December 26 Saturday – In Redding, Conn. Sam sent the same postcard with a photo of himself, Ashcroft, and Lyon to Dorothy Sturgis, this time adding supposed dialog between those photographed:
Miss L. If you could only repent!
C. I can’t. And I won’t.
Benares. Try. Do try.
C. I won’t. I feel ready to cry because I didn’t do it some more.
===
Dear Annieanlouise:
All the 12 were heard from
[continued on the back:]
yesterday except for you & one other. The missing pair are heard from to-day, & the tale is complete & I am glad.
That is a perfectly lovely work of art—& done with your own deft hands I make sure—the same that wrought the note to the burglars, which Mrs. Doubleday is using as an illustration, in color, in her article descriptive of “Stormfield.”
The happiest of happy New Year’s to you! / With the love of / The Major [MTP].
Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Philip Nichols Sunderland.
Dear Mr. Sunderland: / But you DID pay in that dollar & more too, when you got all those post cards for Mr.Clemens & we got even with you that way. But Mr. Clemens thanks you very very much, & I as the holder of that building fund do so also; & also I thank Mr. Sunderland sr. very much for his continual generosity. / Very Sincerely Yours … [MTP: Redding Times June 19, 1958, p.6]. Note: The Sunderlands of Danbury, Conn. were builders for at least three generations, and were involved in the building of Stormfield—Philip and his father William Webb Sunderland. Philip Sunderland recollected meeting Twain in NYC and Twain’s house at Stormfield:
“The first time I ever saw Mr. Clemens, was in the house on Eighth in New York, when I went there with John Mead Howells, the architect, to get the contract signed. The house was designed by that time, the plans were all ready, but the site had not been selected. Mr. Howells came out a little later and approved it. Mr. Clemens I did not see again until the day he moved in. He never saw the site, or the house while it was being built; all he did was sign the contract. His first sight of the entire project was the finished place, painted, furnished and ready for occupancy right down to the cat purring on the hearth.” [http://www.historyofredding.com/HRtwainstormfield.htm]
Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. Harry Rogers) gave Sam a new guestbook, in which she inscribed: “Dear Uncle Mark – / from his most affectionate niece / Mary Rogers.” Under this inscription, Sam wrote: “Mary, you are just a dear! This is the opinion of your oldest & best uncle— / Mark. / Dec. 26, 1908” [Note: entries from Sam’s first arrival at Stormfield (June 18, 1908) were then copied into the new guestbook, either from an older version or from memory.]
Sam’s new guestbook:
Name Address Date Remarks
Ethel Newcomb “ [Dec.] 26-28 [& IVL TS 87]
The Maharajah [*] [*] [*]
* Note: Sam wrote over all three right columns: “(this being the celebrated elephant that Robert Collier sent here for a Christmas present & frightened everybody to death until the creature turned out to be stuffed.) God will punish Robert Collier. I know it.” The stuffed elephant may be seen in the MTJ Spring/Fall 2006 issue by Kevin Mac Donnell, p. 40, next to the Christmas tree. It appears to be about two to three feet high and had wheels on its feet.
Adelia Ellison wrote from Plymouth, Ind. to Sam after reading RI. Was the name William Blodget in that book fictitious? She had searched for years for her son by that name [MTP]
Thomas W. Gilmer wrote to ask Sam who the “other literary light” he spoke with at the Congregational Church in Washington on Nov. 25, 1884 (Gilmer had a diary) [MTP]. Note: “Ans Dec 29 MLH”; IVL: “Geo. W. Cable”
Orison Swett Marden for Success Magazine NYC wrote to Sam, enclosing a proof of the Jan. number, entitled, “Growing Old a Habit,” which he felt would especially interest Clemens [MTP]. Note: “Ans Dec 29 MLH” ; IVL: “Many thanks for sending article & for your pleasant message”
Kay A. Russell wrote from Chicago to Sam. She was writing a paper on Mark Twain and asked for “any new material” [MTP]. Note: “Ans Dec 30 MLH”; IVL: “Would like to be able to”
December 26? Saturday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to the Red Cross Christmas Stamp Committee.
Ladies—In paying new year bills, & also in postponing them, I will stick on a Red Cross stamp. If you will suggest in print that the whole country do the same, the Red Cross will prosper to your content. I know this, for I know that all America is warm at the heart & generous at this time of year, & will thank you for your suggestion & follow it. / Respectfully yours, / Mark Twain [MTP: NY World, Dec. 28, 1908, p.6].