May 15 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Plasmon Directors meeting 56 Duke st at 11:30” [NB 43 TS 11].

May 16 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Mrs. Hinck’s dinner / Miss A. Goodrich Freer’s address: The Laurels Burshey Heath” [NB 43 TS 11].

May 17 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: Address: 6 Bickenhall Mansions Gloucester Place W.

———

Dine with E. Russell Roberts as “a Bencher’s guest [”] in the hall of the Middle Temple. 6 p.m. He will meet me “at the entrance to the Hall at 5.50.[”] (His address is 3 Old, Lincoln’s Inn.) “Please arrive at the Middle Temple Hall, Middle Temple Lane, & ask to be shown to the Bencher’s room[”].

Balance in Mr. Rogers’s hands, $43,000 [NB 43 TS 11].

May 18 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Miss Chomondeley—lunch. / Meyer’s lecture Frederic William Myers.—& dine at Stanley’s. / RELIEF of Mafeking. The news came at 9.17 p.m. Before 10 all London was in the streets, gone mad with joy. By then the news was all over the American continent” [NB 43 TS 11]. Note: the siege of Mafeking was a famous British action in the second Boer War. The siege was finally lifted on May 17, 1900, when British forces commanded by Colonel B.T.

May 19 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “London wild with joy & noise all day & until two hours after midnight / Weather still horribly cold—we have had 9 months of winter. In New York last Monday, thermometer, 92” [NB 43 TS 11]. Note: See May 8 NB entry.

At 30 Wellington Court in London, Sam finished his May 17 to Samuel Moffett:

May 20 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Lunch 10 m [a.m.?] to 1—come down Middle Temple Lane to Middle Temple—after lunch to Temple Church—get out at 4.30, oratorio begins at 3. Girls invited” [NB 43 TS 11].

May 21 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Somatose, a Swiss meat-extract & curer of all ills. / Is a £ $4.86? / $3,071— £632? / Speech at Lotos: Thank my 96 creditors, only one of whom was a Shylock—Thos. Russell & son” [NB 43 TS 11-12].

May 22 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Clara Sue & Bertha Underhill—early. / Bigelow, 7.30 10 Elm Park Gardens, S.W. / Irving Underhill wants to pay me $500—owing 7 years. Cannot allow it. He has had a hard time” [NB 43 TS 12].

In the evening in London, The Clemenses visited Irving S. Underhill and family (see above NB entry), who were visiting London [May 23 to Underhill]. Charles Underhill, son of Irving, writes of this evening in his 1928 reminiscence:

May 23 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Dinner here to the Gilders & Chapins? ? ? / Offered $10,000 a year to edit ‘Judge’—the labor required estimated at ‘one hour’ of my time ‘per week.’ Can’t accept” [NB 43 TS 12].

May 24 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Noon—11 Cornhill—general Countess / Hoyos—dinner—the Farm House, Pont street” [NB 43 TS 12].

May 25 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Henry Yates Thompson dinner—8. 19 Portman Square” [NB 43 TS 12].

May 26 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Col. Church 216 Crowell Rd, S.W. Ranelagh Club—dinner—morning dress. / Barns Elms—over Hamersmith bridge.”

———

In reply to Howard Taylor’s request, wrote him he could let the Yankee be played once or twice for the Technological Institute for 40 per cent of the gross [NB 43 TS 12]. Note: Taylor not further identified.

May 27 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Go up the Thames? MS of ‘The Death-Wafer[’] to Mr. Denny, (W.H.) Laira, Sheen Park, Richmond, Surrey. Telephone 2927 Gerrard. To be returned to me after next Friday” [NB 43 TS 12].

May 28 Monday – In London, England Sam wrote to three- year-old Miss Margaret Carnegie (1897-1990), daughter of Andrew Carnegie, in a unique approach to get her father to buy stock in the Plasmon Syndicate of London, of which Sam was a director.

You are so little that you probably can’t remember so large a bulk as I am, but that is no matter, I remember you very well, & this is only a business letter, anyway.

