March 3 Sunday – In the evening Sam dined with the Robert J. Collier’s and a “dozen other guests.” He wore his “full evening dress of white broadcloth” and called it “just stunning!” [Mar. 5 to Clara; Jean; IVL TS 32].
Stella B. Leighton wrote from NYC to ask Sam if he’d known the late Captain L.Y. Batchelor of steamboat days on the Mississippi [MTP]. After Mar. 3 Sam wrote information on Leighton’s letter for Lyon to reply: “The Clemens to whom she refers was without doubt an Ohio river pilot of that day whom I did not know & who was not related to me— Her father was a Capt—river etiquette would not have allowed him to waive rank & associate with a cub pilot which is what he was” [MTP].
Charles Forster wrote on Deutscher Liederkranz stationery, NYC to enclose season tickets for the 7 Annual Billiards Tournament. He would have other tickets should Sam wish to bring a friend [MTP].
Clara Helms wrote from Egg Harbor City, NJ to Sam. Helms felt “so forlorn and forsaken… like blowing my brains, if I have any, out.” She wrote three little stories upon her return from Central American and could he look at them “and see if they are good enough for some New York paper?” “Will spit on this three times for good luck” [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote: “Answerd. Mch 13, ‘07”
The Detroit News Tribune, the Washington Post, and other syndicated newspapers ran an interview with George B. Harvey about Mark Twain’s earnings. From the interview, Harvey observed: Earns $1,000 in Three Hours.
“Until recently he wrote wholly by hand. Quite unexpectedly he found that he could dictate to a secretary. He was as pleased over the discovery as was President Roosevelt when he happened upon Mount Sinai, Moses, and the Ten Commandments. Now he lights a cigar after breakfast, sits down in his library and dictates for three hours on his autobiography. When he gets up he has earned $1,000. He is a great man, and will live longer than Thackeray, who was verbose, for one thing, and whose vision was confined to a single phase of social development in a single country. Twain is world-wide in his breadth of view. A man of critical judgment said not long since that he is the first novelist of the age. Whatever his rank may be, I am sure he will remain in our literature when brighter stars have lost some of their splendor. He is now free from the worry about money, and is at his best.”