August 3 Friday – The North American Review published the essay, “In Defense of Harriet Shelley” in July–Sept.
In New York at the Players Club Sam answered a letter (not extant) from daughter Clara.
You dear old Black Spider! how glad I was to get your letter an hour or two ago. I was able to read it, too — which is a marvel.
Bless your dear heart. I am in the most thorough sympathy with your scheme, & proud of you for inventing it. I want you to go right ahead with it. Between us we will lay such a siege to mama that she will be obliged to yield. [Note: Sam had criticized Clara’s handwriting, perhaps likening it to a “black spider” on the page.]
Clara’s plans were to remain with the Wilsons in Switzerland and be a teacher when the family returned to America [Aug. 3 to Livy]. Sam planned to bring the rest of the family home in October and had a “project” to board them at George Warner’s.
Sam also wrote a letter he headed “26 B’way” which was H.H. Rogers’ office.
“But do not come until it is right to do so.”
That sentence gave me a splendid uplift! All days I am tortured by a conscience which howls & tugs & pulls & upbraids & reproaches — an infernal conscience which is twins — the one twin pulling one of my arms & saying “Come — sail!” — the other one tugging at the other arm & saying “Stay where you are & settle your business matters!” And I hardly know which one of these devils causes me the most trouble.
However, I’ve got to stay here a while longer — the assignee told me so an hour ago. He thinks he is getting the Webster affairs into promising shape & getting the creditors into a gentler frame of mind than ever. He wants me to be on hand to applaud concessions (proposed to be made to the creditors by you) & Mr. Rogers will be on hand to see that no unwise ones are granted. I said “I’m your man. Whatever grace the creditors want to ask of Mrs. Clemens I will forward with all my influence.”
Sam confessed he had Clara’s letter before him as yet unopened — he felt guilty for criticizing her “undecipherable handwriting & then found afterwards that I could read it very well.” Before he finished the letter to Livy, he opened and read Clara’s letter, then complimented it as “tip-top letter-writing,” and directed,
She is to be left with the Wilsons & be a teacher while we come home. I have said it. I am Boss.
Sam related news from his two-day stay in Hartford — the Whitmore’s second son making them proud; Tom Perkins a “grand success” and vice-president of a big electrical firm; Jack Bunce his partner. Mrs. Bunce was in poor health and Sam could not see her, but Ned Bunce and the Henry Robinsons sent their love. He missed Twichell by a day but saw Charles Dudley Warner and Susy Warner half an hour before they left town. He’d seen Lilly Warner for fifteen minutes. She related that Mrs. Cabell “was gone to return no more…”; Lilly Foote (their old governess) was “stronger & saner than ever she was in her life before,” and “an eloquent enthusiast upon mind-cure & upon its apostle Miss Davis,” who had a “great practice now.”
Afterwards when Mrs. Whitmore said it would be an immense help to George & Lilly Warner if our family would come over & board & lodge in that house, I asked her to tell Lilly Warner not to dispose of her rooms without first warning you, for I meant to bring the family home in October if your doctor would spare you a while.
And that is what I want to do. It seems plain that I can’t sell stock now without great difficulty — & so I must not try; it would be bad policy. …
I wasn’t able to write to you from Hartford, dear, but I am making up, now. And maybe I am making up for to-morrow & next day, too, for now I am going to shut myself up naked by my bath-tub at the Players & write an article for Gilder for the October Century [MTP].
Sam also wrote a letter of thanks to Franklin G. Whitmore for his hospitality during Sam’s stay in Hartford. He’d had “a most lovely time” at the Whitmore home and was grateful. He added that Livy thought the Harper’s Monthly subscription had run out and she wanted it continued.
It’s blazing hot, but I am going to shut myself in my room for a couple of days & try to write an article for the October Century. / Love to all of you; & to Robinsons & Bunce.
Sam then went to J. Henry Harper’s residence to retrieve his Joan of Arc MS. He found Harry Harper there and left a calling card to J. Henry before leaving with Harry to their home on the Long Island shore.
NAME Mark Twain (born Clemens)
RESIDENCE Hartford, Conn.
ARRIVED Aug. 3, 1894.
LEFT Aug. 5
GOING TO take a drink.
EVENTS · ADVENTURES · REMARKS
It is human beings that make climate. — (Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar) [MTP].
Sam stayed at the Harper’s home for two days, and wrote of it on Aug. 5 to Livy:
It is a charming family, & I am to let them know when you come, so that they can know you. They are very fond of the Huttons. They have several children; among them a daughter 18 or 20 years old & a son about to enter Harvard. I have work to do or I would have staid a day or two longer [MTP: Aug. 5 to Livy].