Submitted by scott on

April 7 Sunday – In Paris at 169 rue de l’Université, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers. He was “in a sweat” and spent a page or two wondering how his royalties from Frank Mayo’s dramatization of PW might be calculated. As per the contract, Sam should have had no worries:

“Clemens later realized that he need not have worried: the agreement of 29 September 1894 (CWB) which gave Mayo sole right to produced Pudd’nhead Wilson in the United States, Great Britain, and Canada guaranteed Clemens 20 per cent of the net profits” [MTHHR, p.139n2].

Mrs. Rice and her children were in Paris staying at the Brighton Hotel. The family was trying to find her an apartment. Sam noted, “Mrs. Howland has arrived, and she will be a good planner and helper.” He also mentioned Livys,

…present plans — to sail in May; stay one day, or two days in New York; spend June, July and August in Elmira and prepare my lectures; then lecture in San Francisco and thereabouts during September and sail for Australia before the middle of October and open the show there about the middle of November. We don’t take the girls along; it would be too expensive, and they are quite willing to remain behind anyway.

Mrs. C. is feeling so well that she is not going to try the New York doctor till we have gone around the world and robbed it and made the finances a little easier.

Mr. Macgowan is well and happy, and so is Mr. Southard. I saw them yesterday [MTHHR 136-9].

Note: Mrs. Howland was, probably Mrs. Henry E. Howland, wife of Judge Howland of New York. See Apr. 6 for info. on Macgowan and Southard.

Sam also wrote a short letter to Franklin G. Whitmore, conveying Livy’s memory that,

What’s-his-name was going to sell the piano for her if he could — that was all. Nothing was said about his buying it & applying the purchase-money on a new piano [MTP].

Note: several bills exist in MTP’s financials for Hartford’s Wm. Wander & Son, pianos & tuning. Sam addressed Wander’s non-payment again on May 30, 1895 to Whitmore.

Day By Day Acknowledgment

Mark Twain Day By Day was originally a print reference, meticulously created by David Fears, who has generously made this work available, via the Center for Mark Twain Studies, as a digital edition.   

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