September 15 Friday – Dublin, N.H.: Sam wrote to Clara Clemens. Clärchen dear, I have just written the [Hotel] Touraine that you & Miss Alling may possibly arrive Tuesday the 19th ; & to take care of you. I have told Katy you are going to New York the 20th; you will see her there.
I don’t suppose I can go to Boston, because the dyspepsia has me in its grip & I am spending my days in bed & feeding exclusively on gruel & plasmon in an effort to get rid of it. I am dreadfully sorry, if it will be any disappointment to you, dear child. I would get up & go to Boston anyway, but that you’ve got Miss Alling to look out for you. Still, dear heart, if I can be of real service, telegraph me & I will be on hand if I am no worse than I am to-day. Collier has sent me $150 for that little article—which is very liberal of him considering that I did not sign it. I have had no sleep to speak of for 3 nights running, yet I am not a bit sleepy in the daytime. That’s dyspepsia of the first quality, you see!
Good night, you dear thing, I kiss you / Father [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Norman Hapgood:
Dear Hapgood: / I am very glad McClure is to print it. I hope to remain undiscovered; in which case it will be pretty sure to do some good.
I belive Denil things you have injured his character. There is something impressively humorous about the idea of damaging the character of that abscess, that chancre.
If you have to go to jail for lancing it, it’s an honro & I am ready to go shares; I’ll stand watch & watch with you. / Sincerely Yours / SL. Clemens [MTP: rrauction, catalong no. 326, 17 October 2007, item 438].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: All day a whirlwind, getting ready for Jean’s masked dance. Raphael Pumpelly dined here in a regal raw silk costume that had been given him by the viceroy of one of the Bokhara provinces and with it he word a white turban round that princely young head of his. I’ve had such a good little sewing girl here—Edith Mason, born and brought up here, rarely leaving the town. She is a conscientious little creature. She led the conversation around to Miss Higginson’s wedding, and said that the best part of it all was to be sitting up over Mr. Allison’s story from which place she saw Mr. Clemens and she said “he stepped so light, so light” and he’s what she calls real, real handsome. Didn’t I think so too? [MTP TS 98].
Thomas Bailey Aldrich and Lilian W. Aldrich wrote to Sam. Lillian asked for the name of H.H. Rogers’ “confidential advisor in money matters” so she might contact Rogers directly about enlarging a hospital, and not have her letter abstracted to him [MTP].
Thomas S. Barbour replied to Sam’s suggestion that copies of the Soliloquy pamphlet would be sent to the 100 prominent Protestant clergymen at the expense of the Congo Reform Assoc. [MTP]. Note: Lyon’s Journal for Sept. 14 included Sam’s suggestion from a letter (not extant) to Barbour.
Norman Hapgood for Collier’s Weekly wrote to Sam.
“My Dear Mr. Clemens: / I lunched with McClure today. ‘Christian Citizenship’ is in the November number, & he expects to reprint it frequently in the future. He says it is the greatest article written in years, the platform of the new politics. / Hoping you are by this time playing leap-frog. / Yours…” [MTP].
Pierre Lafitte wrote a short letter in French to Sam.
Monsieur MARC TWAINE
Mr. Marc Twain
Homme de Lettres
Man of Letters
NEW YORK.
New York.
Chère Maître,
Dear Sir,
Nous publions dans le No de Noel de notre revue Je Sais Tout une série d’articles sur Le Noel dans les différents pays du monde. Nous vous serions très reconnaissants si vous vouliez bien nous donner une quanrantaine de lignes sur Le Noel en Amerique.
In the Christmas issue of our magazine Je Sais Tout we will publish a series of articles devoted to Christmas in the different countries of the world. We would appreciate it very much if you would be so kind to give us about forty lines of text on Christmas in America.
Please, dear Sir, let us know if we can count on you, and accept the expression of my deepest respect,
Je vous prie, cher Maitre, de vouloir bien nous faire savoir si nous pouvons compter sur vous , et
[Pierre Lafitte]
croire à mon plus profond respect,
[Pierre Lafitte]
[MTP: Translation and the following notes by Holger Kersten, 2012] Notes: Pierre Lafitte (1872-1938), was the editor of a number of French magazines. He has been credited with inventing the modern illustrated magazine [1]. The letterhead identifies several of the titles he published: Je sais tout, monthly illustrated magazine; Femina, bi-monthly illustrated publication; La Vie au Grand Air, weekly illustrated publication; Musica, monthly illustrated publication; Fermes et Chateaux, monthly illustrated publication; Le Petit Magazine de la Jeunesse, bi-monthly illustrated publication. Je sais tout: magazine encyclopédique illustré was an illustrated monthly magazine published from 1905 to 1939. Apparently Twain did not submit a Christmas story to Lafitte. The magazine available has been digitized by the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (www.gallica.bnf.fr). An online search revealed that the publication has online two references to “Twain,” one to “the last photo of Mark Twain” and a few lines on his death in 1910, the other one to an explanatory note : In 1906, the journal published a section from the two-act play “Le Cultivateur de Chicago” by Gabriel Timmory which was based on Twain’s “How I Edited an Agricultural Newspaper.” An digital copy of the pla is available at archive.org (http://archive.org/details/lecultivateurdec00wahluoft). The play premiered at the Théâtre du Grand-Guignol, Paris, on 6 May 1906. [1] Encyclopédie Larousse, http://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/Lafitte/128409 [MTP].
September 15 ca. – Minnie Maddern Fiske wrote to Sam.
I have lain awake nights very often wondering if I dare ask you to write a story of an old horse that is finally given over to the bull-ring. The story you would write would do more good than all the laws we are trying to hve made and enforced for the prevention of cruelty to animals in Spain. We would translate and circulate the story in that country. I have wondered if you would ever write it [MTP; MTB 1245-6]. Note: Paine puts this to the Summer of 1905 but Sam replied on Sept. 18.