March 13 before — Robert J. Collier sent an engraved invitation for Sam to meet Theodore Roosevelt at breakfast on Saturday, Mar. 13 at noon at 752 Park Avenue, NYC [MTP].
March 13 Saturday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Mrs. Helen Kerr Blackmer at the Woman’s Club, N.Y.C. (Margaret Blackmer’s, mother).
Dear Mrs. Blackmer:
“Saturday April 10, to remain until late Monday afternoon.” Indeed I am very glad to have that much, altho’ I’m greedy for more. And so I thank you right sincerely, You will tell us your train, so that we can meet you.
I shall arrive at H. H. Rogers’s house, 3 East 78 at 12.30 next Wednesday, 17th, & stay a couple of days, & I must have a glimpse of Margaret. If she is going to be in town I hope you will telephone me at Mr. R’s house. If she isn’t I must try [to] find time to make a flying trip to her school.
Yes, Atlantic City will freshen the child up, I am sure. It will be pleasant & valuable change for her. /
Sincerely Yours / ... [MTP].
Sam also replied to the Mar. 12 from William Dean Howells. “Dear Howells: / Bring the letters when you & Pilla come—to bring them will put you under obligation to come, & I do hope you will let us see you both as soon as Pilla return from Bermuda. Ah, those letters! remembrances of that dark time. I think I could read them now, but I am not sure./ Yours ever” ... [MTHL 2: 842-3]. Note: Howells made his first visit to Stormfield—without Mildred—on Mar. 23 to 26 March (Storm field Guest Book MTP).
Sam also wrote a notice for Stormfield Guests about the delay in getting hot water to the faucets:
TO GET HOT WATER.
Turn the starboard faucet & trust in God. Go back to bed & wait. It will come—be patient. There are 9 climates between the faucet & the kitchen. Let 8 of them drain into the tub undisturbed. Lay for No. 10. It is the one you want. Allow one minute for each climate; you will have your reward.
Do not try to hurry this water. Just wait. Do not try to assist it by flattery, persuasion, compulsion, nor by any other of the usual expedients. I save prayer alone: it cares not a Gatun Dam for prayer. / SLC /
Stormfield, March 13/09 [MTP].
Sam noted in his after Sept. 25, 1909 letter that on this day, “The signing of a hatful of contracts—the gloomy beginning of the sunny end.”
Dr. Frederick Peterson, Jean’s physician visited Stormfield to consider the possibility of allowing Jean to stay at Stormfield [Hill 225]. Note: see Mar. 14 entry.
Ralph W. Ashcroft signed four notes of $250 each payable to Clemens to secure the balance of Isabel Lyon's debt for renovation of the “Lobster Pot,” now called Summerfield.” Lyon had claimed that the cost for fixing up the house Sam had given her was $1,500; Sam forgave $500 of it for a Christmas present in 1908, leaving $1,000 due. Harry Lounsbury, however, claimed the cost of work on the house came to $3,500 [Hill 226].
Two contracts were signed this date between Samuel L. Clemens and Isabel Lyon, the first for a compilation to be titled, “Life and Letters of Mark Twain,” and the second making Lyon the “literary and social secretary” of Clemens. Both documents were witnessed by Ralph W. Ashcroft and H.W. Hazen, and notarized by John N. Nickerson. On the face of the first contract Sam wrote, “Canceled Ap 15 by written notice at the same time tht the other paper [contract of this date was canceled.” On the face of each contract Sam wrote “Canceled Apl 15 by written notice, to take effect May 15, 1909, / Two month’s salary paid by check, /SLC” [A-L MS]. Note: entire contracts, just over a page each, can be seen in the source.
Helen F. Brockett wrote on D.A.R. notepaper to send Sam her father’s bookplate and ask for his in return. Her father as Edward J. Brockett. “Do celebrated men ever indulge in fads? Or do they leave that to ordinary mortals?” And, “Ts it really so very troublesome, being great?” [MTP].
W. Ellis, a Major in the US Army, wrote from Fort Terry, NY to advise he was sending “under separate cover my gold medal essay on ‘Enlistments in the Army”” and asked for Sam’s brief statement of his views on the matter [MTP].
McLane Tilton, Jr. wrote from Pell City, Ala. to Sam to settle an argument with a friend. “...we shortly start for Germany to see that chain in the channel of the Neckar if we have to dive to do it. I say it is there. He says contra. We have a bet up and I am looking to you for a tip so that I can either hedge or tap his pile” [MTP].
Edwin Wildman for the Chemung County Society wrote to once again invite Sam to the Annual banquet [MTP].