October 27 Tuesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam added one word to his Oct. 24 to Frances Nunnally, “Interrupted.” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Dorothy Sturgis.
Dear Annieanlouise, when you wrote last you had been indulging in a good many gay activities, & manifestly enjoying them. Go on with it—it is wholesome. I have lately been gay myself—partly upon compulsion. Business. Flying around. I did not get entirely over the fatigue of it until last night. I was in New York, Boston, Deal Beach, & Irvington—& kept late hours part of the time. I mean to stay at home, now, all the winter, & be quiet.
We’ve got the burglar alarm in, & nobody in the house is nervous now, or loses any sleep. And the arches of the loggia are snugly filled with glass, & we occupy that place a good part of the day, because it is so cosy & so deluged with light. It is equipped for steam heat—a fact which we discovered by accident. The pipes come up under the floor.
The heart-game begun early in September still goes on, & the record is kept. Benares’ score is 1385 hearts, mine is 1418, & Miss Lyon’s closing up on 1600. So the game stood today when Benares left in the last train for New York. He is well, & is getting very fat.
It is a good book you sent me, but your annotations are better still. Thank you very much.
Margaret (of the shell) was here several days. Benares and Miss Lyon brought her up from her school, & Benares & I took her back to it, & had a very enjoyable time there.
Paine was here yesterday for billiards, & Sinbad assisted the game for half an hour & was killingly entertaining. /With a great deal of love / The Major
Ten minutes later. I went to the billiards room a moment ago to get a picture of Tammany which you have not seen, & there I found some friends of yours—the kittens. The two Omars are slumbering on the sofa, & Sinbad is asleep in his pocket in the billiard table—the same one you saw him in. We put him there just when Benares was leaving.
Tammany’s part of the photograph is good, but the rest of it is bad; & not only bad but unflattering, which is a crime.
You are very busy these days, I know; but please don’t be too busy to write me. / Lovingly / The Major [MTP]. Note: Clemens named two of his cats “Omar.”
Sam’s original guestbook contains the following for Oct. 27: Annie Reid Banks, Bridgeport, Conn.; Alice A. Driggs, Brooklyn, N.Y. [Mac Donnell TS 7]. Note: Driggs has no date next to her name but is shown directly under Banks, and before a Nov. 19 listing. The Driggses from Redding were earlier visitors and likely related.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: The King is gay and strong these days. He talked with Ethel Newcomb last night at dinner and reminisced over the life in Vienna. But today Mr. Phayre and Mr. Nast came up from Harpers to hear the King’s copyright project. Mr. Nast sat there like a brutal rival fighting clenching beast waiting for his “kill” in the death of the copyright on the “Innocents Abroad.” I think Colonel Harvey or any gentleman could have kicked him for talking the pirate publisher’s view. The King never lost his control—though his eyes blazed and his color rose high, as he answered that brute, slapping his challenge back at him. Mr. Phayre crossed and uncrossed his legs nervously [MTP: IVL TS 76]. Note: John F. Phayre (1843- 1919) of Harpers, worked there for 40 years and was Joseph Wesley Harper’s (1830-1896) assistant.
Jean Clemens began a letter from Berlin to Isabel Lyon that she finished on Oct. 28. After detailing more about her allowance and expenses, she responded to servants leaving Stormfield:
I am very much surprised at Katherine’s & little Katie Murray’s leaving—the latter more than the former’s because without doubt she missed the city festivities. But did they actually leave inside of a week? It seems as though that were really too unjust to be permissible. I don’t in the least envy you your undertaking of finding and breaking in new servants.
I had forgotten that Father had been in a collision a year ago, & even now, after having been reminded of it, I cannot remember anything very distinct about it.
Bébé [Marguerite Schmidt] has begun lessons at the Berlitz School. She went for the first time yesterday & enjoyed it very much & also considered it very good! I was afraid that she might find the lesson, especially, dull but she pays less than one Mark per lesson—just think of it! [MTP ].
Arthur McDonald scrawled a letter in Washington, D.C., enclosing “the general purpose of a humanitarian and scientific work” and asking for any contribution. No enclosures in file [MTP]. Note: “Ans. Oct 29 MLH”
Frederick A. Duneka wrote to Sam that after going through their stock of fire damaged books there were “a good many damaged very, very little indeed.” He estimated a thousand in a range of titles. They wished him to accept them as a donation to the Mark Twain Library in Redding. Where to ship them? [MTP]. Note: IVL: “The telegraph is too slow to send him out appreciation & thanks. It’s the best Goddam [illegible word] get. We’re going to add them a few at a time with the compliments of Harper & Bros.”
K. von Louis wrote a long letter all in German to Sam. “Ach! Mark Twain, Der Humorist!” [MTP].