Submitted by scott on
December 7 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to Emilie R. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers).

Dear Mrs. Rogers: / I walked out to your home this afternoon, hoping & expecting to see  you, & was sorry to learn that you were not feeling well, & not seeing people. The footman offered to report my name & see if you would make an exception in my favor, but I was afraid your goodheartedness might overreach your judgment, so I wouldn’t let him do it.

My walk extended to the Broughtons & the Coes, but the day was so fine that they were all out.

I meant to call on the Benjamins, but was interrupted by a friend, and before I could extricate myself from him I was clear down to 12 street again.

I met H. H. below the Park, flying toward 78 street, but he wouldn’t halt. B’goshalmighty, I walked 74 blocks, twice over, & caught nobody. / With love, …. [MTP].

On or after Dec. 7 Lyon replied to Lucy Page Whitehead’s Dec. 6 from Washington: “Be glad if he ever goes to Washington again to be entertained under her roof. Did not have time to hunt her up this last visit there only a short time & was overcrowded with the business he went to attend to” [MTP].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: Today, this morning Mr. Clemens read me a very great poem by Mr. Gilder in the Times. It is a poem on this terrible massacring of Jews and peasants in Russia. Mr. Clemens said it was difficult to decide—you couldn’t decide—if it was satire or not, unless you know your man. But, I think Mr. Gilder is in earnest. (Poem is a clipping in folder.) This afternoon Robert Reid came in to see Mr. Clemens. Oh, he is a large man. Stiff, in inflamatory rheumatism. As I entered the drawing room, he was preening before the long mirror. Later, Norman Hapgood came in. Both R.R. and Norman Hapgood were sore about not being invited to the banquet and Moncure D. Conway put his soreness into a pathetic, abused note. But Mr. Clemens said that “Conway has been dead for 5 years” [MTP TS 112].  

E. Armstrong wrote from Chicago to Sam, a friendly letter of congratulations [MTP].

Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote on Koy-Lo Co. letterhead to Miss Lyon. “Mr. Henry C. Davis would like to see Mr. Clemens sometime for a few minutes. I believe he wants to express his appreciation at being selected as Plasmon Chairman—or something of that sort” [MTP].

E.T. Bloxham wrote from Boonton, N.J. after reading “Eve’s Diary” in the current Harper’s. Did Sam simply mean to give “Eve’s Estimate of things general as she perceived them in the Garden”? or did he mean to “portray in a subtle and humorous manner the conception of the world as to the attitude of man towards woman, and vice versa”? On or just after this day In N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam: “Mr Clemens wishes to say he thinks an examination of Eve’s character as set forth in the article will answer the question” [MTP].

Coincidentally, also from Boonton, N.J., H.W. Chetterling wrote to Sam discussing in their family the Dec. Harper’s article “Eve’s Diary.” They framed a question about Eve’s “understanding of inanimate things,” which, on or just after this day Isabel V. Lyon again replied for Sam: “Would answer the question with pleasure but does not understand it” [MTP].

Rebecca W.M. Colfelt wrote from Glen Loch, Pa. to congratulate Sam [MTP].

Joseph Esler wrote from Quincy, Ill. to Sam. “As an old time resident of your native city, Hannibal, Mo, and as a near neighbor at the present time, allow the writer, to heartily congratulate you on your passage of your 70 mile-stone” [MTP].

Mary E. Freeman wrote to apologize to Sam for leaving his birthday dinner “so abruptly, with only a hasty hand-shake, and not a word about my liking your brilliant speech” [MTP].

Joseph Homber wrote congratulations to Sam and sent a box of “Rutherford” Havana cigars [MTP].

W.B. Hosford, after reading an account of Sam’s 70th celebration, wrote from Mishikawa, Ind. to ask Sam if he’d known a “Bob” Clemens, an engineer on the Mississippi in 1860’s steamboating days [MTP]. Note: allowing 3 days mail delivery and a Sunday, Sam’s reply is put to ca. Dec. 11.

C. Milde wrote congratulations (in German) to Sam [MTP].

Wilbur F. Mills wrote from Pittsburg, Pa. to Sam after reading of the “Jollification Meeting” of his 70th [MTP].

F.W. Sedgwick wrote from Parma, Mich. to congratulate Sam [MTP].

Dihdwo Twe wrote to Sam, mistakenly addressing it to “Edward H. Clement”:

I was greatly disappointed that we did not get chance to talk over the Congo question when we met at Mr. Pearmain’s home last month. However I am preparing an article on the subject that I want to be published in the Harper Magazine. I shall send you the article when it is finished to have you look it over and push it through if it meet with your appreciation [MTP].

Henry Watterson wrote to Sam, wanting to see him before he left NYC. Could Sam see him for lunch this Sat or Sun at 1 p.m.? [MTP]. Note: at top in pencil “ansd by telephone”; on the left empty side, “Sunday”

On the Congo situation, Thomas Barbour wrote Edmund Morel about the Nov. 27 Twain- Roosevelt luncheon meeting. Twain believed if Roosevelt could have “quietly trustworthy assurance” that the British government was ready to act, that America would “follow suit.” Could Morel get such assurance? If so, Twain would see Roosevelt again [Hawkins 164].

Day By Day Acknowledgment

Mark Twain Day By Day was originally a print reference, meticulously created by David Fears, who has generously made this work available, via the Center for Mark Twain Studies, as a digital edition.