May 31, 1902

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May 31 Saturday – In the wee hours of May 31 in Hannibal, Mo. Sam wrote of the trip and the previous full day to Livy. See May 29 entry.

Later in the day Sam attended a reception for the 1901 Hannibal High School graduating class in the Windsor Hotel and told of his boyhood attempt to get measles. They gave Sam a spoon engraved with an image of his old home on Hill Street [Sorrentino 21]. Note: see MTCI p.447.

Sam’s notebook: “7.30 p.m., hotel. Meet class of 1900, High School. / 8.30 Reception” [NB 45 TS 15].

May 29, 1902

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May 29 Thursday – Sam arrived in St. Louis around 7:30 a.m. He had planned to meet James Ross Clemens at the Planters House, but James and his cousin Lamotte Cates met him at the station and took him to Planters. (Note: Paine writes Horace Bixby also met him at the station MTB p. 1167).

June 21, 1901

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June 21 Friday – The Clemens family left N.Y.C. and traveled to Saranac Lake, N.Y. According to his June 19 to Rogers, they left at 7:50 a.m. and arrived about 7 p.m., a day long trip. Their May 10 lease agreement was for June 1 to Oct. 1, 1901, so they had lost three weeks of lease at this point. Insert: “The Lair,” a “cabin” at Adirondack Park later called “Mark Twain Camp.”

May 28, 1902

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May 28 Wednesday – Sam was on the train en route to St. Louis, sleeping well the second night [May 23 to James R. Clemens].

John B. Briggs wrote from New London, Mo. to Sam. “Dear ‘Mark’:– / I see by the St. Louis Republican where you are to be in Hannibal, Mo., in the course of a few days, and if I am well enough would like to see you…and talk over old boyhood days” [MTP].

August 6, 1901

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August 6 Tuesday –The Coes, Benjamins, and Mary Benjamin Rogers stayed in Fairhaven. The next twelve days were filled with excursions from port to port, poker, some light horseplay, good conversation, and jokes [MTHHR 468n1].

Sam’s ship log:

June 24, 1902

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June 24 Tuesday – The Clemens family, sans Clara, who was in Europe, left Riverdale on Rogers’ yacht, the Kanawha, for York Harbor Maine . H.H. Rogers was not along but put his yacht at their disposal in order to make the trip a comfortable one for Livy. Sam sent the Plasmon Co. a postcard with the new address and a request for Plasmon biscuits and cocoa to be sent there [Christie’s London Auction Nov. 12, 2007, Sale 5141, Lot 145].

November 1, 1900

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November 1 Thursday – In the afternoon the Clemens family moved into 14 W. 10th Avenue in N.Y.C.  [Note: subsequent entries have 1410 W. 10th]

Sam wrote to Frank Bliss.

“Dear Bliss: Do you remember that large photo by Barnett, London? Were you to send it to Mr. Rogers after engraving it? Did you do it? Above is our new address. We are to move in this afternoon. Make a note of it. Yrs. S.L. Clemens” [MTP]. Note: the new address was 14 W. 10th, N.Y.C. H. Walter Barnett, photographer.

August 27, 1898 Saturday

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August 27 Saturday – The Clemens family left Bad Ischl, Austria and traveled the 174 miles to Vienna, where they arranged housing for the winter with the Krantz Hotel. They then traveled back in Kaltenleutgeben, arriving in the evening [Aug. 28 to Rogers].

The Pall Mall Gazette’s piece by Carlyle G. Smythe ran in the N.Y. Times as “Mark Twain’s Literary Taste,” p. BR567:

April 9, 1902

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April 9 Wednesday – The Kanawha sailed at 9 a.m.from Old Point Comfort, Va. to N.Y.C. Sam’s notebook: It arrived at 5 p.m. “a brisk run of 165 miles. Caught 5.45 train for home. Telegram sent at 8 yesterday took all day. / Mrs. Bunce at home” [NB 45 TS 9].

June 1, 1902

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June 1 Sunday – In Hannibal, Mo. Sam wrote to Dr. Everett Gill of Hannibal.

I find it too formidable! I should not be able to sit in the pulpit on Sunday & feel that I was doing a right & decorous thing; I should be under my own censure all the time. Therefore I shall sit where any sinner may sit without offence, & where all sinners are welcome. I shall be comfortable there, & free of self-reproaches [MTP].