Submitted by scott on

February 27 Tuesday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam replied to John M. Hay’s Feb. 14. Hay had been concerned he’d been mischaracterized as resenting Sam’s allusion to him in the McClure’s article, “My Boyhood Dreams.”

No, if I had seen the paragraphs they would not have deceived me into the superstition that your large mould had shrunken with age & a wide experience of life. I should have known much better than that. You would easily see that I was trying to pay well-intended compliments to the distinguished careers of old old friends of mine, & that the feeling back of it was pride & affection, not envy & malice. No, I should not have been deceived. ….

I watch your onward & upward career with the interest & pride of one with a personal stake in it, & when you say you value my friendship you give me a pleasure which is complete, & which you could add nothing to [MTP].

Sam also began a letter to H.H. Rogers that he added to on Mar. 4. He felt they would not be kept in England later than May or June. He’d been inquiring about osteopathy in America and hoped they would be able to return and allow Jean to try it there. Sam still believed in Kellgren’s ability to cure disease, and related recommending Kellgren to Lady Stanley (Dorothy T. Stanley) for her husband, the famous explorer, Henry M. Stanley, who suffered from recurrent gastralgia (stomach pains) the doctors had been unable to treat. Sam confided all that Mrs. Stanley wrote in her Feb. 15 letter and added this about Stanley’s progress on that day after Kellgren treated him and showed Mrs. Stanley how to treat him if he had recurrences of :

Stanley had a comfortable night, she removing the pains whenever they came. I kept track of his progress, & called on him two days later [Feb. 17]. (Privately I will remark that Lady Stanley kissed me on both cheeks & made me feel a good deal like a benefactor.) Stanley sat up & ate bacon & eggs & smoked a pipe & talked an hour & a half. Two days afterward he drove out, & also walked a few minutes in the park. To-day he resumes his seat in the House of Commons a well man. If he had had a doctor he would be under a slab in Westminster Abbey now.

Sam appreciated Rogers’ help in evaluating Samuel McClure and his offer of a magazine editorship for Clemens; Sam did not accept the offer by the agreed upon deadline of Mar. 1 [MTHHR 433-5].

Day By Day Acknowledgment

Mark Twain Day By Day was originally a print reference, meticulously created by David Fears, who has generously made this work available, via the Center for Mark Twain Studies, as a digital edition.   

Contact Us