May 15 Wednesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam replied to the May 9 from Galveston, Texas Judge and poet John A. Kirlicks (1852-1923):
It is a beautiful poem & has touched me deeply. If might venture to suggest, I should say that the proper place for it is either in the “Century” or “Harper’s Monthly”—preferably the “Century,” because I am not connected with it, except by old ties of friendship, whereas I am connected with “Harper’s” commercially [MTP: Hannibal Daily Post, Apr. 24, 1910]. Note: Kirlicks wrote “To Mark Twain,” a poem in Writers and Writings of Texas, ed. Davis Foute Eagleton (1913).
Sam also sent a cable to Ambassador Whitelaw Reid, London: “LETTER RECEIVED. MANY THANKS. ANY NIGHT WILL ANSWER I REMAIN IN ENGLAND ONLY TEN DAYS. / CLEMENS” [MTP].
Sam also wrote Reid a letter, possibly on this day as well.
The dates are exactly right; they couldn’t possibly be righter. I wanted two engagements, and only two; and these are the choicest that could be imagined. {The other was to dine with the Pilgrims.} They and Oxford leave me seven days for private dissipation and last good-bying with old friends whom I shan’t meet again without their haloes. And there’s one or two whom I shan’t ever meet with them. I am sorry for that, for they are among the best of the flock [MTP].
David A. Munro wrote to Sam. “Col. Harvey sails for England on Wednesday, the 22 inst. and I am giving him a dinner at the Players on Monday, the 20 –at half past seven in the evening. I am asking some of the members of the Franklin Square family to join us. Won’t you come? It would be a sorry party without you”[MTP]. Note: Note: Lyon wrote on the letter:
“Will you accept dinner in your honor at the twon hall in Liverpool during your stay in England / Lord Mayor / Liverpool” John Japp.
Whitelaw Reid wrote from London to Sam, having rec’d his note of May 3. He hoped Sam had rec’d a letter from Lord Curzon, the new Chancellor of Oxford Univ. He understood Sam would sail on the Minneapolis on June 8 and arrive in England as early as June 19, “and so have a safe week before the Oxford ceremony,” so that “it might be pleasant for you to dine with me here about Thursday, June 20 …” [MTP]. Sam wrote on the env.: “Had already engaged to the Pilgrims before this letter reached me May 24—then I cabled asking them to give me June 21 or 22—which would leave me free for June 20” th
Lyman Beecher Stowe for Circle Magazine wrote to ask Sam for an interview for a series of sketches on “Unexploited Corners of History prior to the Civil War,” and Stowe requested an interview on “Slavery As Seen from the Pilot-House of a Mississippi Steamboat” [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter: “quite impossible / no interviews / Harper would object ; Answd. May 27, ‘07”