March 4 Thursday - In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote a memo to Ralph W. Ashcroft.
Memo. for Mr Ashcroft.
Draw up codicil to will, whereby, at age 55, my daughter Clara may have her 1/2 share of estate, Jean’s share to remain in trust during her (Jean’s) lifetime. If Jean dies before Clara, & Clara is her sole or partial legatee, this property to remain in trust until Clara is 55. If Clara dies before Jean, & Jean is Clara’s sole or partial legatee, this property to remain in trust during Jean’s lifetime.
Advance Dr J. E. Clemens, New Orleans, La, $500. against his 5 notes for $100. each at 6% first note maturing one year from date & the rest, one every 2 months thereafter. No security to be required / SLC [MTP]. Note: Dr. J.E. Clemens is unidentified, This may be James Ross Clemens of St. Louis.
Sam also wrote to H.H. Rogers.
Dear H, H. / I think it likely that I shall go to the Lotos-Carnegie banquet, 17th of March, after all. It was getting so difficult to keep on declining & explaining, that night before last I suspended payment in that kind, & said I would go, & would very much like to go, if I could be privileged to feed elsewhere & arrive at 10 p.m.; & if also I might stipulate that my name be left out of the list of pledged speakers, so that I would not have to propose a speech, & needn’t speak at all unless moved by the spirit so to do.
The terms seem to me to be fair, & so if I get word that they are accepted, I’ll go down on the 17th by the 10.30 express, arriving at the Grand Central at noon. In which case, am I going to find eatables, drinkables & lodging at your tavern at reduced rates?——on account of the Country having lost the creator & propagator & promoter of its prosperities to-day. / With love to you both, ... [MTHHR 659-60]. Note: this last note refers to inauguration of William Howard Taft, who replaced Theodore Roosevelt as President. March 4 used to be inauguration day; since 1933 it has been Jan. 20.
Sam noted in his after Sept. 25, 1909 letter that on this day 14 years were added to the copyright term.
Clemens purchased The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book by Kipling from G.P. Putnam’s Sons, NYC, and would pay the bill on Apr. 10. Gribben adds: “Subsequently Mark Twain utilized Baloo the bear and Hathi the elephant in his ‘A Fable,’ published in the December 1909 issue of Harper’s Magazine” [378].
Jon R. Harrison wrote from Dombartonsire, England to thank Sam for an autograph sent. He enclosed the stamps he was unable to get before [MTP].
John Albert Macy wrote from Wrentham, Mass. to Sam. “A set of proofs of Mr. Booth’s book as far as it has gone will be ready for you in about a week. I hope you will find it better sausage meat even than Greenwood and that you will load a ton of it into your Autobiography.” He wrote of Helen Keller reading acrostics in braille, observing that “Her mind works absolutely right in the realm of pure reason and mathematics. She can do geometry in her head. I know that you cannot do that because I have seen you miss the same billiard shot eight times in succession” [MTP]. Note: William Stone Booth, Some Acrostic Signatures of Francis Bacon, etc. (1909); see Gribben p.77.
John L. Nelson for Thomas J. Caie & Co., Cleveland Ohio wrote to advise Sam of the death there of one eleven year old, Henry Wick, Jr. (clipping enclosed) and to relate the story of Nelson selling books to Wick’s mother after going back and being asked by the boy for Mark Twain books only [MTP]. Note: on the reverse: IVL: “Say that the letter has given me a rare delight but it brought the tears. Tears partly of pleasure partly of the sincerest sorrow for that poor mother.”