March 6 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam replied to Ernest C. Hales’ Feb. 21:
I thank you very much for what you say. Just as I was about to comply with your request in the formal and customary fashion, this old letter fell out of an old book, and I thought you might prefer it.
It is the original—a typewritten copy went to the man on the other end—Dr. Sill (I think that is the name) inventor of Osteopathy, Kirksville, Missouri [MTP: Cyril Clemens’ Mark Twain: The Letter Writer, 1932, p.104].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Today Mother went up to see Poppy for a week. I took her up to the station” [MTP: TS 43]. Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Telephoned to Dr. Shaw’s Secretary asking if Dr. Shaw can call in to see Mr. Clemens” [MTP TS 7].
Jean Clemens wrote to Patrick McAleer:
Dear Patrick; / I hadn’t the faintest idea of your recent loss when I saw you, but although it is rather late Father & I wish to express our warm sympathy with all of you.
Katie, I believe, told you that I am going to buy a riding horse. Father wants me to ask you if you would be willing to come with us to Dublin, N.H. from May 1 to Nov. 1 at $60 a month & your board & lodging. There is a single room in the stable & you would eat with the other servants in their dining-room. There would, of course, be no room for Mary or any of the other members of the family, but if you would come we should be most glad. The work would consist of the care of my horse, managing the electric water-motor which supplies the house with water, he care of the furnace in case we use it, and the care of the garden. There is a small kitchen & flower garden.
Father wants you to go to the Hartford Hospital & get yourself in good condition. Either call on Dr. Root or Dr. Porter & have yourself examined and taken care of either at the hospital, or told how to care yourself at home. Father also says that he will be glad to pay you part of your wages in advance, say $30 —beginning now (March) each month, between now & May 1st —
The list of the things to be done sounds rather large, but I do not believe that any of it will be very taxing, unless filling the refrigerator is. (I forgot to mention that[)]—and that the ice-house is on the place near at hand. Please think this proposition over carefully, at the same time realizing how very glad we shall be to have you with us once more, if you decide to come. / Yours affect. / Jean L. Clemens [MTP]. Note: Patrick would die from cancer of the liver nearly a year later, Feb. 26, 1906. It’s likely his hospital check up referred to here revealed the disease.
An unidentified man (W. Vernon?) wrote on W.F. McLaughlin & Co. (importers & roasters of coffee) letterhead to Sam.
“Unless you hear to the contrary I will call upon you at your residence at 9 o’clock on Friday morning, the 17th, as I wish to have a conversation with you before leaving for England. I should be glad if you would get your typewriter to write me a letter telling me what has transpired as the result of Mr. Ashcroft’s visit to England. I concluded it better not to do anything in the matter till my return there, because, as Mr. Ashcroft has seen the other directors during my absence, a correspondence on the matter might have complicated things. The business [Plasmon] is going better daily in England” [MTP]. Note: Signature is not clear, but evidently the man was a director of the American Plasmon Co. W. In her Mar. 17 journal entry,Lyon noted that Mr. Vernon called to see Mr. Clemens this morning,” the same 17 date as in the above letter. Ashcroft also wrote on Nov. 1 that he had “drafted a plan of reorganization of Plasmon that Vernon is ‘fathering’ and which will be satisfactory to all parties.” W. Vernon wrote to Sam on Feb. 23, 1906. Taken together it seems probable that this letter was from W. Vernon. MTP advised of same.
March 6 ca. – On or just after this day, Isabel V. Lyon responded for Sam to John Stanchfield’s Mar. 4 note: “Mr. Clemens does immensely approve the letter. It talks straight business without any mincing” [MTP]. Note: There was no mail delivery on Sunday, though letter carriers in N.Y.C. during 1905 made as many as nine trips a day from the main post office. Sam could not have received Stanchfield’s note before March 6.