June 10 Sunday – Sam and Livy met the Finnish Baroness Alexandra Gripenberg (1857-1913) at 8 p.m. at the Hartford home of George Warner. She was a leader in the temperance and suffrage movements. The Baroness came to America as a delegate to the meeting of the International Council of Women inM Washington on Mar. 26. She arrived in Hartford on June 7 to visit her friend, Isabella Beecher Hooker. Sam and Livy were at the Warners when Alexandra arrived. Sam told a story about a Negro cook who cooked a goose and gave a leg to his sweetheart. After being questioned by his master, the cook claimed the goose was born with only one leg. Later in the evening Sam sang Negro songs. After the party Sam sent an autographed picture sent by a servant to the Baroness [Moyne 370-2]. In 1894 Sam wrote that the Baroness had asked him to “tell her a story in our negro dialect” [377].

The Baroness “was immediately impressed by Mark Twain’s tanned and weather-beaten appearance and by the dense clouds of tobacco smoke which enveloped him. His facial features were sharp and fine…Twains’ face was that of a typical prospector, full of countless small and large wrinkles and furrows. His hair was thick, curly, grayish; his penetrating eyes were deep-set; his gestures were abrupt but at the same time slow. His clothes fitted him indifferently as though they knew that their wearer did not care how they looked on him. A brilliant red silk kerchief dangled round his neck in a peculiar manner [Salsbury 241].