March 26 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to John Brown, Jr. (“Jock”).
Dear Mr. Jock: — / With this I am returning the typed letters which you sent. They pleasantly but pathetically bring back the scenes and associations of thirty-three years ago, when Mrs. Clemens and our small Susy and I were comrades of your father in Edinburgh daily, during six weeks, without a break.
Use the letters freely. Doctor John’s letters to Mrs. Clemens and me I am not able to find. We have hunted the house over, with this result. And I am greatly surprised, for Mrs. Clemens treasured them as precious remembrancers, and she always knew where to put her hand upon them. But perhaps I ought not to be surprised, for during the ten years that we were wanderers in Europe our house in Hartford was several times occupied by renters, with the result that a great many things which we valued got lost or destroyed. In this present case I deeply deplore the loss.
I shall be glad to see the memoir you speak of, if you will send it.
I thank you very much for the photographs of the beautiful children. Marjorie Fleming ought to have had just one more gift, then she would have been perfect. She ought to have looked like this little girl of yours—I mean she ought to have had your little girl’s beauty. [After signature:]
I remember 23 Rutland st exceedingly well. Those were good times.
The enclosed photograph is copyrighted in G.B & America—don’t let it get into print [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Asa Don Dickinson of the Brooklyn Public Library.
Be wise as a serpent & wary as a dove! The newspaper boys want that letter—don’t you let them get hold of it. They say you refuse to allow them to see it without my consent. Keep on refusing, & I’ll take care of this end of the line.
Was the January meeting held? You did not tell me [MTP]. Note: Dickinson was in charge of the dept. for the blind at the Sheepshead Bay Branch. Sam is likely referring to his reply of Nov. 21, 1905 to Dickinson’s Nov. 19, 1905. See Dickinson’s reply to this letter on Mar. 28.
Sam also wrote to Augustus T. Gurlitz. “I am told a reporter from the Journal has been here— with authorization from you. I did not see him. I have nothing to say to reporters. He is coming again; and again he will go without seeing me” [MTP].
Sam also replied to his old mining partner, Calvin H. Higbie, in Greenville, Plumas Co. Calif. Higbie had written on Mar. 15. Higbie had a manuscript to pass by Mark Twain and wanted a few details of Sam’s movements.
I went down to Aurora about midsummer of ‘62. I suppose it must have been toward the end of October, ‘62 that I went to Walker River to nurse Capt. John Nye. I crossed the Sierras into California for the first time along about the middle of ‘64, I should say.
Send me your manuscript. I shall be as competent as anybody to sit in judgment upon its value and arrive at a verdict. Then I will ask the New York Herald to name a price & come to my house and talk with me, in case he finds that your narrative comes up to his expectations. If he should decide that he doesn’t want it—but that is further along. If you have told your story with your pen in the simple unadorned & straightforward way in which you would tell it with your tongue, I think it cannot help but have value.
I was very glad to hear from you, old comrade, & shall be also glad to be of service to you in this matter if I can [MTP].
Sam had Rodman Gilder and Mr. and Mrs. Albert Vorse to dinner [Hill 124]. Note: see Lyon’s next entry.
Clemens’ A.D. for the day: John D. Rockefeller’s Bible Class again—Clemens comments on several newspaper clippings—Tells Howells the scheme of this autobiography—Tells the newspaper account of girl who tried to commit suicide—Newspapers in remote villages and in great cities contrasted—Remarks about Captain E.L. Marsh and Dick Higham—Calvin Higbie’s letter, and Herald letter to Higbie [AMT 1: 439-446].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: I dined with Barry at Cecchina’s.
Tonight at dinner when Mr. & Mrs. Vorse & Rodman Gilder were here, Mr. Clemens swung off into wonderful talk of the piloting days on the Mississippi; my chronicling wit is gone.
After dinner we went up to see Francis Wilson in “the Mountain Climbers”. [sic] It was a foolish enough play, but the Vorses are lovely and Rodman Gilder was handsome & we whirled up there in cabs & away from there in cabs & somehow I didn’t get to bed or to sleep until 4:30 in the morning. It seemed all wrong to go off & leave Mr. Clemens alone, though I venture to say that he liked it.
Mr. Clemens & I went around to see the sunshiny house on Washington Square [MTP TS 58; also in part Gribben 388]. Note: The Mountain Climber, a three-act farce at the Criterion Theatre by Curt Kraatz and M. Neal. See insert.
John Hellier wrote with “deep grief” from Manchester, England to Sam asking for his help with his wife, who was troubled with “mental delusions.” He had been told that if he could take his wife to various places she might be cured. He worked for the Inland Revenue Department and was unable to do this. Could Sam confer with the 5 Avenue doctors concerning his case? [MTP].
E.E. Olcott, president and general manager of the Hudson River Day Line of steamers, wrote to Sam, grateful for his past help on the start of their Hudson Memorial Assoc. Heller requested Sam’s “cooperation” at another event on Mar. 31 in Newburgh—the launching of a new steamer of the Hudson River Day Line [MTP]. Note: written on the letter ca. Mar. 28: “Two engagements for that day & evening.”
