March 12 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Clara, who evidently had chided him for wearing his white suit in public.
Clara dear, your impression was right. The white clothes are for home use, and are not to be worn outside, except at the tables of very intimate friends.
Your growing popularity does certainly give me a good many pangs, and yet I want it to continue, and increase. It is curious, but I feel just so about it.
[Sam advised her not to use a program and related his negative experiences with them].
When I read in Carnegie Hall a year ago I refused to allow a program to be distributed. I carried one with me, but used only two-thirds of it. I am going to read in the Governor’s mansion in Anapolis about the 1st of May, but there will be no program. Discard it, Clara dear—abolish it. You can never tell with certainty what to sing until you have seen your audience; a song- program is much more hampering and disastrous than any reading program can be. You are coming to realize that your first duty, both to yourself and to your house, is to win your house and carry it along with you; the result is going to be (programs being abolished) that you will carry your houses by storm.
I am very glad your audiences are liking you; it was sure to come to that. I am delighted to know that you will spend Holy Week with us. You will be most extremely welcome, dear Ashcat.
I have lost interest in everything, and am in deadly need of a change, and so Miss Lyon and I decided last night to sail for Bermuda next Saturday and be gone five days. We invited Paddy, by telephone, to go along with us, and her father had given his consent.
The Whitmores have been here for a day or two, and we had good times with them.
It is a pity I never thought, long ago, to dictate my letters, and thus make them easy to read— but I mean to be more heedful now. Forgive me, dear, and receive a large cargo of love and kisses [MTP]. Note: Paddy Madden had been on the Bermudian with Sam and Joe Twichell in the three-day January trip. D. Hoffman identifies her as “a pretty girl from the Upper West Side” of N.Y.C. who had “evidently amused Clemens, and gave him relief from the reverend” [75-6]. D.
Hoffman writes that Paddy was invited by telephone and accepted. The party of three left on March 16 [78].
Fatout lists Sam giving a few remarks at the College Women’s Club, N.Y.C. [MT Speaking 676]. Isabel Lyon’s journal entry gives details:
Mr. Clemens dined at the Hoyts where Gen. Miles was a guest, he had a very good time. The lady who sat on his right “was very intelligent, she talked about adultery as if she knew all about it—she was from 45 to 50.” He didn’t know her name & never reached the point of asking what it was. But it wouldn’t make any difference—he wouldn’t remember her, probably.
In the afternoon we went up to the Hudson Theatre to the College Club Benefit. The King sat in a box with General Miles, a fine looking creature, & Gen. Wilson & Edwin Markham, a sweet-faced man with a short good-natured nose, & Count [Alexander] Spiridovitch who is in this country on a diplomatic mission. The King made an explanation of why Miss Fisher didn’t arrive, & the best part of the program was Ethel Barrymore in Carrots, a darling creature. I sat close enough to the King to touch him, just outside the box [MTP: TS 37-38].
Note: did Sam make remarks to the audience or to those in his box? Editorial emphasis.
George Wharton James wrote on Bradley Studios letterhead, NYC: “I have just seen Mr. Bradley & he agrees to your terms. He will give you for the Colbrith Fund 75 large photos & 25 of the medium size if you will pose for him.” [MTP]. Note: he also wrote to Lyon.
Jervis Langdon II wrote to Sam, urging him to come to Elmira the next month for a demonstration of the Hope-Jones organ, newly installed at Elmira’s Park Church, in honor of Rev. Thomas K. Beecher, who had passed away in 1900. Sam had purchased an interest in the newly-formed Hope-Jones Organ Co. upon its incorporation (see Jan. 19).
We want you very much to be here for April 3….We all want you to hear the organ so that you will know what the company which you are part of is preparing to put on the market, and it would be the greatest possible aid to the company in connection with this advertising scheme of April 3 if you could be at the church for a little while that morning to informally meet and chat with these very delightful New Yorkers and to hear some of the music. We would not ask for anything exacting but what it to be as much of a pleasure to you as it would surely be to all these men and ourselves to have you here at that time [Ensor, MT & Hope-Jones 6-7]. Note: Ensor writes of the “grand scheme” to advertise and legitimize the unique Hope-Jones organs:
A special railroad car would be used to bring to Elmira about forty prominent organists from New York City and the surrounding area for a demonstration of the Park Church organ. Among these would be the organists of New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Trinity Church on Wall Street, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian, the Brick Church, the Broadway Tabernacle, the Church of the Heavenly Rest, and other churches [ibid]. Note: Jervis’ father, Charles J. Langdon added a P.S. agreeing with his son—Sam’s “presence would be a mighty good factor for the organ co. and a more welcome guest could not possibly come to us” [7]. See Apr. 3.
John A. Lewis sent a telegram from Carson City, Nevada to Sam: “PAINE IS TRYING TO PLAY BILLIARDS NEEDS INSTRUCTIONS SAYS YOU ARE ABLE SEND ADVICE” [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote: “His father was probably Editor Proprietor Compositor & pressman of the Silver Age in Mr. Clemens’s day in Carson City.” See MTL 1:172n5 for more on John C. Lewis, this man’s father.
W.D. Lowe wrote from Durham, England to ask if there were any historical foundation for P&P [MTP].
Frederic L. Thompson wrote from the Bronx, NY, thanking Sam for buying two of his paintings [MTP].