March 9 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam added to his Mar. 4 and Mar. 8 to Gertrude Natkin, who had telephoned him, perhaps before he completed the letter [Natkin Mar. 10]. Friday.
I knew I could do it, dear. By going without rest or food for a day & a night I have compressed the proper work of months into a single cataclysmal explosion. And so as you see, it is finished:
Rich, though he have not a grain of gold
Save that which is in his mouth,
Rich, though his silver be all on his head
And crusts for his craw be all his bread
And his wine-tank rusty with drouth;
For your love has the power of the fabled purse
That wrought charms in the old romaunt:
Who had it might live in a shack or worse
And feed on dreams & dew & verse,
Yet never could he know want.
(There, Marjorie dear—I charge you a blot for that) [MTAq 17-18]. Note: blot = kiss.
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Mr. Clemens is following up the Fulton Memorial Talk at Carnegie. He likes it better than he did. He is dissipating—but delightful. Off in a hansom for tea with Betty Buffum at the Waldorf & then in the hansom up beautiful Fifth Avenue to 91st St. to drop Mr. Clemens’s cards along at the various places where he has dined. Mr. Carl Schurz, Mrs. Burden, Norman Hapgood, Prof. Sloane, Mrs. Alexander, Mr. Henry Holt, then leaving Betty at the Hotel Marie Antoinette & so home in the growing twilight down the long avenue with its roadway so polished by the solemn padding of horses & carriages that the light sent long shafts of yellow & silver, like the reflections on ice, & we went into them & into them like riding down rainbow rays. Just as I was leaving the house I saw Mr. Clemens & Mr. Paine sauntering back from the Players. Today came a Tribune man to offer Mr. Clemens the office of U.S. Senator in place of Chauncey DePew who is resigning. If he’d accept they’d boom him [MTP TS 44-45]. Note: leaving his card at various hosts was perhaps a way of thanking or inviting in return.
Charles Hopkins Clark wrote from Hartford to Sam suggesting they split the bill for the Mar. 1 luncheon in Hartford [MTP]. Note: Sam agreed in his ca.Mar. 10 .
Edward M. Foote wrote for the Young Men’s Bible Class, NYC to invite Sam to their reunion on Mar. 22 at 8 p.m. [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the letter: “I daren’t be with thee. I’d like to mighty well.”
Mrs. Clement March wrote from Cambridge, Mass. for the Bazaar of Women’s Clubs there to ask if Sam would contribute some of his work to the Book Table [MTP].
Miss Lyle E. Sullivan wrote from Trenton, Mich. to ask Sam for his photo and autograph [MTP].
I knew I could do it, dear. By going without rest or food for a day & a night I have compressed the proper work of months into a single cataclysmal explosion. And so as you see, it is finished:
Rich, though he have not a grain of gold
Save that which is in his mouth,
Rich, though his silver be all on his head
And crusts for his craw be all his bread
And his wine-tank rusty with drouth;
For your love has the power of the fabled purse
That wrought charms in the old romaunt:
Who had it might live in a shack or worse
And feed on dreams & dew & verse,
Yet never could he know want.
(There, Marjorie dear—I charge you a blot for that) [MTAq 17-18]. Note: blot = kiss.
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Mr. Clemens is following up the Fulton Memorial Talk at Carnegie. He likes it better than he did. He is dissipating—but delightful. Off in a hansom for tea with Betty Buffum at the Waldorf & then in the hansom up beautiful Fifth Avenue to 91st St. to drop Mr. Clemens’s cards along at the various places where he has dined. Mr. Carl Schurz, Mrs. Burden, Norman Hapgood, Prof. Sloane, Mrs. Alexander, Mr. Henry Holt, then leaving Betty at the Hotel Marie Antoinette & so home in the growing twilight down the long avenue with its roadway so polished by the solemn padding of horses & carriages that the light sent long shafts of yellow & silver, like the reflections on ice, & we went into them & into them like riding down rainbow rays. Just as I was leaving the house I saw Mr. Clemens & Mr. Paine sauntering back from the Players. Today came a Tribune man to offer Mr. Clemens the office of U.S. Senator in place of Chauncey DePew who is resigning. If he’d accept they’d boom him [MTP TS 44-45]. Note: leaving his card at various hosts was perhaps a way of thanking or inviting in return.
Charles Hopkins Clark wrote from Hartford to Sam suggesting they split the bill for the Mar. 1 luncheon in Hartford [MTP]. Note: Sam agreed in his ca.Mar. 10 .
Edward M. Foote wrote for the Young Men’s Bible Class, NYC to invite Sam to their reunion on Mar. 22 at 8 p.m. [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the letter: “I daren’t be with thee. I’d like to mighty well.”
Mrs. Clement March wrote from Cambridge, Mass. for the Bazaar of Women’s Clubs there to ask if Sam would contribute some of his work to the Book Table [MTP].
Miss Lyle E. Sullivan wrote from Trenton, Mich. to ask Sam for his photo and autograph [MTP].
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