March 27 Sunday – Mrs. E.H. Higinbotham wrote from Florence to Sam, asking if she might call and pay her respects. She was the bride of the wedding Sam had mentioned at the St. Louis Club in 1902; She remembered him as saying that “Mr. Papeu [sp?] had been guilty of a great oversight in having failed to be the prospective bridegroom” [MTP].
Dr. Giovanni Nesti wrote to Sam, thanking for his “kind letter with the cheque” [MTP]. Note: See Mar. 20 for Nesti’s itemized bill.
March 28 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Have asked Bigelow to dinner. Mrs. Koller (see 27th ) Empire Theatre 2.15 p.m. Miss Gibley, 6.50 / Duneka said, ‘Go on just as if the clause was abrogated. I cannot say it will be abrogated, but there will be no bother resulting[’] ” [NB 44 TS 7-8].
March 28 Friday – Sam’s Mar. 29 to Livy related this days’ activities in Kingston, Jamaica.
March 28 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Andrew Carnegie’s / 2 E. 91st st. 8 p.m. / to meet Sidney Lee. / [Horiz. Line separator] / John P. Jones / 237 Stuyvesant / Bet. 16 & 17th & 2d & 3d ave” [NB 46 TS 13].
March 28 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Began dictating again, after an interval of 2 months” [NB 47 TS 7].
Elisabeth Marbury wrote to Sam, enclosing a financial statement and a check for $32.71 for one week’s performance of PW [MTP].
James Douglas Campbell for the Plasmon Co. of America wrote to Sam, enclosing a proxy form for him to use for the upcoming stockholders’ meeting [MTP].
March 29 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Boys’ Debate 576 Lexington Av. Cor 51st. Ask Poultney. 1 Lex; (Park Av. Hot.) Gilder; Exercises begin 8.15 ‘English as She is Wrote.’ In my lower drawer. Miss Margt P. Pascal, Prest. I am to say few words after the Boys’ debate” [NB 44 TS 8]. Note: Margaret Pascal taught primarily immigrant children, and worked with George T.
March 29 Saturday – On board the Kanawha in Boden, Jamaica, Sam wrote to Livy [MTP].
March 29 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Geo. Riggs, lunch—& Jean with me?” [NB 46 TS 13].
March 29 Tuesday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich in Ponkapog, Mass. (only the envelope survives) [MTP].
Sam’s notebook: “Clara’s consert. (postponed)” [NB 47 TS 7].
March 3 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Taught dog the Morse alphabet” [NB 44 TS 6].
N.E. Guyot wrote from Cripple Creek, Colo. agreeing with his “Sitting in Darkness” article.
March 3 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam finished his Mar. 2 to Franklin G. Whitmore.
March 3. I went house-hunting in the rain yesterday afternoon—I kept this letter waiting, because I might perhaps be able to report a purchase to you. But it didn’t happen. Cheap enough house, but I wouldn’t take it as a gift.
March 3 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Dr. & Mrs. Rice here. Dinner. / [Horiz. Line separator] / The morals of a God ought to be minutely perfect. I would not worship a God that made the fly” [NB 46 TS 11].
Mr. and Mrs. J. Doe wrote from Seattle, Wash. to Sam, complimenting him on the “Sitting in Darkness” article [MTP].
Frederick W. Peabody wrote from Boston to Sam. “Mr. John W. Reeder is now the President of the [Christian Science] church here and the head of directors is the same as in 1899” [MTP].
March 3 Thursday – Dr. H. Laing Gordon for the British Relief Fund wrote the gratitude of the committee to Sam and those who helped with the performance of Cousin Kate [MTP].
Ubaldo Traverso, Florence attorney, wrote to Sam that he was required to give evidence in a case before the court in Berlin. “To avoid the inconvenience of appearing on the 7th ins., I have asked Dr. Kirch to send me a medical certificate to the effect that you are unable to come to Florence for some days” [MTP].
March 30 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Y.M.C.A. 52 E 23d Carriage at 9.45” [NB 44 TS 8]. Sam gave a talk in the evening for the Poughkeepsie Eastman Club at the YMCA. The New York Times, Mar. 31, p.2, reported the talk:
MARK TWAIN TELLS OF HIS BUSINESS VENTURES
———
”To Succeed, Avoid My Example,” Is His Axiom, He Says.
———
Confides to the Poughkeepsie Eastman
March 30 Sunday – The Kanawha made the port of Santiago in southern Cuba, where the men “visited the points of historical interest near Santiago” [NY Times Apr. 1, 1902, p.9 “The Kanawha at Santiago”].
Sam’s notebook: “Easter / Sailed early for Santiago. Rough. Arr. 3 p.m. at the Morro Castle. Prado. Queen’s …. [Square] Well kept cats & dogs. No smoking” [NB 45 TS 8].
March 30 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to David Rowland Francis, President of the 1904 St. Louis Fair. The letter ran in the New York Times, Mar. 31, 1903 p.9.
RACES ON THE MISSISSIPPI.
Mark Twain’s Suggestions for Repetitions at the
Fair of Old-Time Contests Between Steamboats.
March 31 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “(To-day, was it?) Turned over to Harry Harper, for the firm, the dramatic business of Joan of Arc, they to attend to every detail including collections, & reserve 15 per cent of the results as commission” [NB 44 TS 8].
March 31 Monday – The Kanawha sailed from Santiago, Cuba, to Nassau, Bahamas.
Sam’s notebook: “Sailed at 8 a.m. on a 2-day stretch due north” [NB 45 TS 8]. Note: Sam’s ship log essentially the same notation.
March 31 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to Lawrence J. Anhalt’s Mar. 30.
March 31 Thursday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to Elizabeth Robins.
“The passage quoted by me is from William Morris’s ‘Well at the End of the World.’ It occurs in the second volume, but I do not know just where, for the book is not now on the premises. / With kindest regards” [MTP].
March 4 Monday – In N.Y.C., Sam replied to Gilbert A. Tracy’s Feb. 27 letter.
“Although you, in charity and kindness for a busy man, have forborne to require an answer, I cannot deny myself the pleasure of saying, out of my heart, I thank you” [MTP]. Note: Tracy, of Putnam, Conn. later published Uncollected Letters of Abraham Lincoln (1917); he claimed to have known Lincoln well.
March 4 Tuesday – Sam house hunted with a real estate agent. He later wrote, “I went alone, one day, and examined 12 country seats from garret to cellar, and it ended my usefulness, and my strength. I struck” [Mar. 3 to Whitmore; Mar. 12 to Bigelow].
March 4 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frank Bliss.
“Church Manual of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston.”
I want a copy of this little book—right away, if possible—for 1902. (I have an old copy.)
Can’t you borrow it for a few days from some Hartford member? If not, can’t your friends in Boston manage to buy one? [MTP].
March 4 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Apparently they finished cleaning the cesspools to-day. They have been several days at it. / Suddenly at 4 p.m. Smith brought word from Higgs that he had promised the Aurora to a lady unless I decided to-night to take it. / I think we don’t wish to be hurled into it” [NB 47 TS 7]. Note: Sam was still trying to lease another villa.
March 5 Tuesday – Edwin A. Brenholtz of Turnersville, Tex. wrote to Sam with a clear and elegant hand, calling him “The Voice” and complimenting “Sitting in Darkness” [MTP]. Note: Sam replied Mar. 18.
Waterman of Cambridge, Mass. wrote from Montreal to compliment “Sitting in Darkness” [MTP].