June 3 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
The morning bed-talks are vastly interesting. I go into Mr. Clemens’s room a little before 9, after he has finished his breakfast. I make a good audience for him to talk against in order to get himself into the dictating swing. The day has passed long since when he discovered he couldn’t sting me by his tirades against the superstitions of the church & his disgust at those who worship “a tarbaby of a Jesus Christ” or the “dangling carcass of a virgin”, so he lets his speech flow freely on those subjects.
Tonight after dinner when we were talking about fleas & how they never trouble him, he curled up in a splendid spasm of laughter, & then when he unwound himself he told of how when they were traveling in the Holy Land 40 years ago, he bought a pipe & some vile native tobacco from an old woman in Nain. They did some of their journeying by night to avoid the heat, & as they were jogging along he at the head of the procession, he lit that pipe & as the smoke rolled over his shoulder, one after another of the 6 other pilgrims rolled down from their horses, sickened by the vile smoke & he has never recovered from the fun of seeing their misery. He laughed his great hearty laugh, as he sat by the window, stamping his feet on the floor & bending his white head to his white knees in a joy which never diminished [MTP TS 77-78]. Note: entries for June 3, 6, and part of 7 have X’s across from margin to margin, as if the entries were judged unsuitable in some way, possibly for publication.
Richard R. Bowker wrote from Stockbridge, Mass. to Sam.
“The stage is well set—Senate and House Committees together, Library of Congress Sen. Reading Room—for the copyright hearing Wed. June 6 at 10, and we hope you can take a central place, health permitting, speaking especially as to the life-and-fifty-years term. The bill th is very good, tho not all that all want” [MTP].
The morning bed-talks are vastly interesting. I go into Mr. Clemens’s room a little before 9, after he has finished his breakfast. I make a good audience for him to talk against in order to get himself into the dictating swing. The day has passed long since when he discovered he couldn’t sting me by his tirades against the superstitions of the church & his disgust at those who worship “a tarbaby of a Jesus Christ” or the “dangling carcass of a virgin”, so he lets his speech flow freely on those subjects.
Tonight after dinner when we were talking about fleas & how they never trouble him, he curled up in a splendid spasm of laughter, & then when he unwound himself he told of how when they were traveling in the Holy Land 40 years ago, he bought a pipe & some vile native tobacco from an old woman in Nain. They did some of their journeying by night to avoid the heat, & as they were jogging along he at the head of the procession, he lit that pipe & as the smoke rolled over his shoulder, one after another of the 6 other pilgrims rolled down from their horses, sickened by the vile smoke & he has never recovered from the fun of seeing their misery. He laughed his great hearty laugh, as he sat by the window, stamping his feet on the floor & bending his white head to his white knees in a joy which never diminished [MTP TS 77-78]. Note: entries for June 3, 6, and part of 7 have X’s across from margin to margin, as if the entries were judged unsuitable in some way, possibly for publication.
Richard R. Bowker wrote from Stockbridge, Mass. to Sam.
“The stage is well set—Senate and House Committees together, Library of Congress Sen. Reading Room—for the copyright hearing Wed. June 6 at 10, and we hope you can take a central place, health permitting, speaking especially as to the life-and-fifty-years term. The bill th is very good, tho not all that all want” [MTP].
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