August 27 Tuesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam finished his Aug. 26 to Dorothy Quick.
Yes, Wednesday will be perfectly convenient—and we’ll have you a whole week, which is grand! Provided you don’t get homesick—& we do hope you won’t. We’ll do our very best to keep you happy & content. Miss Lyon will arrange about the trains with your mother by telephone, if she can; otherwise by letter.
I’ve got a birthday [several words canceled] for you, [two words canceled] but I will keep it till you come, because it isn’t the [two words canceled] & I shall need to [several words canceled]. Guess what it is. [Sam is playing with her here, omitting or canceling words that might reveal his gift].
You’ve written me as good letter: simple, lucid, straightforward, well expressed.
FLIGHT Of the Rabbit Family.
Alas, they have deserted us, & I am so sorry. We were hoping to keep them for you, & we never dreamed that they would go away & leave us. I am just as sorry as I can be.
That big one that has 3 ears & looks like an angel, isn’t an angel at all, it is the mother rabbit.
She isn’t swimming, she is praying—praying for succor, I reckon: that is, I think that that is her idea . . .No, that isn’t it: she is jumping—jumping over a rope-walk, or a stone wall, or something of that kind, & has bumped her stomach against it, poor thing. It is very difficult to tell what a rabbit is really trying to do, in a picture, because rabbits are so irrelevant. It is their nature when excited.
Do I mind? (that you read the dog’s tale.) Indeed, no. I don’t mind anything you do, because you never mean any harm; & you are a dear good child all the time.
You have written the very letter I was going to propose that you write: a letter telling me all about your activities & industries & enjoyments, all the things your busy hands & head find to interest themselves in. It is a good practice for you, in observing & remembering, & good entertainment for me, because I am fond of you, & so whatever you do, & think & feel, interests me.
AFTERNOON
The Lioness has just received good news by telephone: you are coming Tuesday. It’s fine! You will reach this house at 5.30 p.m. You will most certainly be welcome.
DEER
There were several of them. They came down hill from the woods above the house, & stopped a while behind the kitchen to look at the cook. You can see by their eager expression & enthusiastic delight, that they had never seen a cook before. Sometimes they go down through the woods below the house to get a drink at the lake. If ever they come into the house you must be ready, for we will have them to luncheon & then photograph them in the act.
With love & good night, / SLC [MTAq 58-9].
Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Emilie R. Rogers.
Mr. Clemens would write this letter to you himself, but what with doing too heavy a day’s work in a literary way, & with fretting over the complications of securing the right orator for the Fulton Memorial Day at Jamestown, he is very tired & has deputed me to explain everything to you.
Joseph Choate would be unable to return from the Hague to be the orator at the event. Sam wanted to withdraw and not attend, but since the organizers threatened to cancel, he was reconsidering. Could the organizers secure Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler as the day’s orator? Would that be acceptable to Rogers? Sam wished to continue his dictations about the trip to England, and to take a break from his work for the Jamestown celebration would damage his momentum [MTHHR 634-5]. Note: See Rogers’ reaction Aug. 30. Nicholas Murray Butler (1862-1947), was President of Columbia University for 43 years (1902-1945).
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Umbrella. Today came news that Miss Olny [sic Olney] had written a conspicuous interview with Mark Twain & published it in Friday’s World” [MTP TS 94]. Note: Miss Olney had visited Clemens on July 27 and taken impressions of Clemens’ hand; no mention of permission for an interview was given. Since she was unknown to him, it isn’t likely he gave permission. Friday’s NY Evening World was Aug. 23. but a search of the paper for that day turned up no interview. However, “My ‘Hand Interviews’ with Mark Twain and Thomas A. Edison / ‘It’s an Awful Thing to Get a Reputation for Being Funny,’ Says Mark Twain,” by Channez Huntington Olney (1873-1908). NY Evening World, Aug. 25, Magazine Section, p. 7. It’s likely that Lyon simply got the day wrong for the “interview.” Sam dictated a letter on Sept. 1 to Joseph Pulitzer, editor of the New York World, protesting that this interview had been obtained under false pretenses. SLC submits to having his palm read; comments on his current situation and age. Reprinted in Scharnhorst, p. 647-649.
Frank N. Doubleday for Doubleday, Page & Co. wrote to Sam, enclosing a letter (Aug. 25) from Edward Bok. “The President would be very glad to see you on Friday, September thirteenth. Mrs. Doubleday and I would be very glad to have you on Thursday, September twelfth, so that you can rest the day before and the day after being up against this human dynamo.” He thought Sam would find the Bok letter of “interest.” “I have also sent you the Dorothy Osborne letters…” and thanked him for their Tuxedo visit [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote a “to do” list on the bottom of the letter, things irrelevant to this letter.
Edward Lauterbach for the National Liberal Immigration League, NYC wrote to Sam, enclosing a summary of their work, and presuming him to be “in sympathy” with their aims [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter for Sam, “I can’t conscientiously do what you ask without knowing a great deal about it, & am not situated now so that I can examine it & see”