February 2 Saturday – Albert Bigelow Paine gave a private luncheon at the Players Club for Clemens and Eugene Fitch Ware, who wrote poetry under the name “Ironquill.” Also at the luncheon were Peter Dunne (“Mr. Dooley”), and Robert J. Collier. Paine notes that Sam had “long been familiar” with Ware’s poetry, which had a “distinctly ‘Western’ feeling….“There was in his work that same spirit of Americanism and humor and humanity that is found in Mark Twain’s writings….” [MTB 1374]. Note: see Dec. 1 incoming from Ware.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: AB’s luncheon at the Players. / He gave a luncheon for the King & for Ironquill—Ware. There were Robert Collier & Mr. Dooley beside the first 3, & they had a noble time. Ware wrote in the King’s volume of poems—Ironquill poems—“The man that is frozen to death dies hard.” It delighted me—but the King didn’t find it clever at all [MTP TS 26; also Gribben 743]. Note: Clemens never cared too much for puns.
At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to James Logan, thanking him for sending “Mr. Thompson’s book,” sent in Jan.: “I owe you many thanks for sending me Mr. Thompson’s book. I read it with strong interest & pleasure, & shall continue to drink from it, for the more a disciple gets of Omar the thirstier he gets” [MTP; Gribben 517]. Note: The Quatrains of Omar Khayyám of Nishapur, Translated from the Persian into English Verse, Including Quatrains Now for the First Time So Rendered by Eben Francis Thompson ( 1859-1939). Intro. by Nathan Haskell Dole (1852-1935). Worcester, Mass.: Privately printed, 1906. See Jan. entry for inscriptions. See also Jan. 26, for Sam’s comment on the book.
Sam also replied to the Jan. 13 letter and book from John Howard Moore (1862-1916), instructor in zoology, Crane Manual Training High School, Chicago.
Dear Mr. Moore,—The book has furnished me several days of deep pleasure & satisfaction; it has compelled my gratitude at the same time, since it saves me the labor of stating my own long-cherished opinions & reflections & resentments by doing it lucidly & fervently & irascibly for me.
There is one thing that always puzzles me: as inheritors of the mentality of our reptile ancestors we have improved the inheritance by a thousand grades; but in the matter of morals which they left us we have gone backward as many grades. That evolution is strange, & to me unaccountable and unnatural. Necessarily we started equipped with their perfect & blemishless morals; now we are wholly destitute; we have no real morals, but only artificial ones—morals created and preserved by the forced suppression of natural and hellish instincts. Yet we are dull enough to be vain of them. Certainly we are a sufficiently comical invention, we humans. / Sincerely Yours / S. L. Clemens [Paine’s 1917 Mark Twain’s Letters p.804-5; Quoted in MTB 1363]. Note: Moore’s book was The Universal Kinship (1906) [Gribben 482].
Norman Hapgood wrote from NYC to Sam. “William James is dining here next Saturday, the 8th. Would you be one of a very small bunch to meet him?” [MTP]. Note: After this date Lyon replied for Sam, summarizing Sam’s wishes on Hapgood’s letter: “doesn’t want to have this / unspeakably glad it’s a very small bunch for Wm James & Hapgood are bunch enough in themselves / above 3 guests / strong” [MTP].
Minnie N. Goodwin (Mrs. Frederic S. Goodwin) sent Sam an invitation to a Feb. 16, 7 p.m. banquet of “uncooked food” at their studio 467 Central Park West. She had had “a little chat” with Sam “on the stage at the last Vassar Aid Benefit.” She also wrote “I honor you for exposing that colossal fraud—old Mother Eddy”[MTP].
At the annual dinner of the New York University School of Commerce at the Hotel Astor, Mark Twain’s publisher, George B. Harvey, related an exchange between Sam and H.H. Rogers. The New York Times, Feb. 3, p.4 “Wants a Business Man in the Hall of Fame,” reported: …
Col. George Harvey, editor of The North American Review, told a story in the course of his address that threw light upon the relationship that exists between Mark Twain and H. H. Rogers of the Standard Oil Company. According to Col. Harvey he overhead a conversation between the two over a telephone, which was carried on through the aid of the author’s servants.
“I found Mark Twain in bed—as usual,” said Col. Harvey, “and as I went into his room I gathered that he was carrying on a conversation with some one over the telephone. As I waited I heard Mr. Clemens say to his servant, ‘You tell Henry Rogers that I am not feeling very well this evening and that I should like to take dinner with him at his home.’
“The servant went to the telephone, and returned saying that Mr. Rogers had replied he would be glad to have Mr. Clemens as his guest at dinner.
“ ‘Well, you ring up Henry Rogers again and tell him that I have a cold and can’t go unless he sends his automobile for me.’
“The servant did as he was bid, and returned with a satisfactory answer.
“ ‘Now, you ring up Henry Rogers again, and tell him that I can’t go unless there is a bed convenient; it’s too cold for me to return in the night air.’
“Again there was a satisfactory reply, and I believed that negotiations were at an end, but I was in error.
“ ‘You ring up Henry Rogers again,’ said Clemens, ‘and ask whether I shall fetch night robes, or shall we waive etiquette.’ ”