March 21 Monday – Clara Clemens had continued voice lessons in Florence. She sang at the Alfieri Theater on this evening, and would give other performances on Apr. 8 and 15 [Hill 82].
At the Villa Reale di Quarto Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich.
I know—& you have my deepest sympathy in your sorrow. It carries me back to that heavy day, nearly 8 years ago, when a cable told me, in England, that our Susy was gone from us—I expecting no such tidings; & Mrs. Clemens & Clara in mid-Atlantic, going to bring her to England & not dreaming of what was in store for them when they should land. For you & yours there is no comfort in words, & I spare you—& me—the attempt. These wounds which you & I have suffered will never get well, & we shall never want them to.
Mrs. Clemens does not know. By an accident she saw your hand upon your letter, & asked after the boy, I—I said you were not uneasy about him, now; & she was grateful for this good news, & charged me with her love for you both—which I convey now, & with it mine. It is a year & seven months that she is a prisoner, & in pain & despondency [MTP]. Note: the Aldriches lost a son, Charles Aldrich on Mar. 5 of tuberculosis after a long stay in the Adirondacks.
Sam also wrote to John Y. MacAlister, now in Leysin, Switzerland.
I hope you are well again, but I should feel better about it & surer of it if I could have it from your own type-machine. We have had a bad 3 months; in that time Mrs. Clemens has not left her bed, & we have had more than the last month in bed myself—bronchitis. Incidentally, also, the thief Butters has been offering me 350 American Plasmon shares for $3,400—& I declined. I consider that the money I paid in there last year ($32,500) is totally lost. Incidentally, also, such railroad shares as I possess are worth less by $35,000 than they were a year ago. And so I have been feeling too poor to buy into that new company (the antiseptic soap one; but it occurs to me that if you still think well of it I wish you would trade 5 Founders shares (Plasmon) for stock in it & take the other Founder share for the Commission. Is it agreed?
We are having quite perfect weather now, & are hoping that it will bring good effects for Mrs. Clemens [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Hélène Elisabeth Picard, relating Livy’s collapse and struggle, and finally being up and about after his bronchitis. “On these terms life is not worth having—if it ever is,” he wrote [MTP].
Sam also began a letter to H.H. Rogers that he added a PS to on Mar. 22.
I have been waiting & waiting for that McClure—& yesterday I found it in one of the daughters’ rooms; it had been there a fortnight, I judge. They carry off anything that is addressed to me, if it looks interesting. Miss Tarbell always gives you a good character, as a man, & this time she does it again, but she gives you no rank as a conspirator—does not even let you say any dark things; does not even let you sit mute & awful in a Buffalo Court like John D., & lower the temperature of justice. Henry H., the woman has been bought! There are people who will do anything for distinction, & to rob another person of it—even a friend. I say nothing, I make no charge, but my thoughts are upon a person the principal letters of whose name spell Archbold. When you see him again, look at his eye. It is the eye that tells what a man is. It would be a mercy if some people had but one; it suppresses half the testimony for the prosecution. Do you know if Archbold has ever tried a green patch? It has been known to work.
Will you kindly hand the enclosed to Danl. Hanks? It is my latest, & is much admired. There is nothing like this climate to restore vanished youth.
To-day is the first time I have been cheerful for some weeks. Day before yesterday we took the madam out of her bed for the first time in 3 months & she sat in a chair 25 minutes. But she was up too long, & the results were bad, & for some hours she was threatened with one of those alarming turns. But she escaped it, this morning we are feeling easy again. This has been an awful 3 months, with these periodic frights. I have worked all the time; it was the only way to get respite from the blues. I have not taken enough interest in business to remind Duneka that he has fallen back into his old habit of never paying for magazine matter until I stir him up. I guess I’ve sent him about $10,000 worth, maybe more—all I expect to furnish this year. By & by I will remind him; he mustn’t be allowed to get his habit so solidified that he can’t break it.
I was not able to take a sharp interest in the Plasmon matter. I think it wasn’t worth it. I had an instinct that you would consider an additional purchase an additional insanity. That is what it would have been, I think.
A month ago I was knocked down with bronchitis & remained in bed until 3 days ago.
I do hope your Boston troubles are over by now, & that you have come out on top; & that all your home patients are safely out of the doctor’s hands, & that your fearful winter is over & that you & Mrs. Rogers are perfectly well. / Avanti / SL. C [MTP]. Note: Ida Tarbell’s history of Standard Oil was running serially in McClure’s Magazine. She praised Rogers as one of the “ablest and frankest” of the “candid” officers of the company. See Sam’s P.S. Mar. 22.
Sam also wrote to Frau Alice von Versen (née Clemens) :
Dear Excellency: / Indeed it would be a great pleasure for us to return by way of Berlin, & we should be glad to make that trip in order to see you again; but I suppose we shall see no land but Italy any more. Mrs. Clemens has kept her bed a year & 7 months this, & will never again be strong enough to travel any considerable distance, I fear. We hope & even [the rest of the letter is lost] [Bloomsbury Auctions May 16, 2008 Lot 240D].