May 29 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Countess Hoyos? / (Dr. Hillyer [sic], open—30 Wimpole st W.[ )] / Andrew Carnegie Skibo Castle Sutherlandshire N.B.” [NB 43 TS 13]. Note: Dr. Alfred Peter Hilliard.

Rogers wrote to Sam. Only the envelope survives, upon which Sam wrote “Contract for Tom Sawyer” [MTP]. Note: TS the play. See Mar.25 to Rogers; also May 28.

May 30 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Goerz ? YES 7.30 / Never tell a lie, even when it is the truth / He died in 1847—I was at the funeral. / Never tell a lie, even when it is the truth” [NB 43 TS 13]. Note: Sam inserted later in ink after Goerz: “Died. July 28, 1900”.

Chatto & Windus published 6,000 copies of the 6s.0d. English edition of The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg [Welland 238].

Fatout lists a JA reading for Mark Twain for Canon Wilberforce

May 31 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Gilders here—dinner” [NB 43 TS 13]. Note: the NB also lists “P. of Wales Cromwell play” and the play Rip Van Winkle by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1853-1917) on this the opening day for the performance. Gribben speculates Sam possibly saw the play this day [711]. Note: see July 1, 1897 entry for bio info. on Tree.

June – Harper & Brothers published the first edition of The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays . Two copies were deposited with the Copyright Office on June 11 [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Afterword materials p.23, Oxford ed. 1996].

June 1 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “LUNCH 1 pm. / Duke of York’s—3 p.m. / Doubleday—lunch Be at Savoy Grill Room, Strand entrance / 1 p.m./ Theatre (Mrs. C.) / Andrew Lang? / (A. Abbey, 8 pm” [NB 43 TS 13-14]. Note: Duke of York at this time was Prince George (1865-1936) who became King George V in 1910.

June 2 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Prof. J. Mark Baldwin of Princeton coming with J.L. Adams 11 a.m. Writes books on psychology. Oxford, now, on this industry. / Burford Bridge Hotel Dorking. / Andrew Lang? See July 1, for his address” [NB 43 TS 14].

June 3 Sunday – Whitsuntide (Pentecost) in London. Sam’s notebook: “1 Hamilton Place, Piccaly / Boating on the Thames. Herring. / Train 11. Paddington. / to Taplow—11 am arriving at 11.38. Fly waiting—the man will have white ribbon on his whip. / Dinner / Burford Bridge Hotel Dorking” [NB 43 TS 14].

Adele Chapin (Mrs. Robert Chapin) recalls Mark Twain coming by two days after their dinner where he met the artist James Abbott McNeil Whistler:

June 4 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Chapin 8. If coming send no telegram. / Send congratulations to Miss Mai Rogers 26 E 57th—cable about noon. / CHAPIN—Dinner 8 pm” [NB 43 TS 14]. Note: Robert and Adele Chapin; Robert was US Consul in Johannesburg during Sam’s 1896 tour there.

In London, England Sam wrote a postcard to Franklin G. Whitmore.

June 5 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Exhibition (medical) Queen’s Hall, top of Regent St—3 p.m./ Jim Clemens—dinner 7.30. 22 Queensberry Place, Cromwell Road / Jap show. Nottinghill Gate Coronet Theatre 2.30 p.m.” [NB 43 TS 15].

At 30 Wellington Court in London, Sam replied to an invitation by James Mark Baldwin to dine at one of the Oxford colleges.

Dear Professor Baldwin:—

I shall like it. It is so long since I was last in Oxford that all its features are grown dim to me; even Guy Faux’s lantern.

June 6 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “? Article Club Lord Suffield, Pr. Laurence Cowen, Sec. 6.30 for 7. Trocadero Restaurant. / Andrew Lang? / 36 Theobald’s Row with Spal—3 pm” [NB 43 TS 15].

June 7 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Murray, 11.40 to Victoria, Brighton. / Went to Woldingham, Surrey. Saw Robert Bar [sic Barr] & family” [NB 43 TS 15].

At 9 p.m., 30 Wellington Court in London, Sam wrote again to James Mark Baldwin, after sending a telegram.