January 10 Monday — Albert Bigelow Paine wrote from Redding to Clemens:
The Lincoln pass-book came in this morning, and we have checked it through carefully, with cheque-book, cancelled cheques &c; the result shows an actual balance of $472.13 on Jan. 4 instead of $332.54 as entered in your cheque-book. Somehow Jean may have made a mistake in her adding, or subtracting, and we need not look it up—it does not matter. Nobody is wronged, and your balance is $139.52 more than she thought. [He directed Sam to enter several deposits and other details] [MTP].
D. Hoffman writes of Sam attending a lecture:
Helen [Allen] and her mother went with Clemens to a military lecture at Prospect on January 10. The speaker had sent a special invitation, saying he wished to address in particular Mark Twain, “the greatest living master of the platform-art.” They were greeted by Lt.-Gen. Frederick Walter Kitchener, the governor of Bermuda and a brother of Horatio Herbert Kitchener of Khartoum, commander in chief during much of the South African War of 1899 to 1902 . Clemens worried that on a previous occasion he had committed a breach of etiquette. He wrote Paine the next day [see entry] to express relief that the governor was “apparently as glad to see me as he said he was.” That night, Clemens planned to dine with the commandant of the Carnegie, who promised to arrange a private tour of his ship [145]. Note: Sir Frederick Walter Kitchener (1858-1912), veteran of the Boer War, served as Bermuda Commander and Governor from Oct. 1908 until his death.
Ginney (Virginia) Bissell wrote from Hartford to offer sympathy [MTP].
William W. Jackson wrote from Eau Claire, Wisc. “You do not know me but you do know my Dad, Wm, T. Jackson, as I was told you were kids together, although I presume kids were not kids in those days of long ago.” He enclosed a picture of Clemens and his old Hannibal home and invited him to spend the summer there [MTP].
Carlotta Welles wrote from Byrn Mawr College to offer condolences [MTP].