February 21 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam added a PS to his Feb. 20 to Gertrude Natkin:
Mr. Powlison has been here, & he is a charming man. Of course he persuaded me. The date is March 4, 3.30 p.m., at the Majestic Theatre. You & your mother will be shown to the box, as per the order which I sent you, & you will find Miss Lyon & her mother there. Mr. P. has to provide a clergyman to furnish respectability, & I will take care of the rest of the show myself.
I’m getting dreadfully late, & I’ve an engagement! Good-bye, you dear little friend [MTAq 14].
Note: Charles F. Powlison. When Van Dyke was not able to speak, Sam agreed to do so on the above date.
Sam also wrote to Sarah S. Collier (Mrs. Robert J. Collier):
Do you know, my dear, it has probably never happened before. Of course the materials have often been present under a roof, or the summer sky, but scattered among the mass, not isolated, not bunched. When two or three are gathered together (of those aspects,) it will be found that the Almighty, with all His advantages, is not likely to get there ahead of me. I am seventy, but I have never before seen three such beautiful girls concentrated in a space coverable by an umbrella—and bunched; no surrounding neutrality of commonplace faces & figures & gowns to reinforce & emphasize & exaggerate the effect [MTP].
Clemens’ A.D. for this day: Jervis Langdon just escapes being a railway magnate— Clemens’ dealings with Elisha Bliss, the publisher [AMT 1: 369-372].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Mr. Clemens enjoyed the Collier dinner last night. When I went to his room this morning he was full of glee over a darling little note he was writing to Mrs. Collier in code telling her how beautiful she & Mrs. Dooley & Mrs. Pulitzer were as they sat together on a couch when the men joined them after smoking. It is satisfying to see his enjoyment of beauty. He spoke of Jerome, who was there & said “he’s a handsome devil”—“and he’s a gentleman too, but when he talks he uses so much slang that you have to stop him & get him to translate, & there are plenty of profane words scattered nicely along.” When they joined those beautiful creatures,
Mr. “Jerome was sensible & sat down on a grizzly bear’s head in front of them”, but Mr. Clemens took Mrs. Sallie’s place on the couch, between Mrs. Dooley & Mrs. Pulitzer, so he could see only one beautiful profile at a time. (And to think of his own wonderful beauty, between those two young creatures, for he was a glory as he started out at 10 minutes before 8) [MTP TS 32-33].
Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote on Koy-Lo Co. letterhead to Sam.
I wired Vernon on Tuesday that you would prefer he should see Lauterbach and Baldwin next week, and I also wrote him confirming this and stating that you would not be a party to any negotiationsn in which Wheeler or Butters were mixed up [MTP]. Note: Ashcroft enclosed a copy of a note he’d sent to Edward Lauterbach and also a statement “of the money paid out by me during the last seven months of 1905. Please send me your check for the $289.90 when convenient”
Homer Croy wrote for the Savitar (Univ. of Mo. yearbook) to advise Sam that this year’s book would be dedicated to Mark Twain. They were expressing last year’s book and requested a photo for use plus a “little letter in longhand so that we can reproduce it” [MTP].
Mr. Powlison has been here, & he is a charming man. Of course he persuaded me. The date is March 4, 3.30 p.m., at the Majestic Theatre. You & your mother will be shown to the box, as per the order which I sent you, & you will find Miss Lyon & her mother there. Mr. P. has to provide a clergyman to furnish respectability, & I will take care of the rest of the show myself.
I’m getting dreadfully late, & I’ve an engagement! Good-bye, you dear little friend [MTAq 14].
Note: Charles F. Powlison. When Van Dyke was not able to speak, Sam agreed to do so on the above date.
Sam also wrote to Sarah S. Collier (Mrs. Robert J. Collier):
Do you know, my dear, it has probably never happened before. Of course the materials have often been present under a roof, or the summer sky, but scattered among the mass, not isolated, not bunched. When two or three are gathered together (of those aspects,) it will be found that the Almighty, with all His advantages, is not likely to get there ahead of me. I am seventy, but I have never before seen three such beautiful girls concentrated in a space coverable by an umbrella—and bunched; no surrounding neutrality of commonplace faces & figures & gowns to reinforce & emphasize & exaggerate the effect [MTP].
Clemens’ A.D. for this day: Jervis Langdon just escapes being a railway magnate— Clemens’ dealings with Elisha Bliss, the publisher [AMT 1: 369-372].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Mr. Clemens enjoyed the Collier dinner last night. When I went to his room this morning he was full of glee over a darling little note he was writing to Mrs. Collier in code telling her how beautiful she & Mrs. Dooley & Mrs. Pulitzer were as they sat together on a couch when the men joined them after smoking. It is satisfying to see his enjoyment of beauty. He spoke of Jerome, who was there & said “he’s a handsome devil”—“and he’s a gentleman too, but when he talks he uses so much slang that you have to stop him & get him to translate, & there are plenty of profane words scattered nicely along.” When they joined those beautiful creatures,
Mr. “Jerome was sensible & sat down on a grizzly bear’s head in front of them”, but Mr. Clemens took Mrs. Sallie’s place on the couch, between Mrs. Dooley & Mrs. Pulitzer, so he could see only one beautiful profile at a time. (And to think of his own wonderful beauty, between those two young creatures, for he was a glory as he started out at 10 minutes before 8) [MTP TS 32-33].
Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote on Koy-Lo Co. letterhead to Sam.
I wired Vernon on Tuesday that you would prefer he should see Lauterbach and Baldwin next week, and I also wrote him confirming this and stating that you would not be a party to any negotiationsn in which Wheeler or Butters were mixed up [MTP]. Note: Ashcroft enclosed a copy of a note he’d sent to Edward Lauterbach and also a statement “of the money paid out by me during the last seven months of 1905. Please send me your check for the $289.90 when convenient”
Homer Croy wrote for the Savitar (Univ. of Mo. yearbook) to advise Sam that this year’s book would be dedicated to Mark Twain. They were expressing last year’s book and requested a photo for use plus a “little letter in longhand so that we can reproduce it” [MTP].
Entry Date
Links to Twain's Geography Entries