October 28 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “This, or later, preside at Low Speech. Delafield dinner” [NB 44 TS 15]. Note: rally speech made on Oct. 29. Also, possibly Richard Delafield (1853-1930), banker and Merchant, resident of Tuxedo Park.
In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore. Only the envelope survives [MTP].
Thomas B. Reed, who had taken up the case of R.G. Newbegin Co. and W.I. Squire, wrote to Sam:
October 29 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Introduce Seth Low to audience at 350 Broadway, noon” [NB 44 TS 16].
Mark Twain spoke at a noonday rally for the Fusion ticket at the New York Life Building in support of mayoral candidate, Seth Low. The New York Times covered the event on p. 3, Oct. 30 edition:
MARK TWAIN AND SETH LOW SPEAK
———
The Humorist Compares Tammany to a Rotten Banana.
———
October 3 Thursday – At 8 a.m. Clemens, Joe Twichell, and possibly others met at the foot of West 35th Street, and boarded the Kanawha. H.H. Rogers may have already been on board. The yacht cruised off of Sandy Hook, N.J. to view the heat of the America’s Cup race, which had been thought to be the third in the best of five, but was the second. The heat this day began at 11 a.m. and finished at 3:16 p.m. [NY Times, Oct.
October 30 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook records a to-do list, some items crossed off as if completed:
3 seats orchestra, not further back than 6th row or 1st or second row of balcony to-morrow night
money.
Shaving soap.
Spectacles to Gildre
Miss Marborough
Bram Stoker 783 Mad. Av.
Mrs. Rogers
Post cards & envelopes.
Write Am. Exp. Portrait.
Harpers.
October 31 Thursday – Sam’s notebook entry of Oct. 30 gives the following evening for reservations of three seasts for “orchestra.” The venue was not determined [NB 44 TS 16].
The New York Tribune, p. 3, ran “Twain Would Be a Bill Poster!”—a similar article to the NY Times article (see under Oct. 30) [MTCI 410-11].
October 4 Friday – Sam and the passengers on the Kanawha watched as Columbia beat Shamrock II in the best of five races, winning heat No. 3 for a 3-0 victory and defense of the Cup. In each race:
Sept. 28, 1st race, 30 miles, Windward-Leeward Course: Columbia beat Shamrock II by 01 minute 20 sec in corrected time.
October 5 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mr. Osborne (not further identified): “Indeed I should very much like to see that institution, but I have settled down, now, to stir from under the rooftree no more forever—at least for a year or two, I hope. / Won’t you send me another copy of the pamphlet? I hadn’t read three pages of it before some one carried it off. I was thoroughly interested” [MTP].
October 7 Monday – R.G. Newbegin wrote to Sam that Thomas Reed had called his attention to the fact that a letter had been sent in their company name “reported to have been signed by you.” Newbegin blamed W.I. Squire, another agent in Toledo, Ohio; he understood Sam’s indignation, was sorry that the matter occurred, and would do their best to see it didn’t happen again. He confided Reed’s assertion that the act was “forgery in the third degree” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env.
October 8 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Edmund Clarence Stedman in Bronxville, N.Y.
Mr. Dodge gave me the valued accommodation of a lift up the hill the other day, & although he wouldn’t come in at that time he promised that he & his family would come & see us later—we hope the contract will be made good. Yes, I am here for peace & repose…we are not of those who desire the peace & repose of the hermit or the convict.
October 9 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to George B. Harvey, president of Harpers and the North American Review: “If you are going to issue the North American several days before election day (Nov. 5) I’d like to have a few pages of space in it—otherwise, if it can’t be, I won’t waste my article but go to a political meeting & deliver it as a speech” [MTP].
"...the Clemens family loved the house at Riverdale (later known as "Wave Hill" and occupied by Arturo Toscanini and Sir Gladwyn Jebb, British ambassador to the United Nations). It was an enormous fieldstone, three-story mansion with impressive wooded grounds, just inside the New York City limits."