September 1 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to the Aug. 19 of William Hill. Sam was not well enough to write letters, she wrote, and he was seldom moved to write anything, and what he did write belonged to Harper & Brothers as he had a “very rigid contract” [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s Journal: “I have written to Miss Bright that I cannot, cannot, cannot write that article. Evey bit of me rebels, every bit of my mind and body” [MTP TS 92]. Note: see Aug. 26 entry.
Cale C. Eyre wrote to Sam enclosing an Aug. 30 newspaper clipping from the Philadelphia Record, and “please allow me to say I am fully in accord with the sentiments…” [MTP]. Note: see clipping below:
MARK TWAIN’S DISCORDANT NOTE.
Durham, [Dublin?] N.H., August 30.—Samuel W. Clemens [sic] (Mark Twain) has this to say regarding peace:
“Russia was on the high road to emancipation from an insane and intolerable slavery. I was hoping there would be no peace until Russian liberty was safe. I think that this was a holy war in the best and noblest sense of that abused term, and that no war was ever charged with a higher mission. I think there can be no doubt that that mission is now defeated, and Russia’s chains reriveted this time to stay.
“I think the Czar will now withdraw the small humanities that have been forced from him, and resume his medieval barbarisms with a relieved spirit and an immeasurable joy. I think Russian liberty has had its last chance and has lost it.
“I think nothing has been gained by the peace that is remotely comparable to what has been sacrificed by it. One more battle would have abolished the awaiting chains of billions upon billions of unborn Russians, and I wish it could have been fought.
“I hope I am mistaken, yet, in all sincerity, I believe that this peace is entitled to rank as the greatest disaster in political history.”
John E. Milholland wrote from Phila. in support of Sam’s position on Russia, enclosing the same words as in the above Record, but in the Sept. 1 issue of The North American (Phila), which carried an oval picture of Twain [MTP].
George May Powell of Powell Publishing Co., Phila. wrote to Sam in support of Sam’s position on Russia. Powell had met some of Livy’s family before the Civil War. He enclosed two printed articles of his, one a reprint from The Baptist Commonwealth of Oct. 22, 1903 [MTP].
September 1 ca. – Isabel V. Lyon answered for Sam the Aug. 30 from Jesse J. Goldberg, that if the agent was selling the Hillcrest Edition then it would be possible for Goldberg to purchase whatever volumes Twain would publish in the future; probably another volume would issue within the next year [MTP]. Note: The MTP catalogs this as “on or after Aug. 30.” Two days estimated postal time is allowed here.