To The Person Sitting in Darkness: Day By Day

March 21 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Edward Day in Springfield, Mass., clarifying his stance against Christian Science’s founder, Mary Baker Eddy.

March 21 Monday – Clara Clemens had continued voice lessons in Florence. She sang at the Alfieri Theater on this evening, and would give other performances on Apr. 8 and 15 [Hill 82].

At the Villa Reale di Quarto Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich.

March 22 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Have asked Mr. Dodge to dinner. | Dickson et al 10.30 Benj. Curtis at 10.45” [NB 44 TS 7].

The New York Times ran claims of libel against Mark Twain, p.16:

DEMAND THAT TWAIN RETRACT.

———

Missionaries Say Statement by Him in The North American Review Is Libelous.

March 22 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Very hot in the staterooms last night. Governor of Nassau (Bahamas?) Sir Gilbert Carter. Have known him before. His secretary, Gladstone. Sailed at 4 pm. Arrived at Key West— uninteresting” [NB 45 TS 7].

Sam’s ship log: “Arrived at Key West. Niggers, mulattoes, whites, Spaniards, Cubans, & other human wreckage. Nothing of interest there, except for God. Apparently He is interested in anything that comes along” [MTP].

March 22 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Brisbin [sic] Walker—dinner. train 2.40 from River[side]” [NB 46 TS 12]. Note: John Brisben Walker.

Addie C. Irish wrote from Marietta, Ohio to Sam, complimenting him on his Christian Science articles in the NAR, and also on his other past works, JA, FE, and had urged her minister to read “Was it Heaven? Or Hell” [MTP].

March 22 Tuesday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam added a PS to his Mar. 21 to H.H. Rogers.

March 23 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Odell dinner, Lotos Club? 9.45 do? I’ve an engagement” [NB 44 TS 7].

Once again, Sam gave a dinner speech, arriving too late to dine, which allowed him to avoid a lot of rich food and a lot of clatter and noise. The New York Times, Mar. 24, p.2, ran a full article on the event at the Lotos Club in honor of Governor Benjamin Barker Odell, Jr. (1854-1926) (Article below edited to include only the introductory paragraphs and Mark Twain’s speech):

March 23 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Sailed 1 a.m. (90 m Reached Havana 7 a m Palm Sunday. Could not coal. Saw only 3 priests. Visited a church. At 3 or 4 drove in the Prado. Picturesque & interesting. Demi-monde street. ” [NB 45 TS 7].

Sam’s ship log:

Sailed at 1 a.m.

Reached Havana at 7 a.m.; 90 miles.

March 23 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Charles Hopkins Clark, still editor of the Hartford Courant: “Do not trouble about me, I am prepared to go. I have laid in a long supply of heavy clothing. Also a fan” [MTP].

Sam also wrote to an unidentified woman, who had sent him a MS. He thought well enough of it to have carried it to Harpers on Mar. 19.

March 23 Wednesday – This day saw the formation of the English Congo Reform Association by Dr. Henry Grattan Guinness (1861-1915); Edmund Dene Morel (1873-1924), British journalist, author and socialist politician; and Roger Casement (1864 -1916), Irish patriot, poet and British consul. Casement’s 1904 report on the Congo led to demands for action and the formation of the Assoc. Ultimately, the investigations led to the 1908 formation of the Belgian Congo.

March 24 Sunday – Sam’s notebook:

“Get a box—$6. 3 p.m. Carnegie Concert” [NB 44 TS 7]. See ad insert.

At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister in London. George Harvey was sailing for London and had invited Sam to cross with him. Sam’s letter introduced Harvey to MacAlister. “Tell him how the Plasmon business is going, won’t you?” he wrote. Sam noted that H.H.

March 24 Monday – On board the Kanawha in Havana harbor, Sam wrote to Livy [MTP].

Dearheart, we are anchored fifty yards from the wrenched & tangled battered bunch of rusty iron which stands for the “Maine” & looks like a brobdignagian tarantula in his death-squirm.

