December 4 Monday – Mrs. L.C.U. Bramhall wrote from N.Y.C. to Sam, noting they shared the same birthday, and asking about Susan Crane and “all the familiar faces of old” that she knew in Elmira some 30 years before. On or just after this day Sam replied, “Not seen Mrs. Crane lately, but a letter addressed to her at Q.F. will find her” [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Mr. Clemens went down to the Harpers today and came home with the news that Col. Harvey would be glad if I would go to Delmonico’s tomorrow evening in time for the speeches, and I’m afraid to breathe lest I find the permission be nothing more than a thistle-down of a thought to float way into air” [MTP TS 111]. Isabel Lyon’s Journal # 2: “Dr. Parkhurst—4.45 / Miss Clemens/Charlton 3:54” [MTP TS 36]. Note: Loudon Charlton, concert manager Carnegie Hall.
Anne Ashley, “a little girl that called on you last summer at Norfolk, Conn.” wrote birthday wishes [MTP].
Robert Bacon wrote seeking more information on the Congo situation from England: “If you could tell us some time just what has been done in times past by England, and how, it would help us a great deal in deciding what we might to most effectively” [Hawkins 163; MTP]. See Nov. 27 (Hawkins), Nov. 28, Dec. 6 to Bacon.
Maurice Ernst wrote from Vienna. Congratulations and how did Sam get his nom de plume? [MTP]. Note: on Dec. 15 Sam replied; MTP had his reply to “an unnamed correspondent,” who now is likely named.
Seth Low wrote birthday congrats to Sam and offered a humorous story about Daniel Webster in England—A man thought Webster was the jumping frog, not the famous Mass. senator! [MTP].
Coggeshall Macy wrote from Vienna to praise “Eve’s Diary” in the Christmas Harper’s [MTP].
Mrs. Ruth McEnery Stuart wrote from NYC to Sam, that tomorrow evening she was gathering with friends to “do you honor” [MTP].
Sam wrote a paragraph in the front pastedown endpaper of A Humble Romance, and Other Stories (1887), by Mary Eleanor Freeman (1852-1930). Livy had crudely signed the book and the ink did not stick to the paper, so was barely legible.
Dec. 4, 1905. She has been in her grave a year & a half to-morrow. She probably made that attempt with that annoying pen eighteen years ago when she was 42 & looked ten years younger. I know she did not lose her temper, but kept it & her sweet dignity unimpaired. If I was present I probably laughed, for we had no cares then—I could cry easier now. It is many years since I have seen this book. Susy was 15 then; she is gone, these nine years & more. I have just closed my seventieth year [Gribben 245].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Mr. Clemens went down to the Harpers today and came home with the news that Col. Harvey would be glad if I would go to Delmonico’s tomorrow evening in time for the speeches, and I’m afraid to breathe lest I find the permission be nothing more than a thistle-down of a thought to float way into air” [MTP TS 111]. Isabel Lyon’s Journal # 2: “Dr. Parkhurst—4.45 / Miss Clemens/Charlton 3:54” [MTP TS 36]. Note: Loudon Charlton, concert manager Carnegie Hall.
Anne Ashley, “a little girl that called on you last summer at Norfolk, Conn.” wrote birthday wishes [MTP].
Robert Bacon wrote seeking more information on the Congo situation from England: “If you could tell us some time just what has been done in times past by England, and how, it would help us a great deal in deciding what we might to most effectively” [Hawkins 163; MTP]. See Nov. 27 (Hawkins), Nov. 28, Dec. 6 to Bacon.
Maurice Ernst wrote from Vienna. Congratulations and how did Sam get his nom de plume? [MTP]. Note: on Dec. 15 Sam replied; MTP had his reply to “an unnamed correspondent,” who now is likely named.
Seth Low wrote birthday congrats to Sam and offered a humorous story about Daniel Webster in England—A man thought Webster was the jumping frog, not the famous Mass. senator! [MTP].
Coggeshall Macy wrote from Vienna to praise “Eve’s Diary” in the Christmas Harper’s [MTP].
Mrs. Ruth McEnery Stuart wrote from NYC to Sam, that tomorrow evening she was gathering with friends to “do you honor” [MTP].
Sam wrote a paragraph in the front pastedown endpaper of A Humble Romance, and Other Stories (1887), by Mary Eleanor Freeman (1852-1930). Livy had crudely signed the book and the ink did not stick to the paper, so was barely legible.
Dec. 4, 1905. She has been in her grave a year & a half to-morrow. She probably made that attempt with that annoying pen eighteen years ago when she was 42 & looked ten years younger. I know she did not lose her temper, but kept it & her sweet dignity unimpaired. If I was present I probably laughed, for we had no cares then—I could cry easier now. It is many years since I have seen this book. Susy was 15 then; she is gone, these nine years & more. I have just closed my seventieth year [Gribben 245].
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