October 10 Saturday – Sam wrote an aphorism to an unidentified person: “We ought never to do wrong when people are looking. / Truly yours / Mark Twain” [MTP: Superior Auction Galleries catalog, Oct. 15, 1991, Item 1832].
In Redding, Conn., Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Laura Hawkins Frazer, his childhood sweetheart.
Dear Mrs. Frazer: / Mr. Clemens asks me to tell you for him how glad he is that you are coming to Redding, & that he hopes that you & your granddaughter will give him the pleasure of spending a night here in his house, before you go away. Perhaps it will be Tuesday night, for on Sunday & Monday the house will be very full, but by Tuesday there will be plenty of room, & Mr. Clemens wishes me to say that he would not miss seeing your granddaughter for a good deal. He asks me to convey to you his sincere regards. This morning four of us were taking a walk through these beautiful fields, & were saying how much we owe to Mr. Paine for finding this wonderful country side which is now a lovely home for all of us.
I will telephone Mr. Paine about making a plan for you to come … [MTP].
Sam also began a letter to Frances Nunnally that he finished on Oct. 12. The Oct. 10 segment:
I have had a fine time worrying about you, you dear little rascal! It didn’t begin until you had been gone seven days—then it swiftly made up for lost time! By yesterday morning—after a vacant mail—I was perfectly sure you were sick or had met with an accident. Miss Lyon said no, you were only very busy with school-work, & would write presently. But it did not convince me, for I am like any other mother, I suppose, when her imagination gets alarmed. I said, “try the telephone the first thing in the morning & see if Francesca is well.” And so she did. She brought up the news a little while ago, before I was dressed, & if she had been a man I would have hugged her [MTP].
On or about this day Sam sent the library notice with receipt to Ralph W. Ashcroft (whom he called the “Bishop of Benares,” among other nicknames) for $2.50 [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: The King, the Captain, the Bishop [Ashcroft] and I took a most lovely walk this morning around what we call Howells Hill, for to the westward there is a lot that the King would gladly give to Mr. Howells, if only he would come here and build. But he can’t do that for Mrs. Howells won’t hear of his settling anywhere. In the afternoon Clara arrived and later Will came. It makes a big and nice household [MTP: IVL TS 70].
Jean Clemens wrote from Hamburg, Germany to Isabel Lyon. Only the envelope survives [MTP].
The Anti-Vivisection Society wrote to invite Sam to their first attempt at raising funds from the public and “by a few words” from him, on Nov. 10 at 4 p.m. at the Waldorf [MTP].
Nicholas Murray Butler sent a form letter on Columbia Univ. letterhead to solicit funds for surviving American recipients of honorary degrees from Oxford. Since 1870 Oxford had conferred honorary degrees on 40 Americans, and over half were still living, including Clemens [MTP].
Insert: Commodore Daniel Dow with Twain at Stormfield (courtesy of Michael Dow, grandson)
Franz Nickolous Otremba wrote from Hawaii to expressing “the greatest pleasure…in building and carving” the mantel for Clemens’ billiard room. “In carving the capitals I have tried to faithfully portray, first (commencing at the base) Taro leaves, then Palapalae ferns, then Hao leaves and flowers, then Ilma leaves and flowers.” He also wrote that he’d included enough extra pieces of wood to make six pool cues and four walking sticks [MTP]. Note: see Oct. 31 entry for a photo of this mantel from Harper’s Weekly.
Mrs. R.M. Wallace wrote to Sam, having forgotten to enclose the copy of “that agreement for transfer of the copyright of my husband’s book on ‘The Heather’.” She went on for several pages about a copyright fight between her late husband and Mr. De La Mare. She repeated that Ralph W. Ashcroft had directed her to write Clemens [MTP].