June 1 Thursday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to William Evarts Benjamin.

I am very glad indeed that the Gardiner spirit is laid to rest at last; & largely because you can get a rest yourself, now; you deserve it, for you have heroically earned it, & may you get it in full measure & enjoy it. Miss Lyon brought your letter to me yesterday afternoon, & was so bursting with laughter that she couldn’t control her jaws long enough to get out an explanation. I joined in, when I struck your next-to-last sentence.

I owe you many many thanks for pulling me out of the Tarrytown hole—I wish I may get out of my Fifth avenue tangle half as successfully. We are prodigiously enjoying this place! I have written a third of a book here in 10 or 12 days.

With my kindest regards to you all, I am [MTP]. Note: Hill notes that Charles A. Gardiner, who had exercised his option to purchase the Tarrytown house “complained about some adjacent trolley tracks, and Clemens was required to put up $1,500 with a title company to clear the obstruction and to guarantee several quit claims” [106].

Sam also began a letter to Joe Twichell that he finished on June 2.

Dear Old Joe: / Certainly, give Osborn a letter. It will compromise me, but that is nothing, I don’t write any other kind except to strangers. I had a long talk with Wood when I was in Portland in ’95. He was a lawyer for a railroad—salary, $35,000 a year. He has written some poetry, and it is good and on a high plane.

I have read a little of his article which you sent. If I have not misunderstood him, he stands for morals without any qualifying adjective in front of the word. Just morals, I like it. It makes me cuss to see people talking about “public” morals and “private” morals and “legal” ones. There aren’t any. There’s merely just morals.

The legalizing of an immorality doesn’t purify it, it only whitewashes it. I could mention a few existing samples—but never mind. Joe, I don’t know how I would vote on the Rockefeller donation as a congregational minister but speaking for my own unsanctified self I would say like this, if it is tainted money take it, by all means and ship it to China—no other kind can legitimately be used in the missionary business there, when the Aments are sent to dance to the Golden Rule and bully better man into adopting a civilization which is inferior to our own. We do enjoy having Patrick with us again—the best man that ever wore clothes. And our old Katy is his match. Livy raised that pair.

Good bye and love to you all. / Mark.

Togo forever! I wish somebody would assassinate the Russian Family. So does every sane person in the world—but who has the grit to say so? Nobody. Try for Clara when you get to Norfolk. Jean and I are to see her before—before—well, we haven’t any idea when, yet [MTP].

Note: Sam’s old friend from West Point days, now an attorney and poet in Portland, Ore. Was Charles Erskine Scott Wood. Gribben misidentifies this Wood as unidentified [782].

Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Richard Watson Gilder.

M . Clemens wishes me to ask you if you will be good enough to send him the address of the author of the delightful story “Arkansas Fashion,” if you have it.

M . Clemens is well, and very busy these days; and Jean is very well and enjoying this beautiful wild country.

M . Clemens wishes me to convey to you and to M . Gilder his very warm regards [MTP].

Note: Willis Gibson wrote the story that ran in the June 1905 Century Magazine. Gribben writes: “Clemens’ pleasure in the short story is easily explained: not only does it employ regional dialects and feature a hero from the state of Arkansas, familiar to Clemens from his years as a river pilot, but Gibson repeatedly alludes to the works of Mark Twain in the most flattering manner possible” [257].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: All day Mr. Clemens has been in his bed for this morning at 5 he slipped downstairs to get his ms. My instinct had been to take it up last evening, but I shut off the impulse and so he became chilled and fearing that he had taken cold Jean bade him stay in his bed—but at 5:20 he started to join Mr. Thayer on the path, and together they walked a bit and came back to the house to sit on the porch. There was no reading tonight for all day Mr. Clemens revised. It is a pity for us that as it drops from his pen it isn’t put right into print for there is so much of it that you want to dwell on and reread [MTP TS 62].

Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Wrote for some little books on Microbes” [MTP TS 20].

Harper & Brothers wrote to Lyon c/o Sam that Baker & Taylor Co. had answered their request for a book on microbes with Story of Germ Life, by H.W. Conn, and The Story of Bacteria, by Prudden. Both were elementary books on the subject, and they assumed these would meet Sam’s needs [MTP].

Elmer B. Harris wrote from the Hotel Brevoort, NYC to Sam, sending a play The Love of Life, which had been given to him in Germany. “The translator says that you once admired it.” Lyon wrote for him to see Elisabeth Marbury, dramatic agent. She added had he phoned the Harpers instead of mailingthe package, he would have learned first that her house adjoined the hotel and second “that she was far away from the city for the summer” [MTP].

June 1 after – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Elmer B. Harris. Dear Sir: / It was very kind & thoughtful. I beg to recommend Miss Marbury, dramatic agent, Paris, & New York (Empire Theatre). / Very Truly Yours. / per / L. If you had telephoned the Harpers instead of sending your pkg by mail to them to them you would have learned first that my house adjoins your hotel, & 2 that I am far away from the city for the summer [MTP]. Note: the Brevoort Hotel adjoined Sam’s house at 21 Fifth Ave.