September 23 Tuesday – In York Harbor, Maine: a very low day for Livy, perhaps her worst [MTHL 2: 745n2]. Sam’s notebook : “Very high pulse. They have telegraphed Helmer (Dr. Hawke’s advice) not to come ‘for a few days.’ This is to ‘give the patient time to gather strength to bear the treatment’ (It was his treatment that enabled her to take food) I stand alone in this opinion. We are a drifting ship without a captain. We survive by accident. / Dr. Putnam has been sent for” [NB 45 TS 27-8].
Sam wrote to Frank Bliss, asking if he kept a sharp lookout for copyrights about to expire, and advising that Livy remained “very ill,” with no prospect of them leaving York Harbor any time soon [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Frederick A. Duneka, not knowing if his skit, “The Belated Russian Passport” had been received, and asking that “Amended Obituaries” be returned. He advised that simply, “York, Maine” was the post office name, and that a few of Duneka’s packages had gone to “York Beach,” which was “a good ways off” [MTP]. Note: with Livy on death’s door, Sam anticipated possible horrid timing in the publication of “Amended Obituaries.” Sam likewise requested MacAlister to shelve the piece, and connected the request to Livy’s heart condition. (See his letter to MacAlister below.)
Sam also wrote to John Y. MacAlister.
Pigeon-hole the “Amended Obituaries” until further advices. I have withdrawn the article from the Harpers. Mrs. Clemens’s condition is precarious. It is heart disease, she is only a shadow now, & the specialists cannot tell us whether the period of her tarrying with us is to be long or short. They only know that the situation is grave & will remain so [MTP].
In the evening Sam also wrote a short note to H.H. Rogers, that they had been “particularly alarmed” about Livy for “several days, & particularly today.” But she was now in “no immediate danger” [MTHHR 508].
September 23 after – Sam enclosed or returned a newspaper the following clipping dated London, Sept. 23 in the New York Evening Journal, in a letter to Joe Twichell:
‘TWAIN’S’ GUIDE IN HARD LUCK.
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‘Harris’ of ‘Tramps Abroad’
Says Every Incident Was Pure Fiction.
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FINE TRIBUTE TO AUTHOR
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Special Cable to the Evening Journal. London, Sept. 23—J. W. Verey, “Mark Twain’s” conductor on several trips through France and Germany, who is known to all the world as “Harris,” in “Tramps Abroad,” has fallen on evil days in London. However, his circumstances are not so desperate as to need public charity, and he showed great anger to-day when he heard that officious friends were attempting to raise subscriptions for him. When an Evening Journal correspondent discovered Mr. Verey in lodgings on Rotten Row he talked freely of his experiences with Mr. Clemens.
“Candidly,” he said, “I have nothing to tell. There were no incidents on the trip—not one accident. Mr. Clemens found it so dull that he frequently begged of me to lose the train and land him in a mess or accident of some kind for a diversion, but I never took his request seriously.
“Now, as to the brilliant story of experiences on Mont Blanc, with its beauties and perils. Mr. Clemens never went up the mountain. He remained at the hotel at the foot, dodging autograph hunters and preying tourists.
“Often would he fly into a tremendous rage, stamp about, curse and make every one in the hotel perspire and groan, all for a joke. He was the best tempered man I ever saw, very easy to serve.”
Verey was not along on that trip at all. In reply to a cable from a London paper, I said you were Harris. / Livy was close to the grave Sunday night & Monday & Tuesday, but she has been soaring up like a weed since. Love to you all / MARK [MTP].