Dublin in the Summer of 1905 - Day By Day

August 8 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The fallow days are still with Mr. Clemens. All day he has been very, very tired and resting. At dinner tonight the talk was of Babylon and its great, great glories” [MTP TS 84].

Frederick T. Leigh wrote to Sam that Duneka was on vacation and Sam’s post-card scheme, according to Sam’s wishes, would be “dropped for the present” [MTP].

The Clemens household, sans Clara, moved to Dublin May 5.  Sam may or may not have gone to Fairhaven with Rogers.  He arrived in Dublin May 18 from Boston via Harrisville.

“The nearest railway station is distant something like an hour’s drive; it is three hours from there to Boston, over a branch line. You can go to New York in six hours per branch line if you change every time you think of it, but it is better to go to Boston and stop over and take the trunk line next day; then you do not get lost.

Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka of Harper’s:

July 1 Saturday – John Milton Hay (1838-1905) died this day. In Dublin, N.H. Sam sent a telegram to the N.Y. American:

I am deeply grieved & I mourn with the nation—this loss is irreparable. My friendship with Mr. Hay & my admiration of him endured 38 years without impairment. / Mark Twain [MTP: Cummings file]. Note: See Sam’s note sent anonymously under 1905 entries.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: This evening a telegram came from the N.Y. American asking Mr. Clemens to telegraph them something on the death of Mr. Hay.

July 10 Monday – Sam wrote to G.E. Stechert & Co., New York, ordering a subscription to the German periodical, Simplicissimus; Illustrierte Wochenschrift. Sam’s letter is not extant but referred to in the company’s reply of July 12.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: This afternoon Mr. Clemens came down with the day’s ms. –“44” turns time backward in order to accommodate the ghosts who’ve been invited to the ghost dance.— He was so handsome as he sat reading with lovely color in his cheeks, and his eyes flashing. Such a delight.

July 18 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Yesterday Mr. Pumpelly called because Mr. Clemens and Jean dined there last night, and he paid such interesting respects to “Casa Clemens,” and I was the only one to hear them. He is tall and white bearded with a fine blue eye, and he’s handsome to look upon. He has been every where too. Mr. Clemens says that Mr. P. is two years younger than he.

July 19 before – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to George Porter. “Mr. Clemens has read the play & is greatly interested. He would like to talk with you. Name your day & hour” [MTP]. See July 23 entry.

July – Harper’s Monthly published Sam’s article “William Dean Howells” p. 803-6. Clemens chose an excerpt from Howells’ “Easy Chair” column, a paragraph concerned with Louis Dyer’s Machiavelli and the Modern State (1904) to show “how clear, how limpid, how understandable” is Howells’ prose [Gribben 331]. Note: see Lyon’s journal entries for Mar. 26, 29, Apr. 5 on the writing of this article.

July 2 Sunday – Emilie R. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers) wrote from New Bedford, MASS. To Sam, having rec’d his note on July 1. They had just come from Boston the day before and would return this afternoon, as Mr. Rogers had to take the stand in a lawsuit; they might have to stay all week, and were at the Hotel Lorraine if Sam stopped on his way to Norfolk, Conn. To see Clara [MTHHR 588].

July 21 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Today I set out for Dublin again, achieving all I planned to do. I reached the house at 8:30 to find Mr. Clemens and Jean having supper with Mr. and Mrs. Learned. Oh, the peace of the hills, the purity of the air, only I am too exhausted to know [MTP TS 81].

July 22 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: This afternoon [4 p.m.] Mr. Clemens spoke before the members of the Dublin Lake Club. It was all a surprise to them. They had imagined Mr. Thayer would speak. He was such a delight. I had never heard him before in public—so didn’t know that side of the magic of him. He touched on “Eve’s Diary,” and Eve’s characteristics, and then he spoke of the caprices of memory, introducing one delightful anecdote after another. I didn’t want to know what subject he was going to speak on, so I didn’t ask. He is so wonderful.

July 23 Sunday – George Porter, playwright who had written a play on Joan of Arc, The Maid, A Drama in Five Acts (1904), visited Sam in Dublin, N.H. [Gribben 554: Note on July 19 from Porter]. On the inside of Porter’s July 19 letter Miss Lyon wrote, “He came—Sunday- July 23 and brought the play of Joan of Arc—and some sweet peas. He was chilled to the bones & shivering, so Mr. Clemens put his own cape about his shoulders, & gave him whiskey… / But oh dear— / He didn’t come to any point.

July 24 Monday – On or after this day in Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon wrote a short note for Sam to reply to George B. Harvey’s July 22 (below). “M . Clemens has already stopped this & has sent something. Very sorry to hear that Maj. Leigh is ill, & that Col H is well If M .Duneka cannot stand the Hell—then compromise on Sheol” [MTP]. Note: MTP places this as “on or after July 22” the date of Harvey’s incoming. Same day delivery from NYC to Dublin, N.H. was unlikely, so it is estimated on or after this day.

July 25 Tuesday –Isabel Lyon’s journal: He spoke yesterday morning of the gradual shifting of portions of the earth’s surface. The infinitesimal disintegration of a mountain heavy as the Himalayas, and he made you see the thousands and thousands of years it would take, and the time—Oh, you didn’t see years, you just saw the solemn embodiment of time. Oh, so majesting, and you were down on your spirit knees worshipping. Oh, the divine flame, that blows here now—-now there.