October 22 Thursday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to William H. Gillette at the Plaza Hotel in N.Y.C.
Thank you for the verses—fervently. They are lovely. I shall enter heaven singing these hymns. If you believe me, it will Excite Interest. And all parties will clap me on the back—(in private)—& say “Go it!” But not in public, dear sir, not in public; for heaven is not going to change the human being’s nature. …
[written sideways in top margin] P. S. Don’t you leave any of these numbers out—put in every line; including those suppressed in Job. If the 8th line’s merely unfactful, can’t you say “thinks” instead of “Job “says?” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to John Y. MacAlister in London, revealing a momentous signing on this day:
Substantially, we are ready for sea; the trunks will go on board to-morrow afternoon; we follow next morning, & sail at 11 a.m., direct for Genoa. The madam has not lost ground, but has gained a trifle, maybe.
We have just received the name of the Florentine house which we have taken for a year:
Villa Reale di Quarto
Address: Florence
The contract with the Harpers was signed to-day—& that job’s over [MTP].
Livy also wrote to Emilie R. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers).
What a delicious mass of flowers followed in your wake this afternoon. You had scarcely left our door when my maid brought them in. When I saw the box I knew they were from you. They are a great delight to us all. Thank you more than I can express for all your kind thoughts and expressions toward us.
I was so very sorry to have so short a visit with you today. If our “palace” proves to be one that we can make you and Mr Rogers comfortable in, I do hope that you will come over there….[MTHHR 540-1].
George B. Harvey of Harpers gave a dinner party in honor of Mark Twain at the Metropolitan Club.
The New York Times, p.BR10, reported the event:
MARK TWAIN
———
One of the most daring and ingenious of our critics of literature lately has been classifying Mark Twain with Aristophanes and Rabelais. The classification can do no harm to anybody, not even to Mark Twain, while it certainly does credit to the heart of the critic. Mr. Clemens is assuredly one of the great men of this hour, which, from a practical point of view, is better than being either Aristophanes or Rabelais. The author of “Huckleberry Finn,” the recorder of the experiences and emotions of a cub pilot on the Mississippi, lacks nothing of his large due of appreciation here or abroad.
Mr. Clemens sails to-day for Italy, with his wife, who has long been an invalid. It is hoped that a long stay in that climate may restore her to health. One the eve of his departure Mr. Clemens signed a contract with a publishing house of Harper & Brothers which, according to Mr. George Harvey, the President of that corporation, assures to Mr. Clemens and his children a competence for all their lives. Mr. Clemens assumes that this is the fulfillment of a prophecy uttered by Chiro [Cheiro], the palmist, in 1895, that the humorist would come into a fortune in his sixty-eighth year, which will be completed next month.
These important and cheering facts were made known to a few of Mr. Clemens’s many friends at a dinner party given in honor of the great humorist by Mr. Harvey at the Metropolitan Club in this city last Thursday evening. In the company were Messrs. J. Pierpont Morgan, W. D. Howells, H. H. Rogers, H. M. Alden, J. Henry Harper, W. M. Laffan, Melville E. Stone, Edward Lauterbach, John Kendrick Bangs, Hamlin Garland, Will N. Harben, Frederick A. Duneka, James H. Hyde, George G. Ward, James McArthur, F. T. Leigh, John I. Waterbury, St. Clair McKelway, T. J. Coolidge, Jr., and A. D. Chandler. Words of good cheer were spoken to Mr. Clemens at this feast, and he, who always has known how to bear his burdens lightly, was as buoyant and companionable as ever. But all felt that it was saying “good-bye” to a man of advanced years, just starting on a long voyage to be gone indefinitely.
Sam’s notebook reflects some of the men present at the above gathering: “Rogers, Lauterbach? / Melville Stone? / Twichell, Parker / Pierpont Morgan. / Col. Harvey / Dinner / Metropolitan Club 60th & 5th 8 p.m.
[Horiz. Line separator] / To-day the Harper contract was signed. (See Apl. 17/02)” [NB 46 TS 27]. Note: Melville E. Stone, President of Associated Press.
Edwin Markham wrote from Staten Island, NY to Sam. “You would like to know Miss Vivian, the artist who will hand you this note aboard ship. She is a stateswoman of yours and has other qualities that set her in a company apart” [MTP].
An unidentified person at the Plaza Hotel, NYC sent Sam five large printed sheets with the lyrics of hymns [MTP].