January 10 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to unidentified gentlemen.
If you mean, am I sorry I allowed myself, in a moment of passion, to carry my quarrel with Mr. Butters into the newspapers & call him a swindler, I answer yes. It was not the right way, it was not the dignified way, to settle the quarrel, & for that reason I regret it. That it happened, was not wholly my fault, but was largely his own, in that he has persistently remained away from this State, & thus has kept out of the penitentiary, where he belongs, & where I was purposing to place him. If he had been there I should have been satisfied & would not have been moved to expose him in print. The main fault is his, but it is no matter, & I forgive him [MTP].
On or after Jan. 10 Sam also wrote to Mansfield L. Hillhouse. “I desire to express my thanks to the Board of Trustees for the honor they have conferred upon me in electing me a member of the Advisory Board of the Hispanic Society of America” [MTP]. Note: the Society was formed in 1904 by Archer M. Huntington as a museum of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American art and artificats; it remains open to the public at its original location of 155 in NYC.
Sam’s A.D. for this date involved a discussion of speechmaking, a reminiscence about speeches on a night at the Players Club, the “Morris incident” and comments on President Theodore Roosevelt [AMT 1: 254-260].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: recorded how Sam sought to remove himself from the Congo Reform Movement, headed by Edmund Dene Morel: “I’m not a bee, I’m a lightning bug.” “Morel is a mobile, I’m a wheel-barrow.” Mr. Clemens is tiring of Congo and said in a letter to Mr. Barbour when he wrote him that he must withdraw from the Congo matter [MTP TS 8].
Henry Darracott Allison, grocer, Dublin, N.H. wrote to Sam that he was sending two photographs of the Upton house and the Greene house under separate cover. Allison had “enjoyed immensely” Sam’s article in Harper’s Weekly, “and I have read and re-read the speeches made on that occasion” [MTP]. Note: the speeches referred to were from Twain’s 70 birthday celebration.
Thomas S. Barbour for the Congo Reform Assoc. replied to Sam’s Jan. 8 “retired from the Congo” letter, begging Twain to stay and promising “not to be overzealous in putting demands on him” [Hawkins 166]:
I do not think you can leave the Congo until you take the people with you. That hour has seemed to me not far away. It has seemed near because you are there. For you seem to me not like the fire-fly or even the bee but like Orpheus. So long as you stay in Africa the people of other lands will come, in an ever increasing multitude, and they will see and act [Ibid; MTP].
Daniel Carter Beard wrote from NYC to send Sam an autograph from his friend and fellow classmate at the Art Students’ League, Mr. Charles Lamb. Beard also thanked him for the “very kind things you said about me at the late dinner of the Society of Illustrators” [MTP]. Note: the dinner was on Dec. 21, 1905.
Clark Bell wrote on Medico-Legal Society letterhead (NYC) to invite Sam to their annual dinner on Jan. 17 at the Hotel Astor at 7 p.m. He also enclosed a petition to the Governor to pardon Palnek, who was to be executed Jan. 22 [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote at the top, “Mr. Clemens signed the petition.”
George Cary Eggleston wrote on Author’s Club stationery, NYC to ask if Sam would provide a paragraph he had written long before on the Ball-Florence Percy controversy as to the true authorship of the song, “Rock Me to Sleep.” Eggleston had carried the clipping with him for years, as it was brilliant and in the same meter [MTP].
John Grier Hibben wrote from the Spencer Trask Lecture Committee, Princeton, Univ., to invite Sam “to address the students of the university, in the form of a lecture, or an informal talk as you may prefer,” the honorarium being $100 [MTP]. Note: Sam declined on Jan. 12.
Mansfield L. Hillhouse wrote to advise Sam that he’d been elected a member of the Advisory Board for the Hispanic Society of America at their Jan. 8 meeting [MTP]. Note: on a separate sheet Lyon wrote for Sam is thanks for the honor.
