October 24 Thursday – Sam returned to 21 Fifth Ave. for the winter. Clara Clemens had been “domiciled in the house several days”; Isabel Lyon and servants would follow on Oct. 26 [Oct. 28 to Nunnally].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: At 7:20 this morning I went down to the King’s room to find him huddled under all the blankets he could collect and wanting his coffee, so I went to the kitchen to hurry it up. He left at 7:50 and Ashcroft met him and they went up to the Lincoln Bank. Ashcroft telephoned me tonight and said that the King was gay and seemed very well. But oh the desolation of this house without him. It is lucky for me that I have a week’s work to do in 3 days else I never could get over the [illegible word] wave of misery that swept over me when the jigger rolled away & I turned back to my breakfast in that [illegible word] green living room [MTP TS 18-119]. Note: Lyon’s strikeouts may have been added many years later, for her own reasons.

Harper’s published A Horse’s Tale as a book.    Sam wrote it in 1905 in response to a letter by Minnie Maddern Fiske in Sept. of that year. Harper’s Magazine published it in two parts for Aug. and Sept. of 1906, with five illustrations by Lucius Wolcott Hitchcock.

Theodore A. Bingham wrote to Sam that on Oct. 18 he rec’d Sam’s of Oct 15: “What pleasant days those were in Berlin! & what dears your girls were!” [MTP].

H.D. McKnight wrote from Lawton, Okla. He’d been told he had a “Mark Twain head of hair,” and felt proud of it. The letter is one of appreciation with no request [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Answd. Nov. 6, ‘07”

Cora W. Nunnally wrote from Atlanta, Ga. to Sam. “Your letter, with the postal enclosed, I enjoyed very much. It was a very curious thing the way the little girl was created, by your merely pushing the pillows comfortably under your head. … Frances seems quite happy at school, and is looking forward with much pleasure to your promised visit” [MTP]. Note: Cora referred to the “mystery girl” photo.