February 8 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to Gertrude Natkin.
Aren’t you the dearest child there is? I am perfectly sure of it. I was never surer of anything in my life. When a person gets to be as old as I am he can’t take new friends into his heart easily — they don’t seem as dear as the old ones; but you, oh you are an exception! I wouldn’t trade you for dozens & dozens of these gray-heads I’ve been so fond of all these ages. If Gen. Porter should postpone his lecture to the 25 we will write or telephone in time, so that you & your mother will be saved from making a fruitless journey to 59 street.
Meantime, don’t forget me, & don’t forget my name. Set it down on a piece of paper; & if you lose the paper, call me up & inquire: “3907 Gramercy”—it isn’t in the telephone book.
bright.
P. S. Do you know, dear, I am lost in admiration of my own smartness. I first wrote the enclosed order, & then asked Miss Lyon to call up Mr. Powlison & say I should want a couple of friends taken care of: he broke in, at that point & said “ask Mr. Clemens to write an order; the usher will find me & deliver it, & I will see that they are shown to the seats provided for them.” She brings that report this moment. Do you notice? he came near repeating the words of my order. I used to be often bright, like that, but not lately—oh, no, that is not so—I am always He has telephoned his name; it is Charles—or Charley;—I have never seen him, & so I don’t know which he prefers. [enclosure] / Majestic Theatre— / Please report to Mr. Powlison that the friends whom my secretary spoke to him about, have arrived, so that he can have them shown to the seats provided for them [MTAq 11-12]. Note: Sam had agreed to introduce Gen. Horace Porter on Feb. 18, but wrote there was a chance Porter might have to postpone until Feb. 25. See Feb. 14 to Natkin. Charles F. Powlison is identified in the Mar. 5, 1905 NY Times article for the Mar. 4 event as Secretary of the West Side Branch of the YMCA. See Mar. 4 entry.
Clemens’ A.D. for this day: Susy Clemens’ Biography, continued—Romancer to the children —Incident of the spoon-shaped drive—The burglar alarm does its whole duty [AMT 1: 341- 346].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
A whirl of young, young men came to the house this afternoon, all with messages & invitations for Mr. Clemens. Among them was a young clergyman who came with an invitation to Mr. Clemens to lunch with a club of young clergymen. But Mr. Clemens said to me as he sat on the edge of the bed with his bare feet hanging out from under a Jaeger blanket, “Why, I can’t go there, they’ll think I’m a Christian if I do, and I am—a Hell of a Christian.”
Oh, he’s so much more of a Christian than most.
This evening Mr. Gilder telephoned to say that Mr. Marly, Belgian representative here, and a Roman Catholic priest of Albany, also a Belgian and a strong adherent of Leopold’s, were at 13 East 8th Street and they’d like to see Mr. Clemens. It was just nine o’clock and I told Mr. Gilder that Mr. Clemens had gone to his room, but that I’d take him the message. When I delivered it, Mr. Clemens was superb in his denunciation of the men who could say that the Congo reports were exaggerated. He couldn’t & wouldn’t admit them. If their King had been the means of murdering one million instead of tens millions of helpless creatures, or if he confessed to the murder of only one soul, he stood guilty—just as guilty. It is a great picture he makes when he sits up in bed and with flashing eye and uplifted right arm he utters his fearless condemnations of those who are [three illegible canceled words]. I carried his reply to Mr. Gilder—the replay that those 2 men would feel insulted before they had been in the house five minutes, because he has such contempt for the man they would try to defend [MTP TS 26-27].
The Players Club wrote a short reminder of the St. Valentine’s Dinner to David Munro at the Players’ on Wed. Feb. 14 at 7 p.m. “Every one is requested to bring a Valentine offering to the guest of honor” [MTP]. Note: on the note IVL wrote, “Mr. Clemens took a copy of Joan of Arc.”
Dihdwo Twe wrote from Ashburnham, Mass. to Sam “dissatisfied with the method of the ‘Congo Reform Association’…“they are trying to influence this great country by distribution of printed circulars. This will take too much money, too long time, and besides the result will remain uncertain.” Twe wanted to bring two or three Congolese children who had been mutilated and urged the C.R.A to perform this scheme. In debt about $5,000, the Assoc. refused. A note on the back of Twe’s letter by Lyon shows Sam thought the plan “excellent, but that he doubts if it is really worthwhile to continue the agitation in America with the idea of getting help from our Government” [Hawkins 171; MTP]. Note: Hawkins offers a thorough and scholarly treatment of the Congo Reform Movement and of Twain’s involvement in it, and of the subsequent reversal of the US government and ultimate solutions.
Erasmus Wilson wrote from NYC to Sam. After sitting near him on the previous evening, Wilson bid him greetings from James Whitcomb Riley and also from his friend Charles Whistler, “who had the honor of setting up some of your ‘stuff’ in the early days of journalism on the coast.” Wilson enjoyed Sam’s talk and asked if he might call at his convenience [MTP].
February 8 ca. – On or after this date Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to Dihdwo Twe’s request. See note in Feb. 8 from Dwe, which summarizes Sam’s answer [MTP].
Also on or after this date Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to Erasmus Wilson’s Feb. 8 request. “M . Clemens’s movements are so uncertain that he is never sure to be at home at any particular time—his duty to be at home to receive co[mpany]—always try to be here at that time to receive people” [MTP].