Dear Mr. Jock: — / With this I am returning the typed letters which you sent. They pleasantly but pathetically bring back the scenes and associations of thirty-three years ago, when Mrs. Clemens and our small Susy and I were comrades of your father in Edinburgh daily, during six weeks, without a break.
Use the letters freely. Doctor John’s letters to Mrs. Clemens and me I am not able to find. We have hunted the house over, with this result. And I am greatly surprised, for Mrs. Clemens treasured them as precious remembrancers, and she always knew where to put her hand upon them. But perhaps I ought not to be surprised, for during the ten years that we were wanderers in Europe our house in Hartford was several times occupied by renters, with the result that a great many things which we valued got lost or destroyed. In this present case I deeply deplore the loss.
I shall be glad to see the memoir you speak of, if you will send it.
I thank you very much for the photographs of the beautiful children. Marjorie Fleming ought to have had just one more gift, then she would have been perfect. She ought to have looked like this little girl of yours—I mean she ought to have had your little girl’s beauty. [After signature:]
I remember 23 Rutland st exceedingly well. Those were good times.
The enclosed photograph is copyrighted in G.B & America—don’t let it get into print [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Asa Don Dickinson of the Brooklyn Public Library.
Be wise as a serpent & wary as a dove! The newspaper boys want that letter—don’t you let them get hold of it. They say you refuse to allow them to see it without my consent. Keep on refusing, & I’ll take care of this end of the line.
Was the January meeting held? You did not tell me [MTP]. Note: Dickinson was in charge of the dept. for the blind at the Sheepshead Bay Branch. Sam is likely referring to his reply of Nov. 21, 1905 to Dickinson’s Nov. 19, 1905. See Dickinson’s reply to this letter on Mar. 28.
Sam also wrote to Augustus T. Gurlitz. “I am told a reporter from the Journal has been here— with authorization from you. I did not see him. I have nothing to say to reporters. He is coming again; and again he will go without seeing me” [MTP].
Sam also replied to his old mining partner, Calvin H. Higbie, in Greenville, Plumas Co. Calif. Higbie had written on Mar. 15. Higbie had a manuscript to pass by Mark Twain and wanted a few details of Sam’s movements.
I went down to Aurora about midsummer of ‘62. I suppose it must have been toward the end of October, ‘62 that I went to Walker River to nurse Capt. John Nye. I crossed the Sierras into California for the first time along about the middle of ‘64, I should say.
Send me your manuscript. I shall be as competent as anybody to sit in judgment upon its value and arrive at a verdict. Then I will ask the New York Herald to name a price & come to my house and talk with me, in case he finds that your narrative comes up to his expectations. If he should decide that he doesn’t want it—but that is further along. If you have told your story with your pen in the simple unadorned & straightforward way in which you would tell it with your tongue, I think it cannot help but have value.
I was very glad to hear from you, old comrade, & shall be also glad to be of service to you in this matter if I can [MTP].
Sam had Rodman Gilder and Mr. and Mrs. Albert Vorse to dinner [Hill 124]. Note: see Lyon’s next entry.
Clemens’ A.D. for the day: John D. Rockefeller’s Bible Class again—Clemens comments on several newspaper clippings—Tells Howells the scheme of this autobiography—Tells the newspaper account of girl who tried to commit suicide—Newspapers in remote villages and in great cities contrasted—Remarks about Captain E.L. Marsh and Dick Higham—Calvin Higbie’s letter, and Herald letter to Higbie [AMT 1: 439-446].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: I dined with Barry at Cecchina’s.
Tonight at dinner when Mr. & Mrs. Vorse & Rodman Gilder were here, Mr. Clemens swung off into wonderful talk of the piloting days on the Mississippi; my chronicling wit is gone.
After dinner we went up to see Francis Wilson in “the Mountain Climbers”. [sic] It was a foolish enough play, but the Vorses are lovely and Rodman Gilder was handsome & we whirled up there in cabs & away from there in cabs & somehow I didn’t get to bed or to sleep until 4:30 in the morning. It seemed all wrong to go off & leave Mr. Clemens alone, though I venture to say that he liked it.
Mr. Clemens & I went around to see the sunshiny house on Washington Square [MTP TS 58; also in part Gribben 388]. Note: The Mountain Climber, a three-act farce at the Criterion Theatre by Curt Kraatz and M. Neal. See insert.
John Hellier wrote with “deep grief” from Manchester, England to Sam asking for his help with his wife, who was troubled with “mental delusions.” He had been told that if he could take his wife to various places she might be cured. He worked for the Inland Revenue Department and was unable to do this. Could Sam confer with the 5 Avenue doctors concerning his case? [MTP].
E.E. Olcott, president and general manager of the Hudson River Day Line of steamers, wrote to Sam, grateful for his past help on the start of their Hudson Memorial Assoc. Heller requested Sam’s “cooperation” at another event on Mar. 31 in Newburgh—the launching of a new steamer of the Hudson River Day Line [MTP]. Note: written on the letter ca. Mar. 28: “Two engagements for that day & evening.”
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