January 30 Sunday — In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote to Thomas Lemuel James (1831-1916), prior Postmaster General briefly under Garfield (1881-1882); afterward until his death James was chairman of the board of directors of the Lincoln National Bank, NYC . See also Feb. 15 entry.
Dear General—
Please send me fifty dollars. Send it in silver American quarter pieces. Don’t send old rusty ones. Send bright and white and new ones just out of the mint. I have a special use for them. I enclose a check.
Sincerely yours,
Mark Twain [MTP: NY Evening Mail May 2, 1910).
Sam also wrote to Albert B. Paine in Redding, Conn. “Dear Paine— / (in a desperate hurry)Please send me 200 visiting cards. / Ys ever / SLC” [MTP].
Sam also wrote another to Albert B. Paine, heading it “Bay House / Sunday,” which may have been this day:
Dear Paine;
Have you ever had a tooth-brush disembowel itself in your mouth? I have been trying this & it is not as amusing as it seems at first glance. his is because the bristles do not fall entirely apart but get crisscross & will not go down but lodge & get stuck except a random few & these go down only an inch or two & stop there & obstruct the successors, Detachments from the main bunch get under your tongue & you try to get them out with your fingers which causes writhings & convulsions of the tongue and proddings & stuckings and general discomfit & language; & after all, there is no success. Get the Colonel to try it / Yours Ever / S.L.C. / per HSA
[in SLC'S hand]| P.S. Helen thinks such things are not worth recording [MTP].