September 26 Friday – In York Harbor, Maine: Sam’s notebook: “Miss Gourange (nurse) has full charge. Quiet is maintained—good results. / I sleep at Millard Sewall’s these past two nights. / Clara does not recover from the panic of Tuesday when she believed her mother was near the end & sent me to summon Boston experts” [NB 45 TS 28].
Sam wrote to Elisabeth Brochmann (Brachmann) in Norway. She was a Norwegian translator who had requested permission to translate some of Mark Twain’s stories. She requested if she might send some pictures from the valley where she lived.
I shall be very glad indeed to have the pictures if it will be no trouble to you to send them, but you must not put any burden on yourself. I should have answered you sooner but for sickness in the house. My wife has been in bed 7 weeks (here on the seacoast in Maine) & has been near to death three times; but now she is getting well, we think; & we expect that by the middle of October we can take her home to Riverdale [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Katharine B. Clemens in St. Louis.
Livy was very low on Sunday night & on Monday & Tuesday, & our hope passed away—then we got a great physician from Boston, & he said, “Do you mean to day that this patient has been allowed to lie here 6 weeks in this condition without a trained nurse?”
“But she won’t allow one.”
“I am not asking what she would allow. She has nothing to do with the matter, & nothing to say about it. Go & telephone Miss So-&-so in Boston. I say she must be here by the next train.”
He banished us all—me out of the house entirely.
Since then Livy has lived in the solitude of the nurse’s society & has prospered to a miracle.
We have had 4 doctors, & they have constantly recommended trained-nursing. But at last when we got hold of a man—well, you see the result.
Those 4 physicians ought to be expelled from the business.
Tell Dr. Jim to command. It is his duty. With love to you all [MTP].
Sam also wrote to H.H. Rogers.
Mrs. Clemens has read the letter, & it moved her deeply, as I knew it would. Among other things, she said, “In sharp stress you would go to Mr. Rogers, & I would consent; but you would not go to any other friend in the world; & if you should be willing, I should not consent.”
Now, you see, you are protected, for I can’t make out a case of sharp stress which would come up to her standard.
The improvement goes on. I sleep out of the house, & the family keep away from her room & leave her to the trained nurse—which is solitude & quiet rest.
The doctors have been babies in her hands—& the rest of us. If we had had a man on deck, she would have had a nurse & tranquility, & been on her feet 4 weeks ago, & she would have saved her summer & I mine.
She asked me to send her kindest regards to you and emphasize it [MTHHR 510].
Sam also wrote on the bottom of Edmund S. Mills’ Sept. 18 letter and sent it to Franklin G. Whitmore.
He offered me $5,000 more than we paid for the Tarrytown house, & I asked him to bait his client with the Hartford one (I didn’t expect he could.) I meant to send you his letter earlier, but Mrs. Clemens’s illness stopped everything.
She was very low, Sunday night, Monday & Tuesday, but now she is coming along most gratifyingly. [In one corner after his signature:] I wish those RR bonds had been sound; she would be well, now. Her worry has been because she bought the one house before she had sold the other [MTP].