March 13 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook:
26, East 57th, March 13/95. John Brisben Walker has just offered me $10,000 for 12 articles on my Australian trip. If I make the trip I think I will accept [NB 34 TS 6]. Note: Sam did make the trip but reconsidered and turned down all such offers. On June 18, 1895, he would answer Frank Hall Scott, president of the Century Publishing Co. See entry.
March 14 Wednesday – The S.S. New York reached Southampton, England.
March 15 Thursday – Sam reached Paris, France and Livy. They had been separated longer than any other previous time in their lives [LLMT 297].
March 15 Friday – Sometime during this week Sam went to Hartford. He may have stayed at the Twichell’s, or the Day’s, who were renting the Clemens house on Farmington Ave. His Mar. 20 to Livy expressed that when he arrived in Hartford, he “did not want to go near the house , & didn’t want to go anywhere or see anybody,” which suggests he didn’t stay at either home initially. As to the length of his stay in Hartford, on Mar.
March 16 Friday – F. Gerstel, a dentist in Austria, wrote in German to Sam, who wrote on the envelope, Begging letter. This tramp sent me a hatful of ancient, worn, & smutty testimonials, recommendations to people’s charity. He not only paid double postage on the cargo, but paid also to have it registered. He must be rich [MTP].
March 17 Saturday – In the New York Times this date, p.2, “The Social World,” it seems the NYC branch of the Vassar Students’ Aid Society were selling the signatures of Mark Twain, Mary Mapes Dodge, Charles Dudley Warner, William Dean Howells, Brander Matthews, Kate Douglas Wiggin and others. An annual event, the sale began Friday, Mar. 16 and continued this day into the evening.
March – The North American Review for March carried Max O’Rell’s (Leon Paul Blouët) article, “Mark Twain & Paul Bourget,” an answer to Sam’s criticism of Bourget’s observations of America. O’Rell added a spirited defense of French morality [Tenney 24].
March 19 Monday – Susy Clemens’ 22nd birthday.
March 19 Tuesday – Susy Clemens’ 23rd birthday.
The New York Times, p.3, “Theatrical Gossip” Mar. 20, 1895:
March 2 Saturday – The S.S. New York arrived in New York City [NY Times, Mar. 3, 1895 p.14, “Arrivals from Europe”; Mar. 11 to Livy]. Mrs. Cara Rogers Duff met his boat and escorted him to the Rogers’ home at 26 E. 57th Street [2nd Apr. 3 to Rogers].
March 20 Tuesday – In New York H.H. Rogers wrote to Sam that “everything seems to be going smoothly in Chicago,” and that on the Webster & Co., situation he was “sure that we settled upon the wise and proper course.” He’d received Sam’s cable (not extant) and was waiting for Sam’s letter regarding the Uniform Edition possibilities with William Evarts Benjamin and Frank Bliss. Henry Irving’s stock had been delivered. Rogers two daughters, Mrs.
March 20 Wednesday – From the Clemens home on Farmington Ave. in Hartford, Sam began a letter to Livy in Paris, which he finished on Mar. 21. He headed the letter “At Home, Hartford, Mch.20/95.”
Livy darling, when I arrived in town I did not want to go near the house, & I didn’t want to go anywhere or see anybody. I said to myself, “If I may be spared it I will never live in Hartford again.”
March 21 Thursday – In Hartford at Joe Twichell’s, Sam finished his Mar. 20 to Livy:
March 21. (Uncle Joe’s.)
I was to dine there at 6.30, — & did. It was their first day, & their first meal. I was there first, & received them. Then John sent in the roses & your card, which touched Mrs. Alice [Day] to the depths. Good-bye dear sweetheart, good-bye. / Saml [LLMT 312].
March 22 Thursday – At the Hotel Brighton in Paris Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
I’ve had a tough time persuading Mrs. Clemens to stay here and allow me to go back. She consents to let me go; but it is on condition that I remain in America only 3 weeks and take ship for France again May 7. She wants to go home with me, but the physician will not hear of it — says she would lose all she has gained — and she is gaining pretty satisfactorily. Susy is a deal better, and has acquired a valuable appetite.
March 22 Friday – Sam returned to New York and the Rogers’ home at 26 E. 57th, where he wrote a short note to Laurence Hutton.
O, I am unspeakably sorry that I am to miss seeing that dear & marvelous child. I have just returned, after an absence of many days, & am leaving again to-day to be absent till Monday. Give her my love; & the like to Mrs. Hutton [MTP].
March 23 Saturday – In New York, Sam wrote a letter to John Elderkin, secretary of the Lotos Club. The letter was printed in the N.Y. Tribune for Apr. 25, 1895, p.11, along with a notice that “Mark Twain has been elected a life member of the Lotos Club.”
March 24 Saturday – Sam received the document (which transferred Sam’s Paige royalties to Livy) from Bainbridge Colby, H.H. Rogers’ attorney, with the law firm of Stern & Rushmore, but too late to go to the consulate to sign it and get it notarized [Mar. 26 to Rogers].
March 24 Sunday – In New York, fourteen year old Helen Keller (1880-1968), the first deafblind person who would graduate from college, met Sam and William Dean Howells at Laurence Hutton’s. (Sam’s Nov. 26, 1896 to Emilie Rogers mentions that H.H. Rogers was also present.) Keller wrote to her friend, Mary Mapes Dodge on Mar. 29 (using a new script typewriter, a “Remington”) of the meeting on the previous Sunday (Mar.
March 25 Monday – Sam traveled to Philadelphia, where he gave a luncheon speech at Cramp’s Shipyard for a dedication ceremony of a new liner. Fatout’s intro to the speech, p.274, MT Speaking:
March 26 Monday – At the Hotel Brighton in Paris Sam wrote to Mary Hallock Foote, giving her an unqualified recommendation as a drawing teacher, even though he could not testify to her ability in that matter, he could testify that she “speak the truth, every time,” so that, “whatever you SAY you are competent to do,” he was sure she could do [MTP: Hartford Courant Aug. 14, 1968].
Sam also wrote to H.H. Rogers:
March 26 Tuesday – An unidentified person wrote to Sam (envelope only, Keller to Dodge Mar. 29 encl.) [MTP]. Note: this is the letter of Helen Keller’s quoted in Mar. 24 entry, so the sender may have been its recipient, Mary Mapes Dodge.
March 27 Tuesday – The Brooklyn Eagle carried an article, p.8 with a London byline, that included a paragraph on Mark Twain in Paris:
The correspondent at Paris of the Daily Notes notes the scarcity of American visitors in that city during Eastertide. The correspondent adds that Mr. Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) is daily seen on the Avenue des Champs-Elysses. Mr. Clemens says that he has several books on hand. Mr. and Mrs. Poultney Bigelow are also in Paris en route from Algeria to London.
March 27 Wednesday – In New York at the Rogers home, a few minutes before leaving to board the S.S. Paris, Sam wrote a paragraph to Franklin G. Whitmore after receiving Whitmore’s letter, not extant, date uncertain.
March 28 Thursday – Sam was en route on the S.S. Paris for Havre, France.
March 29 Thursday – Bainbridge Colby for Stern & Rushmore Attys. wrote acknowledging receipt of Sam’s Mar. 19 letter, and that he’d been expecting the original assignment document “of your various property interests to your wife,” and if it did not come soon, he would cable a reminder [MTP].