January 19 Tuesday – In Redding Clemens wrote to Frank Cavendish Lascelles, English actor and pageant director who had visited on Jan. 16-17:
Dear Mr. Lascelles: / Mr. Clemens asks me to say that he is very willing to have you burgle the enclosed, & with it sends his warm regards. / Sincerely Yours / Isabel Lyon Jan. 19/09
[first enclosure: postcard with photograph of Stormfield]
[Second enclosure in SLC’s hand:]
TO THE GUEST
Be calm, be patient—let the ostensibly hot water run a long time: Then it will become really hot [MTP].
Mary L. Howden (“Miss Mollie”) wrote for Sam to an unidentified man.
“Jan. 19, 1909 / 1. / Dear Sir / X and say that he will be happy to have his name known as one of the Hon committee and he expects that he will be awhile in London in May 1909. Mr. C asks me [ to thank you for your pleasant message. / Very truly yours” [MTP]. Note: the fact that this ] [ ] surviving draft is numbered 1 and dated, suggests that perhaps one batch placed in ca. Jan. 18 also goes with this day. See another similar TS of a shorthand draft for Jan. 28.
Charles J. Brown for Brown Brothers Co. Nurseries, Rochester, NY wrote to solicit “trees and plants for the coming spring,” free catalog upon request [MTP]. Note: “Ans. Jan 27 M.L.H.”
W.T. Hall for The Dothan Eagle (Dothan, Ala.) wrote to Sam. “A banker acquaintance of mine, living out of town, in speaking of the writings of Mark Twain, said that he would give $10 to find the book, or to get the story, which you wrote years ago, (I think while editor of the Express) telling of the experience of the graveyard that moved, and passed by your house” [MTP]. Note: IVL wrote: “A Curious Dream in Sketches Old & New”
R.E. Hare for Hare & Chase, Ins., Phila. wrote to ask Sam where he might get a copy of Sam’s article “The Burglar Alarm” he saw “many years ago” in a newspaper [MTP].
Harper & Brothers wrote to Isabel Lyon. “I enclose, herewith, a proof of “A CAPABLE HUMORIST” for Mr. Clemens’ reading. May I ask that it be returned as soon as this can conveniently be done?” [MTP]. Note: “Ans. Jan 27 M.L.H.”
Mary Johnson wrote from Auburndale, Mass. to ask Clemens if she might send Moloch, a little book of hers about vivisection [MTP]. Note: “Ans. Jan 27 M.L.H.”; not in Gribben.
Rudyard Kipling wrote to Ralph W. Ashcroft about Mark Twain’s Proposed Change in copyright Law. “Needless to say I am very interested in Mr. Clemens’ action in regard to literary property and wish him success in it” [MTP]. Note: this reference is from a 1928 auction of letters by the American Art Assoc. NYC, and also includes “ghost” references to the letters of others to Ashcroft, including Andrew Lang, Joseph Conrad, George Meredith, William Wymark Jacobs, Sidney Lee, Frank Thomas Bullen, Gilbert Parker and Rider Haggard. Copies of the actual letters are not in the MTP files.
Mrs. P.J. Lewis wrote from Danbury, Conn. to send Sam some of her husband’s troches she hoped would relieve his bronchitis [MTP]. Note: troche: a small, circular medicinal lozenge.