October 13 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam added to his Oct. 11 and 12 to Mary B. Rogers.
9.30 a.m. Saturday
I have been editing this letter with the scissors—for I had put into it the very dismal news which I had spared you in that recent note. I went to that dinner-party at the MacVeagh’s palace last night—in white clothes. All the others of both sexes—in their noblest evening costumery. (But I know all those people familiarly.)
It is a time of surprises.
The packing suddenly began yesterday afternoon & evening, & we are to land at home in New York at 6.30 p.m. next Wednesday evening—instead of 10 days later, as was the most recent previous plan. Clara will be—glad? Yes, but not entirely ready for us, perhaps. If you do not dutifully call me up, Thursday, & say good-morning, I shall be strongly tempted to call you & scold you [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: The King told Mr. MacVeagh last night that I couldn’t accept his invitation “because there were a couple of young Bucks dining with Jean” & I had to “stay & protect her”. It was too bad—but the Bucks were delightful, being Raphael Pumpelly & Gerry. We had a gay little dinner & then some metaphysical talk later.
This afternoon I had a lovely drive with Mrs. Dana & then a cup of tea with her & Milicent & Kate Hutchinson & Mrs. Collier. The talk ran upon the simplified spelling & Mrs. Dana gave us an irate & good talk on the English tongue & the forms it had gone through, while Mrs. Collier wrung her hands & deplored the complete destruction of the English language [MTP TS 135-136].
The New York Times, p. BR670, under “Topics of the Week” provided a short positive review of The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories, published in Sept.
The American humorist is as busy as ever this Autumn, and the head of the guild of American humor, Mark Twain, still sets the key for fun. The latest Mark Twain book published by the Harpers, … contains, of course, nothing that has not been published before; some of the copyrights covering the various contents date from the early seventies of the last century; but many of the selections here reprinted belong to their author’s later years. These include his antivivisection argument, “A Dog’s Tale,” “Was it Heaven or Hell?” and “A Double-Barreled Detective Story,” one of the elaborate literary hoaxes Mark has perpetrated from time to time.
The book also contains the recent “Eve’s Diary,” and such capital bits of genuine American humor as “A Telephonic Conversation,” “Italian Without a Master,” and that delightful alleged review of “Innocents Abroad” “from the London Saturday Review,” with which Mark gulled the readers of The Galaxy many years ago. There are some serious things in the book—not counting Mark’s ordinary seriousness, which it is not always well to take too seriously. One of these is a short biography of Mr. Clemens by Samuel Moffat; another is a poem written in memory of Mrs. Clemens.
Henry G. Bayer wrote from NYC to Sam. “I am indebted for your address to the ‘Fulton Monument Association’ of which I am, now, a Member of the Executive Committee.” Bayer’s task was to “form an American Committee of Honor owing to this International Exposition,” and requested to use Sam’s name for such a group [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the bottom of the letter: “Ans. / Dear Sir / I am quite willing that you shall put my name upon the Committee & shall regard it as an honor. /Very truly yours”
William Clemens Beans wrote on The Wheeling Telegraph (W. Va.) letterhead to Sam. Beans asserted in two enclosed articles from the Wheeling Register, that he did “not remember of having seen so many errors in the same space” as he had in Sam’s Autobiography. Bean’s grandfather was Abram Walton Clemens who he claimed “came from the same Western Pennsylvania town and locality your ancestor hailed from” [MTP]. Note: although there are several Abraham Clemenses in Sam’s family tree, this may have been Abraham (1769-1841) as he was the son of James Clemens and Hanna Walton, from Penn.
Rudolph Forster for Theodore Roosevelt wrote on White House notepaper to Sam that President Roosevelt had learned of the Oct. 22 and 23 meeting of the governing committee of the People’s Lobby and would be glad to receive members on the evening of Oct. 23. A separate slip, Forster wrote: “If you are to be here on Wednesday Oct. 24th, the President hopes you will take lunch with him at 1.30” [MTP]. Note: Sam was in NY on Oct. 24, and in Washington from Dec. 6 to 11.
Henry Beech Needham for People’s Lobby wrote to Sam announcing the Governing Committee meeting would be at 10 a.m. at the Raleigh Hotel, Wash. D.C. on Oct. 22. “Your attendance is imperative, as everything must be done to launch the movement in the best possible way” [MTP].
Thomas Augustine Daly (1871-1948) Philadelphia poet and writer, inscribed a copy of his 1906 book Canzoni : “To / Samuel L. Clemens, / Master Craftsman, / with the admiring regards / of his humble servant, / T.A. Daly / Oct. 13/’06” [Gribben 170].