October 11 Wednesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara in N.Y.C.
Clara, you little rascal, sometimes I have regretted that we took a house so far down, but how lucky it was! It would too bad for you to have to travel from the Central Park region clear down to 12th street. I am very glad we have the Musical Institute at our elbow. I hope you are at home by this time, snug & comfortable & happy./ With great love & a kiss / Father [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Muriel M. Pears in Scotland.
When my letter came back here from Scotland I was ashamed, since apparently my failure to add “Nairn” to the address was the reason it did not reach you. I re-posted it at once, without waiting to apologise for my heedlessness, but I suppose it was too late then to do any good. I apologise now, & add yet another apology for being so long about it; I meant to do it the very next day, but was called away suddenly, & by the time I was back home again it had been driven out of my mind, which is a most leaky one, by an accumulation of other things to be done or apologies made for having neglected to do. And so it did not occur to me until I was in bed & ready for sleep, a minute ago, that I had never yet expressed to you my vexation & regret for that long-ago piece of heedlessness of mine. Forgive me if you can, for I am entering old age 7 weeks hence, & I seem to have all the infirmities that belong to that condition.
Our long & pleasant vacation is closing—& this is the pleasantest summer home we have ever had, on either side of the ocean. It is a lovely October, & from every window of the house is visible a tumbled wide ocean of foliage ablaze with color. Clara has gone home from her Connecticut rest-cure—scared by the autumn chill—& is keeping house at No. 21. I go visiting to Boston ten days hence; Jean & the rest go home to No. 21 the first of November, & I follow as soon thereafter as they are done fussing & settling & arranging. I have secured a house here for next year, & we mean to spend 7 months in it we like this region so well. I wish we may see you at 21 again. / Repentantly, ever yours [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: This afternoon Mr. Clemens called me up stairs and put into my hands a beautiful memoriam that he has written, and the Apostrophe to Death forms a part of it.
Jean came home from the Brushes’ with a following for supper, but all the time my thoughts were with the dead and the majesty of the grief that walks ever silently with that wonderful man and I was weak with the effort to pull my self into the sweet childishness of the following when I wanted to be alone [MTP TS 105].
Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “The aeolion [orchestrelle] was taken away today” [MTP TS 31].
Thomas S. Barbour for the Congo Reform Assoc. wrote to Sam, asking him to return the 30 pamphlets at Barbour’s cost, since the printer “made a serious mistake in several thousand pamphlets.” He offered other details on the sale of the pamphlets [MTP].
Frederick A. Duneka wrote to thank Sam for the account of his summer place and reminding him they still would like photos. If he had no objection they would use what Sam wrote about the book, The Line of Love. They still wanted to keep Mark Twain’s Library of Humor alive and offered him 3% royalty, since they had to reset plates for it. He also told of a NY World reporter who wanted to interview Sam about gout. “I think he is the same man who went to a hanging in a little town up the State and asked the hangee to be hanged twenty minutes earlier than the time set so he could catch the 12:36 train back” [MTP].
Miller Reese Hutchinson wrote from NYC to Sam, enclosing a sketch for which he asked Sam to write “a very bright and witty dialogue” [MTP]. Sam wrote at the top, “Not answered / Finally answered Oct 26, 1905.” Sam’s answer is not extant.
Miss A. Watson wrote on H.H. Rogers’ letterhead that she had deposited the Harper’s check for $2083.33 in Sam’s Lincoln National account [MTP].
Clara, you little rascal, sometimes I have regretted that we took a house so far down, but how lucky it was! It would too bad for you to have to travel from the Central Park region clear down to 12th street. I am very glad we have the Musical Institute at our elbow. I hope you are at home by this time, snug & comfortable & happy./ With great love & a kiss / Father [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Muriel M. Pears in Scotland.
When my letter came back here from Scotland I was ashamed, since apparently my failure to add “Nairn” to the address was the reason it did not reach you. I re-posted it at once, without waiting to apologise for my heedlessness, but I suppose it was too late then to do any good. I apologise now, & add yet another apology for being so long about it; I meant to do it the very next day, but was called away suddenly, & by the time I was back home again it had been driven out of my mind, which is a most leaky one, by an accumulation of other things to be done or apologies made for having neglected to do. And so it did not occur to me until I was in bed & ready for sleep, a minute ago, that I had never yet expressed to you my vexation & regret for that long-ago piece of heedlessness of mine. Forgive me if you can, for I am entering old age 7 weeks hence, & I seem to have all the infirmities that belong to that condition.
Our long & pleasant vacation is closing—& this is the pleasantest summer home we have ever had, on either side of the ocean. It is a lovely October, & from every window of the house is visible a tumbled wide ocean of foliage ablaze with color. Clara has gone home from her Connecticut rest-cure—scared by the autumn chill—& is keeping house at No. 21. I go visiting to Boston ten days hence; Jean & the rest go home to No. 21 the first of November, & I follow as soon thereafter as they are done fussing & settling & arranging. I have secured a house here for next year, & we mean to spend 7 months in it we like this region so well. I wish we may see you at 21 again. / Repentantly, ever yours [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: This afternoon Mr. Clemens called me up stairs and put into my hands a beautiful memoriam that he has written, and the Apostrophe to Death forms a part of it.
Jean came home from the Brushes’ with a following for supper, but all the time my thoughts were with the dead and the majesty of the grief that walks ever silently with that wonderful man and I was weak with the effort to pull my self into the sweet childishness of the following when I wanted to be alone [MTP TS 105].
Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “The aeolion [orchestrelle] was taken away today” [MTP TS 31].
Thomas S. Barbour for the Congo Reform Assoc. wrote to Sam, asking him to return the 30 pamphlets at Barbour’s cost, since the printer “made a serious mistake in several thousand pamphlets.” He offered other details on the sale of the pamphlets [MTP].
Frederick A. Duneka wrote to thank Sam for the account of his summer place and reminding him they still would like photos. If he had no objection they would use what Sam wrote about the book, The Line of Love. They still wanted to keep Mark Twain’s Library of Humor alive and offered him 3% royalty, since they had to reset plates for it. He also told of a NY World reporter who wanted to interview Sam about gout. “I think he is the same man who went to a hanging in a little town up the State and asked the hangee to be hanged twenty minutes earlier than the time set so he could catch the 12:36 train back” [MTP].
Miller Reese Hutchinson wrote from NYC to Sam, enclosing a sketch for which he asked Sam to write “a very bright and witty dialogue” [MTP]. Sam wrote at the top, “Not answered / Finally answered Oct 26, 1905.” Sam’s answer is not extant.
Miss A. Watson wrote on H.H. Rogers’ letterhead that she had deposited the Harper’s check for $2083.33 in Sam’s Lincoln National account [MTP].
Entry Date
Links to Twain's Geography Entries