March 24 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Gertrude Natkin at 138 W. 98 St., N.Y.C.

Are you listening, you little rascal? You have been thinking about me? That is quite proper— when there is nothing else on hand; but not in lesson-time, that won’t do. Why, not even r Marjorie Fleming was so lawless as that, altho’ she was a good deal of a rule-breaker. D . John Browne never saw Marjorie, of course, yet she was so alive to him, & so vivid, & so dear & sweet, that he told me she was the same to him as a grandchild, & that he couldn’t love a real grandchild any more than he loved this little comrade of his musings & his dreams. So spoke of her as his dream-grandchild. And you are mine. I shouldn’t want a sweeter one, & there couldn’t be a dearer one. For a year & more I have been calling this house a hospital, & now at last I am a patient myself—but I’m only a “temporary,” not a “permanent,” like the rest of the family—& I shall be up to-morrow, I suppose, & may be this evening, & will hunt for you on the telephone, & thank you for those dear messages you send me. I am cross, from being restrained of my liberty, but not with you, dear, only with the rest of the human race. No, I couldn’t be cross with you, you dear little Marjorie—on the contrary I blow you a volley of blots! [MTAq  22-3]. Note: Sam had been in bed with a bad cold since Mar. 16.

Isabel Lyon’s journal:

“This is the day my father died fifty nine years ago” Mr. Clemens said to me 5 minutes ago as he looked at the date on the morning newspaper, The Times. He remembers it all distinctly for he was just at the age when events stamp themselves indelibly. He drew the sparkle in his eye back into its sheath after he saw & received the copy of Simplicissimus that I brought in to him. He enjoys it. He calls it his “Darling Simplicissimus”.

This is the wretched day when Mr. Clemens went down to the living room & there wasn’t anyone there, for a half hour he waited for a human being & none came to stay. C.C. looked in upon him as she passed out of the house, & then a blast of cold & bedeviled loneliness swept over him & made him hate his life. C.C. was late for luncheon, & Mr. Clemens loathed the meal. He dropped his 2 hard water biscuits with a bang on the mahogany table in a cursing wave of bitterness. These are the agony days when he knows Mrs. Clemens is gone.

This evening C.C., R.G. [Rodman Gilder], Mary Lawton & I went up to Hammerstein’s Variety Show to see Henri de Vries in his “Case of Arson”. Only fair. But there were some wonderful Hungarian dancers there [MTP TS 56-57; also in part Gribben 644]. Note: Simplicissimus; Illustrierte Wochenschrift (Munich, 1896), a humorous German magazine.

Gertrude Natkin wrote to Sam on or after Mar. 24.

My Dear Mr. Clemens

—You see, I do not wish to appear as a reckless little law breaker in your sight so I have tryed to restrain myself from setting forth my love on paper during school time and I have succeeded.

I am just overflowing with love for you and there is likely to be an inundation at any time, hence this violation of rules.

It was very dear of you to telephone to me that evening, but you are such a dear, I knew you would telephone if you said you would. I am so glad that Apr. 10 comes during Holiday week for then I can think of you as much as I please without breaking any rules. Oh, that I could give you a real blot right now, well I will have to make the best of it and store it up for the eventful evening. . Good Night, Sweet Dreams / Marjorie [MTP;  MTAq 23].

Frances Campbell Sparhawk wrote from Newton Center, Mass. to Sam. After reading “King Leopold’s Soliloquy,” Sparhawk was joining the Congo Reform Assoc. Noting the contrast of outrage with the horrors of the Russo-Japanese war as against the indifference of the Congo situation, Sparhawk concluded, “Our people are full of race prejudice.” She thanked him for the Soliloquy [MTP].

March 24 after – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to an unidentified person. All that survives is what he wrote on the envelope: “Her songs were delightfully humorous, & were effectively interpreted by an art all her own, & refreshingly original. The house responded with enthusiasm. —Mark Twain” [MTP].

Harper’s Weekly ran an anonymous article, “Further Anecdotes of Mark Twain,” p. 421. Tenney “Chiefly on MT in Hartford, with texts of some brief MT notes” [Tenney 41].