If you mean, am I sorry I allowed myself, in a moment of passion, to carry my quarrel with Mr. Butters into the newspapers & call him a swindler, I answer yes. It was not the right way, it was not the dignified way, to settle the quarrel, & for that reason I regret it. That it happened, was not wholly my fault, but was largely his own, in that he has persistently remained away from this State, & thus has kept out of the penitentiary, where he belongs, & where I was purposing to place him. If he had been there I should have been satisfied & would not have been moved to expose him in print. The main fault is his, but it is no matter, & I forgive him [MTP].
On or after Jan. 10 Sam also wrote to Mansfield L. Hillhouse. “I desire to express my thanks to the Board of Trustees for the honor they have conferred upon me in electing me a member of the Advisory Board of the Hispanic Society of America” [MTP]. Note: the Society was formed in 1904 by Archer M. Huntington as a museum of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American art and artificats; it remains open to the public at its original location of 155 in NYC.
Sam’s A.D. for this date involved a discussion of speechmaking, a reminiscence about speeches on a night at the Players Club, the “Morris incident” and comments on President Theodore Roosevelt [AMT 1: 254-260].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: recorded how Sam sought to remove himself from the Congo Reform Movement, headed by Edmund Dene Morel: “I’m not a bee, I’m a lightning bug.” “Morel is a mobile, I’m a wheel-barrow.” Mr. Clemens is tiring of Congo and said in a letter to Mr. Barbour when he wrote him that he must withdraw from the Congo matter [MTP TS 8].
Henry Darracott Allison, grocer, Dublin, N.H. wrote to Sam that he was sending two photographs of the Upton house and the Greene house under separate cover. Allison had “enjoyed immensely” Sam’s article in Harper’s Weekly, “and I have read and re-read the speeches made on that occasion” [MTP]. Note: the speeches referred to were from Twain’s 70 birthday celebration.
Thomas S. Barbour for the Congo Reform Assoc. replied to Sam’s Jan. 8 “retired from the Congo” letter, begging Twain to stay and promising “not to be overzealous in putting demands on him” [Hawkins 166]:
I do not think you can leave the Congo until you take the people with you. That hour has seemed to me not far away. It has seemed near because you are there. For you seem to me not like the fire-fly or even the bee but like Orpheus. So long as you stay in Africa the people of other lands will come, in an ever increasing multitude, and they will see and act [Ibid; MTP].
Daniel Carter Beard wrote from NYC to send Sam an autograph from his friend and fellow classmate at the Art Students’ League, Mr. Charles Lamb. Beard also thanked him for the “very kind things you said about me at the late dinner of the Society of Illustrators” [MTP]. Note: the dinner was on Dec. 21, 1905.
Clark Bell wrote on Medico-Legal Society letterhead (NYC) to invite Sam to their annual dinner on Jan. 17 at the Hotel Astor at 7 p.m. He also enclosed a petition to the Governor to pardon Palnek, who was to be executed Jan. 22 [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote at the top, “Mr. Clemens signed the petition.”
George Cary Eggleston wrote on Author’s Club stationery, NYC to ask if Sam would provide a paragraph he had written long before on the Ball-Florence Percy controversy as to the true authorship of the song, “Rock Me to Sleep.” Eggleston had carried the clipping with him for years, as it was brilliant and in the same meter [MTP].
John Grier Hibben wrote from the Spencer Trask Lecture Committee, Princeton, Univ., to invite Sam “to address the students of the university, in the form of a lecture, or an informal talk as you may prefer,” the honorarium being $100 [MTP]. Note: Sam declined on Jan. 12.
Mansfield L. Hillhouse wrote to advise Sam that he’d been elected a member of the Advisory Board for the Hispanic Society of America at their Jan. 8 meeting [MTP]. Note: on a separate sheet Lyon wrote for Sam is thanks for the honor.
Entry Date
Links to Twain's Geography Entries