February 14 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to Gertrude Natkin.
It was a very sweet Valentine, & you are a dear. But I have told you that before. You got ahead of me, but it was only because I was busy. Yesterday I bought my favorite book for you, but I fell to reading it, & became fascinated, as always before, & here it lies, yet—unsent. It is the book of that quaint & charming & affectionate & tempestuous & remorseful little child, Marjorie Fleming. Doubtless you are already acquainted with it. I am incurably slow & lazy, but I will send it, sure—I certainly will.
General Porter can’t lecture on the 18 , but I have promised to introduce D . Van Dyke on the 25 . I think it will be at Carnegie Hall—but I will let you know. He is a very gifted man, but I have not known him as long as I have known Porter.
Aren’t you dear & sweet? Doubters are requested to inquire of SLC [MTAq 13]. Note: Dr. Henry Van Dyke, clergyman and Sam’s friend was also unable to speak; Sam did give a lecture on Mar. 4. Fatout lists as “conjectural” a speech introducing Van Dyke as “late Feb. early March, and before Mar. 4” [MT Speaking 487-91] but Van Dyke did not speak, so it’s doubtful the speech was ever given. Evidently Fatout did not have access to all the letters, and his schedule of speeches is sometimes in error.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Tonight Mr. Clemens went to The Players to a dinner given as a surprise to Mr. David Munro, that canny Scotchman at half past six. I was in Jean’s room when Mr. Clemens called me asking me to give him some music & when I reaching the living room I found Mr. Paine there too. He was going up to The Players with Mr. Clemens. The music was Scotch, as it always is in parts now. “Ye Banks and Braes of Bonnie Doon,” – “Robin Adair” – “Bonnie Sweet Bessie” – “The Campbells are Coming”- he loves them all and as he paced the floor smoking, he sang bits of the airs in a low voice. Mr. Paine exclaimed with pleasure at the sweetness of the music and he was watching Mr. Clemens’s enjoyment of it [MTP TS 30].
Gribben also notes these songs and “Loch Lomand”, p. 115, 369.
Fatout lists Sam giving a speech or a story at the “sendoff” Henry Mills Alden Luncheon. Alden was editor of Harper’s Magazine [MT Speaking 674].
A.D. Howard for the NY Tribune wrote to Sam asking several questions, including one about the original character of Huck Finn [MTP]. Notes: On or just after this day, Sam wrote on the letter for reply: “I believe the original of Huck Finn is still alive, & that he is a magistrate in a far western state, & that he is a respected & respect worthy man. I do not consider myself privileged to reveal his name. I cannot answer the other questions it would take too much time” In the file is a newspaper clipping datelined Wallace, Idaho, Feb. 12 “ ‘Huckleberry Finn,’ Twain’s Friend, Dies,” naming one Captain A.O. Tonkray, native of Hannibal, Mo. dead at 65. Sam wrote at the top of the page with the pasted clipping, “Huck Finn was Tom Blankenship & is still living.” Lyon wrote on the side, “Mr. Clemens never heard of Capt. Tonkray. / Would like a little interview to any passages in the Book refer to Capt. Tonkray.” See ca. Mar. 6 from Capt. Tonkray’s brother.
Robert Reid wrote to Sam, sometime before Feb. 14, advising of a surprise dinner for David Munro on Feb. 14 at the Players Club and “WE WANT YOU!” [MTP].
Ora J. Parker wrote to I.V. Leroy (sic; Isabel V. Lyon), Yours of late date at hand advising me that I have made a “common error” in asking Mr. Clemens to comment on my sketches.
The poet has advised so strongly against this weakness of our common human nature that I feel justly rebuked and properly ashamed at having so far disregarded his inspired advice [MTP] Note: She went on to say that she’d rec’d Sam’s thanks for five sketches but six were sent.
“Why, oh why! Miss. Leroy [sic] could you not have done me the faint service of counting them right?” then in a PS she took another look at the “5” and saw it was a “6,” so apologized again.
February 14 ca. – Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to Mr. Ora J. Parker’s gift of sketches and request for comment. Such requests came “with such frequency that long ago he made a rule not to grant any of them, and so be fair to all” [MTP].