September 17 Tuesday – Sam left on the steamer Maine for New Bedford, Mass. to be a guest of H.H. Rogers at his Fairhaven home. Rogers was quite ill after a stroke [NY Times, Sept. 18, p.1].
H. H. ROGERS DRIVES AUTO.
———
Has Mark Twain as Guest—Said to be Crippled by Apoplexy.
Special to The New York Times.
NEW BEDFORD, Mass., Sept. 17—Henry H,. Rogers and Samuel L. Clemens, “Mark Twain,” were the cynosure of all eyes as they drove about the center of the city today in Mr. Rogers’s electric victoria, with Mr. Rogers steering the machine. Mr. Clemens arrived on the steamer Maine this morning to be the guest of Mr. Rogers at his Fairhaven residence.
Mr. Rogers and the author made a stop at the First National Bank to call on Walter P. Winsor of the bank, who is a close personal friend of Mr. Rogers. They remained there for about fifteen minutes and then proceeded a short distance up the street, stopping again at a store where Mr. Rogers purchased a newspaper.
Mr. Clemens was left alone in the car and in an instant it started to move, for Mr. Rogers had failed to turn the switch fully off. Mr. Clemens hesitated a moment and then he hopped out and chased Mr. Rogers into the store.
“She started and I got out,” he said.
Mr. Rogers laughed and rescued his machine, which has a speed limit of about six miles an hour.
Mr. Clemens was attired in his customary suit of white, and which his black derby formed a sharp contrast.
Mr. Rogers shows the effect of his illness in his face, which is white and drawn. He showed no signs of inability to use his limbs, however, and managed his car with seeming ease, though in alighting and walking about he moved with deliberation and his step was less brisk than formerly.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: The King has arrived at New Bedford. The morning papers are full of the news of Mr. Rogers’s illness being caused by a stroke of apoplexy on July 22nd. We have known nothing whatever about it. When I telephoned Mrs. Rogers, she said he was in his usual condition when he had a stroke that muffled his speech so that he could not be understood at all for a week, and his left arm and leg were affected. A rumor ran out into the world that Mr. Rogers was dead, a few weeks ago, and there nearly was a panic in Wall Street. That was denied, and then came the great demand, I mean to law suits of the Standard Oil which demanded Mr. Rogers’s presence as a witness. The Doctors say it would kill him to go on the witness stand and they have to hedge one way or another continually.
Miss Herrick came in to say that she is going away and I asked her to stay for dinner. I was glad of a human being besides a servant, for I have been having a hellish time with Delia [MTP TS 106].
George B. Harvey wrote to Sam. “I have not yet received the marked passages respecting Colonel Sellers that you want to have left out of the newspaper printing. To make sure that there shall be no slip, I think that it would be well to pass the pages down as soon as convenient. … / The time is growing short for the Christmas number of the Magazine and the boys are after me constantly to know about your decision. The number is going to be so big and involves so many kinds of printing that a lot of extra time has to be given to it. Please post me about this as soon as you can” [MTP].
William H. Hill for Israel Putnam Camp Ground Commission wrote from Redding, Conn. to advise Sam that he’d had two insurance policies written on the new Redding house during construction, each for $15,000 [MTP].
Roi Cooper Megrue for Elisabeth Marbury wrote twice to Lyon on dramatization contracts and matters [MTP].