Sam then wrote of the activities of the prior day, Mar. 23 (see entry), and finished with:

March 24 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook:

Every man is a slave & a slave-holder; every man is a king & a subject; no man knows any but a fictitious independence. The foreman of a squad of offal-carts possesses all the essentials of those insolent & squalid vanities, nobility & kingship. It is self-conceited man that has placed the reptile at the bottom of animated nature. It is like his presumption.

March 24 Thursday – Miss Jennie Listenauer wrote from Superior, Wisc. to Sam, having been told a yarn of St. Ignace, Wisc., where Mark Twain was supposedly buried! [MTP].

March 25 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Stenographer 2.30. Dinner to Harvey 7.30 University Club” [NB 44 TS 7].

The Clemenses heard that Frederic William Henry Myers died in Rome. He was the founder and president of the Society for Psychical Research in Cambridge, England

Unidentified (“Many Students”) wrote from N.Y.C.:

March 25 Tuesday – The Kanawha was en route around the western tip of Cuba, then south and east to Kingston, Jamaica. Sam’s notebook gives their progress: “Turned western end of Cuba 8 a.m. Balmy weather. Deep-blue sea. Flying fishes. It is 756 knots from Havana to Kingston. We have permits from H.B.M. Consul” [NB 45 TS 7]. Note: Sam’s ship log gives nearly verbatim the same report.

March 25 Wednesday – Muriel M. Pears wrote from Menton, France to Sam. “Our Golden Dear Magician. Don’t please Don’t let the papers put in that sort of ‘joke’—it isn’t a joke to us, it’s the sort of thing that brings down a sudden feeling on one’s head of being chilly and forlorn…” [MTP]. Note: she didn’t specify.

March 25 Friday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister.

March 26 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “10.30, Joan of Arc (Jules E[ckert] Goodman)” [NB 44 TS 7].

At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Laura Fitch McQuiston (1863- 1935) in Fort Hancock, N.J. Sam extended his “deepest sympathy,” but he had “never had an experience which moved me to believe the living can communicate with the dead,” though he and Livy had and would continue to “experiment in the matter when the opportunity offered.”

March 26 Wednesday – The Kanawha was en route to Kingston, Jamaica, arriving there at 5 p.m, as indicated by Sam’s notebook: “Cold salt water baths. / At breakfast in 18° N. Pointed for Jamaica. Rased the island 5 p.m.Too Late. Concluded to sail all around it” [NB 45 TS 7]. Note: Sam’s ship log gives nearly verbatim the same report.

March 26 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Hutchinson, 114 W. 32d / Ask Julie to go. 4 p.m” [NB 46 TS 13].

Laurence Hutton wrote from Phoenix, Arizona to Sam, replying to Sam’s Mar. 18; it was hard for them to think of Livy as an invalid and wanted to shout out their love for her. “Phoenix is about as cheerful a spot as is the Wailing Wall of the Jews at Jerusalem…” [MTP]. Much of Hutton’s backhand scrawl is illegible.

March 26 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Countess Montjoye” [NB 47 TS 7]. Note: this may be Alice Ann Lymer Monck (d. 1905), the widow of Count Montjoy, Richard Charles Stanley Montjoy Monck (1858-1892).

James Douglas Campbell for the Plasmon Co. of America wrote to inform Sam of a stockholders’ meeting on Apr. 28, 1904 at 2:30 p.m in the company offices, 116 Broad St. NYC [MTP].

March 27 Wednesday – At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Frank Bliss.

March 27 Thursday – The Kanawha made its way to Kingston, Jamaica.

Sam’s notebook: “7 a.m. took pilot. Black, with 3 young blacks. Quite indifferent to their peril. Had to take their boat aboard—it would never have towed—sea too rough. Island densely wooded—can’t insert a knife between the trees. 9—noon. Ashore & drove. Captain of the Galena—$1” [NB 45 TS 7].

Sam’s ship log:

March 27 Friday – Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Franklin G. Whitmore.

“Mr. Clemens wishes me to say that he is very glad to know you have the wills, and would like to have you send them to him by registered mail.

“Mrs. Clemens continues to improve a little, and sat up today for quite a while” [MTP].