June 5 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean, at Eastern Point in Gloucester, Mass.  

Dear Jean, consound the well-intending dog! And certainly he had good intentions, & a heroic spirit. The great big majority of our race are away below him in this regard, & not worthy to untie his shoe-latchets.

Miss Lyon is slaving away at the new house, getting it ready. She will make an admirable job of it if she survives.

I have named the house Innocence at Home. A good name—& susceptible of more than one interpretation.

I shall have to be here until near June 20th. Then I am expecting to be there. Must be, I reckon; & must remain there some days & straighten-up things & entertain two or three sets of visitors who may possibly settle in the neighborhood—& certainly I do hope they will.

Then on the 30th of June I am due in Portsmouth N.H. for the dedication of the Tom Bailey Aldrich Memorial. Along about that time you will be well settled in your home, I guess, & can receive me, on my way to or from Portsmouth.

We have started a village library up yonder, & the people have named it for me. We have dug four or five hundred old books out of our over- burdened shelves & inflicted them upon that library.

I have no doubt the Spider is having a good time in London. I hope so, anyway.

With lots of love & kisses, / Father [MTP]. Note: One might only speculate as to the line Sam struck out. Was there some reason he decided Jean should not know about the large donation of books?  However, he must have thought it would upset her, because on June 14 he wrote her not to be troubled by the donation; there were no books that Jean would “wish to withhold.” The first paragraph about the dog is clearly a response to a recent letter from Jean, but none are extant.

Sam also wrote to Father William Fitz-Simon, at this time in Washington, D.C. about his approaching wedding in Tuxedo Park to Miss Ursula Juliet Morgan.

Dear Father Fitz-Simon,—Marriage—yes, it is the supreme felicity of  life, I concede it. And it is also the supreme tragedy of life. The deeper the love the surer the tragedy. And the more disconsolating when it comes.

And so I congratulate you. Not perfunctorily, not lukewarmly, but with a fervency & fire that no word in the dictionary is strong enough to convey. And in the same breath & sincerity I grieve for you. Not for both of you & not for the one that shall go first, but for the one that is fated to be left behind. For that one there is no recompense—For that one no recompense is possible.

There are times—thousands of times—when I can expose the half of my mind, & conceal the other half, but in the matter of the tragedy of marriage I feel too deeply for that, & I have to bleed it all out or shut it all in. And so you must consider what I have been through, & am passing through & be charitable with me.

Make the most of the sunshine! & I hope it will last long—ever so long.

I do not really want to be present; yet for friendship’s sake & because I honor you so, I would be there if I could. / Most sincerely your friend, / S. L. Clemens [MTP: Paine’s 1917 Mark Twain’s Letters, p.811-12]. Note: the MTP’s TS replaces Sam’s “&” signs and makes a few other changes. Rev. William Fitz-Simon would marry Miss Ursula Juliet Morgan (niece of J. Pierpont Morgan) at St. Mary’s church in Tuxedo Park on June 24 [NY Times, 24 June, p. 7, Miss Morgan Weds Rev. Wm. Fitz-Simon].

Julia O’Connell wrote from NYC to invite Sam to visit their literary club at Morris High School; they had been studying TS and “are greatly delighted with your style and humor” [MTP].

Myron H. Phelps for the Society for Advancement of India wrote to Sam. “In view of your interest in the subject, I take the liberty of sending you a report regarding our work which we have just issued; and also some newspaper clippings which possibly you may not have seen, and which may interest you” [MTP]. Clippings from the NY Sun, NY Post, NY Herald, all June 3 are in the file.

Dorothy Quick wrote to Sam.

My Dear Mr Clemens / I have a bad cold rose fever and Bronchitis together  its almost over now. We except to leave on Wednesday for Atlantic City. I have not gotten my pony and mother says that there is no use in getting one now as we are going away but get it in the fall and hire one whereever we go. I like that idea dont you? I have two rabbits. Billy and Dorothy (Dodo for short) they are two weeks old pure white with blue eyes. They’re so lovely.

      When we go away I shall let my friend Claire Kenworthy take care of them for me. She can have the products. You must be having a lovely time going everywhere. I hope you enjoy your visit with Miss Clemens I look forward to visiting you later on.

      I hope you will like your new house when you see it. but, oh dear how late its getting and I must close with lots & lots of love your loving / Dorothy / P.S. Please give Miss Lyon my love / Dorothy [MTAq 168].