February 24 Monday – The Clemens party arrived in Bermuda and Sam checked into the Princess Hotel in Hamilton, Bermuda where he wrote two postcards to Frances Nunnally.

Francesca dear, I got your letter just as I was leaving New York—thank you dear.

I am writing now because I suppose that the linchpin got lost in the mails; & if that is so, I want you to drop me a line here, so that I can replace it with another.

I suppose I shall [continued on the back of a second postcard] be here some time—possibly until toward the middle of April.

It is very pleasant. I hope / we are to have you with us in New York at Easter. / Goodbye, dear poet. [MTP].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: We sighted land very early this morning & before ten sailed up the wonderful tiny channel between the tiny islands into Hamilton Bay. I took Dr. Ditman to the farthest most point forward that he might see the wonders of it, & he had the enthusiasm of a The Hotel is full & we are scattered. Oh, so scattered, until it seems as if one of my legs were in #70 & the other in 166. 166 is the King’s room & is so small that the King says “it was intended for a cigar box, in fact it was a cigar box once.” But little rooms are nothing, for here we are in this darling place. Miss Wallace is here, the Dean of Woman at Chicago University. It is raining & so we cannot go over to Mrs. Peck at Shoreby to see Mr. Woodrow Wilson whose last day it is here [MTP: IVL TS 26-27].

D. Hoffman writes of Sam’s arrival with Rogers:

The most public of all Clemens’s visits to the Islands began slowly. He found his room so small he declared it a former cigar box, and because the day was rainy, he and Rogers abandoned their plan of riding to Shoreby to see Mrs. Peck and Woodrow Wilson, who was spending his last day on the Islands. Miss Wallace, still on holiday, found it a mooted question whether Rogers was taking care of Clemens, or Clemens of Rogers. She also wondered about the relation between Clemens and his secretary. Miss Lyon was a “black eyed black haired Italian looking little woman,” she wrote in her Bermuda journal, “who hovers about him with the tender care of a mother and daughter combined.” Surprisingly, the two women became friends. Miss Wallace nevertheless made certain that the King found company with Irene Gerken, a pert little twelve year old from West Seventy-fifth Street, in New York. (She had not cast her net wide. Clemens played billiards with Irene in January, he said, and was amused to watch her seize advantage by freely repositioning the balls. He took to calling such a maneuver an “Irene”) [103-4].

Elizabeth Wallace recorded in her diary Sam’s arrival with Lyon and Rogers. On the earlier 1908 arrival by Clemens she had nicknamed Ralph Ashcroft “The Pilot Fish.” He wasn’t along on this extended stay: no Pilot Fish conducted him but instead a black eyed black haired Italian looking little woman who hovers about him with the tender care of a mother and daughter combined. This is the Little Secretary of the King and my heart’s doors were open for her to come in and she came in and will remain forever as Caranana. With Mr. Clemens and Caranana came a tall distinguished looking man with a fine cut profile and clear young complexion. It was Mr. Rogers [Hill 203].

Margaret Blackmer wrote from Misses Tewksbury’s School, Briarcliff Manor, NY to Sam. I received your nice letter, and I was very glad to hear from you. We had a play a few nights ago. Mother came up and stayed all night. I wonder how Maud [donkey] is. Do you miss the rides we used to have? I am very happy and I hope you are also.

Miss Tewksbury is going to take us into New York today to go to the acquarium and to the metropolitan art museum. We are coming back sometime today.

I hope you will see mother soon.

With lots of love…[MTP].

Amy C. Hayes wrote from Pukoo, Molokai, Hawaii to Sam, working a description of the natives he’d described there in his writing so many years ago, into a request for an answer with autograph [MTP].

John M. Howells for Howells & Stokes wrote to Sam: “The house has now reached a state where it will be advisable to take up very shortly the question of mantel pieces. No fewer than 7 mantels were in the new house, the billiard room to be made as per the original contract, the living room mantel “is the carved Scotch mantel piece now in the attic of the Fifth Avenue house,” so that the other 5 needed to be specified. John offered various options [MTP].

John Larkin wrote to Miss Lyon that he had her letter with Sam’s check for $5,000 on the Knickerbocker Trust and would follow instructions [MTP].