December 26 Tuesday – Sam and Isabel Lyon attended an afternoon song recital at Carnegie Hall by Mme. Johanna Gadski (1872-1932), German soprano who achieved worldwide success and whose recordings survive. Leaving the building Clemens spotted a young girl who later wrote she was “yearning” to speak with him. They chatted briefly about the weather, and the following day she would write him a note; they would begin an affectionate correspondence. He would call her “Marjorie” and be “her oldest friend.” She was Gertrude Natkin, and though a bit older than his later “Angelfish,” was a precursor of the club [Natkin Dec. 27; Feb. 3 to Natkin; NY Times Dec. 24, p X1, Dec. 27, p. 9 “Mme. Gadski’s Song Recital”]. Cooley writes:
ONE DAY in December 1905 [Dec. 26], fifteen-year-old Gertrude Natkin caught Samuel Clemens’s eye while he was leaving Carnegie Hall. He introduced himself, discovered her name, and soon afterward began corresponding with her. Clemens wrote Gertrude a half dozen letters a month during the first three months of their friendship, each of which received her enthusiastic reply. He soon nicknamed her “Marjorie” after Marjorie Fleming , a young (deceased) Scottish writer whom he admired. …
Even though Gertrude Natkin never became an angelfish, Clemens’s correspondence with her points the way to the Aquarium and the dozen young ladies who were to become angelfish. The Natkin correspondence is characterized by a freshness and playfulness many of his later letters do not achieve…Marjorie appears to be almost giddy with infatuation [1-2]. First published in the North British Review, Gribben gives the full title: Marjorie Fleming, A Sketch; Being the Paper Entitled “Pet Marjorie”: A Story of Child-Life Fifty Years Ago (1863) by Dr. John Brown [87].
At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich: “I am very glad you thought to send me M . Samuel’s article. It is able and to the point. It will be difficult to unseat Leopold, but it is worth trying and we shall go on trying. / Merry Christmas and love to you all” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to William Robertson Coe. “Thank you cordially, dear Mr. Coe, for your sumptuous token of remembrance. Mine to you is delayed several months by the publishers, but by & by it will be autographed & sent. /Merry Christmas & best wishes to all the family from / Yours Ever” [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Mr. Clemens, Francesca and I went to hear Mme. Gadski’s Recital this afternoon in Carnegie Hall. Mr. Clemens had been lunching with Mr. Archer Huntington and went with him up to 145th Street to see the new library building that Mr. Huntington is building for the housing of the Spanish library of his, and Mr. Clemens has allowed himself to be made a member of the Advisory Board in place of Mr. John Hay. So he was late to the concert, but he heard 2/3 of it and found it lovely. Her voice is so satisfying, so beautiful, so true. He was sweet to a little girl in brown who recognized him of course, and they exchanged affectionate salutations. Really he is bubbling over with a sweetness, and simpleness and loveliness which is irresistible [MTP TS 116]. Note: Johanna Gadski (1872-1932), German soprano. the NY Times, Dec. 27, 1905 p. 9, “MME. GADSKI’S SONG RECITAL” gave the performer a somewhat mixed if positive review.
Ernest Hamlin Abbott wrote to Sam.
Arriving here this afternoon, I learn that Mr. Twe, a colored student from Massachusetts, has called to see my Father, Dr. Lyman Abbott, with the request that he make an appointment to meet you to confer in regard to Congo affairs. At the request of my Father, whom I have consulted by telephone, I am writing to ask whether this is in accordance with your wish [MTP].
Frederick A. Duneka wrote to Sam. He thanked Sam for giving permission for Howells to include “Eve’s Diary” in the series of small books under Howells’ editorship. He enclosed $50 payment for the right. Duneka wanted to publish “Eve’s Diary” as a book with a picture on every other page, and suggested Fred Strothman, the same artist who had illustrated Extracts From Adam’s Diary [MTP]. Note: “Eve’s Diary” was illustrated by Lester Ralph in 1906.
Henry Copley Greene wrote to Sam enclosing a check for $91.75 that was overcharged on the Dublin rental house [MTP].
Georgya E. Heolly wrote from Los Angeles to Sam, wondering if he recalled going to school with her father, Sidney B. Heolly [MTP].
George Madden Martin wrote from Anchorage, Ky. to offer 70 congratulations to Sam [MTP].
J.H. Nolen wrote on State of Missouri, Bureau of Labor letterhead to Sam, sending “a little souvenir made of wood taken from the house in which you were born at Florida, Mo.” in a case “made in the Missouri penitentiary by one of the St. Louis ‘boodle’ convicts…” Nolen claimed he’d taken the wood from Sam’s birth house himself [MTP].
Note: The souvenir is not further identified. Sam’s reply is estimated at three days, or ca. Dec. 29. The “boodle” convicts were grafters at the top levels of government convicted of taking boodle. See Oct. 1902 McClure’s Magazine for details, or http://www.nassaucivic.com/Tweed_Days_IN_St_Louis.htm and on other sites.
William H. Ridgway wrote on Craig Ridgway & Son Co. letterhead, Coatesville, Pa. to Sam. Having been presented with a “handsome edition” of Sam’s works, he “would just dearly love to have your autograph to paste in the favorite album which to me is your ‘Roughing It’” [MTP].
December 26 ca. – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam replied to Peter Cadley’s Dec. 25 question about which magazine first published “The Stolen White Elephant.” Sam’s reply: “Don’t remember where it was published” [MTP]. Note: the story was not published first in a magazine, but as the lead story in the book by the same name, 1882. It was written by Sam in late Nov. or early Dec., 1878, originally intended to be a chapter in TA (1880) [Wilson 247].