May 31 Thursday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam added to his May 29, 30 to Charlotte Teller Johnson.
4.30 p.m., next Day. I am as tired as a day; but as jubilant as a whole wilderness of dogs. I have labored 4 ½ hours today—2 at dictating, this morning, & 2½ this afternoon at reading autobiography aloud on the porch to Miss Lyon & Mr. Paine. I will say it again, unto the Lady of Charlotte: you were in the wrong, distinctly in the wrong, unquestionablely in the wrong that day, when you so stubbornly & violently & vindictively refused to let me read autobiographical MS to you, for I find it most shoutingly entertaining, I do indeed. It was not like you, it was far from like you to act like that, & I hope that these reproaches of mine will fill you with a consuming & devastating repentance & remorse. In which case you will be forgiven & get a chromo.
I was minded to telephone you at noon, but was out of pretexts—except a riddle, & it would not have been fair to break into your work for that. This is it: it has never yet been guessed:
One says to the Other, “You can refuse me ten thousand requests, but there is one which you will be obliged to grant. I ask that one now. Look in the glass.”
The Other looked in the glass, & it was so.
Can you furnish the answer? Examine the glass & tell me the result. I am waiting.
This letter is getting oppressively long for you who are a busy person, but I can modify it with the scissors.
How to Reach a Decision when in Doubt. Arrive at a decision. This will settle your mind, then you will do the other thing. Two hours after we reached Dublin Miss Lyon telegraphed Duneka: “Mr. Clemens decides not to attempt a Carl Schurz tribute.” An hour & a half later she telegraphed him: “The tribute is written—make room for 613 words.” If I had your gait I could have achieved it in 21 minutes.
The Gospel is actually done. I finished it at 3 o’clock this morning [MTP]. Note: The Gospel was What Is Man?
Clemens’ A.D. for the day: The lovely morning & the majestic Mt. Monadnock—Clemens speaks freely in this autobiography because he speaks from the grave—Does not believe in immortality—Charles Luther Webster a Jew—Bill taken up in Congress on last day of President Chester A. Arthur’s term by which Ulysses S. Grant was again made a General— Grant’s indifference to eulogies [MTP Autodict2].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
This has been a wonder day. Mr. Clemens dictated out on the porch this morning. In the afternoon he read the auto-ms. to me & then after the tea I started off with Carlyle’s French
Revolution under my arm to read [several illegible words] anywhere between here & the mountain pasture, a wonder point from which you can see the great mountains sweep for miles in all directions. The trail up is indicated by little piles of stones placed there by Raphael Pumpelly & it is beautiful. Jean had supper with the Brushes & after our dinner here Mr. Clemens read The Rubaiyat to me. Oh what a gifted man he is—what a marvel! In these days he is overflowing with a buoyancy belonging to a man of 45. Strength has come to him in these hills & perhaps it will come to me too [MTP TS 75-76; also mention in Gribben 518]. Note: Lyon’s strikeouts are left in for clarity. Her effusive praise of Clemens is often lined out, as is her more striking emotion, but some struck passages, such as the Carlyle passage are inexplicably struck. Providing them here affords clarity.
May 31 ca. – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to Elizabeth Jordan’s May 29:
The idea is excellent M . Clemens is not acquainted with any of these people & so he would like to have as many of these instalments as he can—In fact he doesn’t think he can do it at all until he has half of the instalments for nothing is suggested now, but the small boy talking against vacancy [MTP].