Submitted by scott on
January 18 Thursday – Sam was a pallbearer for John Malone, actor, who died on Jan. 15. The funeral took place at the Church of St. Francis Xavier on W. 16 Street. Requiem mass was celebrated by the Rev. Father Van Rensselaer. A large group from The Players attended. Other pall bearers were: Barton Hill, Daniel Frohman, J.H. Benrimo, Jacob Wendell, Jr., T.J. Hallowell, Charles Harvey Genung, and David A. Munro [NY Times, Jan. 19, 1906, p. 11, “Funeral of Actor John Malone”]. See also Nov. 16, 1898 to Malone.

Sam had replied to an invitation from Grace Kiddes Ford on Jan. 15 that he was “already booked” for this evening; no evidence of an engagement for Jan. 18 was found [MTP].

Clemens’ A.D. for this day involved: Senator Benjamin Ryan Tillman (1847-1918) speaks of Morris case—Funeral of John Malone contrasted with funeral of Empress of Austria, leads up to dueling [AMT 1: 292-294; see also p. 567 on Tillman].

Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Mr. Clemens was pallbearer for John Malone this morning. He came home from the funeral with a weight over him, and it came out that Mr. Paine had inadvertently repeated a little remark that Mr. Clemens had made during the dictation about John Malone and it game galloping back in garbled forms. Of course it seemed a breach of confidence . Mr. Paine came up to tell me about it & he said it would have been so much easier for him if Mr. Clemens had given him a good cursing, but he didn’t, he was sweet. The days have been rushingly busy for Mr. Clemens, and he seems tired in spirit and body. Tonight Barry Faulkner took me to Gonfarone’s on Seventh Ave. for dinner, where we were joined by Witter Bynner. It was a delight to hear those 2 lads cheer each other on over each others very bright remarks and Bynner had a little notebook that he’d pull out to put down Barry’s brilliances in. We walked home and they jumped me over the puddles. They’re darling boys. Barry has a picture at Knoedlers and Bynner is writing a play. McClure has got Howard Pyle away from Harper’s and I’m sorry. Sorry for Harper’s. Bynner said that Col. Harvey is being much criticised for giving the kind of dinner that he did for Mr. Clemens on his 70th birthday, for it was shameful to sacrifice Mr. Clemens to what is regarded as a great advertisement for Harper’s [MTP TS 14- 15].

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.