS]. Note: Ashcroft reputedly told Harry Lounsbury that he could sell Twain’s house any time he chose. See May 28 entry for the full story.
Henry Hamilton Harwood wrote from Richmond, Va. to Sam. “I should like to send you a copy of a little work I published recently on the Sonnets of Francis Bacon” [MTP]. Note “Ans’d May 1. ‘09”