January 1 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean, about how he rang in the New Year:
Jean dear, we had grand times last night: “Sham,” played by Clara—burlesquing grand opera— assisted by [Witter] Bynner & George Gilder & Miss Burbank—most delightfully played. “Pain” played by me as a baby, with Miss Burbank for the mother & Miss Lyon as nurse. “Champagne” played by Bynner & me as the Siamese Twins” ( I getting drunk on wine drunk by him.)
At 11.55 there was a prepared surprise: lovely music—played on a silent piano of 300 keys at the corner of Broadway a mile & a half away, & sent over the telephone wire to our parlor—the first time this marvelous invention ever uttered its voice in a private house. Two weeks from now it will go by wire 1,000 miles to Chicago & furnish the music for the Electrical Convention, & within a year or two the artist will play on those dumb keys & deliver his music into 20,000 homes—& cheap as water; only 20 cents an hour, & shut it off when you please, like the gas.
The company left at 1, & Mr. Paine & I played billiards till 3 o’clock. I am tired. Mr. Twichell will arrive this afternoon, & he & Miss Lyon & I will sail for Bermuda tomorrow morning, to be gone a week. D Quintard has engaged us to find us a furnished house in your neighborhood for next summer. Last night I wore for the first time the little gold studs which you gave me for Xmas, & found them to be just exactly what I wanted. I thank you for them, dear.
Happy New Year, & a heap of hugs & kisses.
[enclosure, written on a card with a picture of a woman wearing a hat:]
A happy New Year to you, dear dear Jean, & many of the like to follow!
By your letters, & by all reports, I know that you are happy, & may you continue so! From your loving / Father [MTP: Sotheby’s NY catalogs, Dec. 12, 1991, Item 25]. Note: See NYT article Dec. 31, 1906
Sam also wrote to H.H. Rogers after he stopped by, and gave an accounting of his income and expenses totals for 1906: He’d made $40,000 from his books and lived on $32,000; he had $40,000 in the bank to invest upon return from Bermuda with Joe Twichell [MTHHR 622-3]. Note: see source for a page of details on Sam’s finances and investments.
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
We wished each other good morning.
All this day was a grand hustle getting ready to sail away to Bermuda tomorrow—only a week we shall be gone—but we’ll be beyond communication, so there are heaps to do.
The King has been in a sweet & lazy mood. He played billiards until 3 o’clock; after the guests had gone he tackled AB [Paine], who had come in from seeing Pamela Smith to her next party, & they played until after C.C. and I were in bed.
Mr. Rogers came in and Mr. Clemens is getting ready for another investment. AB went home to stay there while we were away. Mother has been here all day helping me—valeting me—who never have a minute to repair my staggering-to-death garments.
The King needs the trip away—& I need it. Mr. Twichell arrived today, & he needs it too, for he was tired out with his Xmas clerical duties [MTP].
Mrs. S.B. Elder wrote from New Orleans to express her “appreciation and enthusiasm although late” for “Joan of Arc” in the Harper’s of Dec. 1904 [MTP].
George Iles wrote from Park Avenue Hotel, NYC to Sam. “I have had a rare treat this afternoon in reading WHAT IS MAN? … The book with both logic and humor clears up the fog that has long confused Egotism and Altruism, the pleasure of eating strawberries and he greater, or less, joy of seeing said berries eaten by some hungrier man.”[MTP].
S.A. Keen wrote on YMCA, Columbus, Ohio letterhead to invite Sam to offer a letter of advice to young men there “who are without local home ties” [MTP].
January 1 ca. – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote a Happy New Year message on a picture card (a woman with a dog) to Miss Margery H. Clinton [MTP: James Lowe Autographs, 1977]. Note: Margery was a friend and neighbor of Mary Rogers in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.
Sam also wrote a Happy New Year message on a picture card (a woman wearing a hat) to to Miss Herrick [MTP: James Lowe Autographs catalogs No. 30, 1985, Item 32].
Sam also wrote on a printed card to William Dean Howells: “ ‘Appy New Year to Mr. ‘Owells & his’n. /Mark. / 1907.” [MTHL 2: 822].
Sam also wrote to Barbara Mullen (written on a card with a picture of a woman holding a bird): “A happy New Year to Miss Mullen! / SL. Clemens / 1907.” [MTP].
Sam also wrote instructions to Miss Lyon to answer S.A. Keen’s Jan 1 request: “Can’t do it. Furnish reasons” [MTP].
Henry Meade Bland’s article, “Mark Twain” ran in the Overland Monthly for Jan., p.22-7.
Tenney: “Praises MT’s tenderness and his ‘sternly philosophical side,’ notes his friendship with Charles Warren Stoddard; a popular account providing no new information or unusual critical perception. Illustration (p.22): ‘Mark Twain, drawn by Alice Resor from latest copyrighted portrait by Rockwood, N.Y.’”