February 6 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Willam Dean Howells, Finley Peter Dunne, and George B. Harvey. He wanted to form “The Damned Human Race Club”: The Human Race will meet at the above address on St. Valentine’s Feb. 15 at 1.15 p.m. This club consists of 4 members—to-wit:
Dooley [Peter Dunne]
Howells
Harvey
Clemens
Officers:
President pro tem—Clemens
Invitation Committee—Harvey
Hon. Sec. – – – Miss Lyon.
The President pro tem. hopes that all the membership will be present.
I.V. Lyon, Hon. Sec. [MTP; not in MTHL]. Note: the club never managed to fully convene:
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/Exhibits/mtatplay/sociallife/clubman.html
By order—
In Mark Sullivan’s memoir, he spoke of the chumminess between Richard J. Collier, Norman Hapgood and Peter Dunne that led to the formation of the G.D.H.R, the “God Damned Human Race Club”:
There was close friendship between Mark and three of the Colliers’ coterie, Hapgood, Robert Collier and Peter Dunne. Dunne was the only person I ever heard call Clemens “Mark’ to his face, though all of us, a generation younger, spoke of him among ourselves as “Old Mark.” Hapgood, Mark had taken into his circle as a family friend; Dunne he had taken in as a fellow humorist, one of whom Mark respected; Collier he took in as a young man he liked. Collier told me that after some early contacts Mark had said to him: “You look to me like a promising young fellow; if you continue to improve on acquaintance I’ll invite you to become a member of my club.” To Collier’s questions, Mark said the name of it was the G.D.H.R. Club, but the meaning of the initials Mark said he would not tell until he was satisfied that Collier was qualified to be a satisfactory member. The full name of the club, it turned out, was the God Damned Human Race; and the revelation of the name was occasion for Mark to blow off to a friend a bitterness which an honored author must not reveal to the public. “The God damned human race,” he would say, “look at them!” Watch a crowd of them coming out of a subway station, potbellied, snaggle-toothed; compare them to horses; compare them to collie dogs” [The Education of an American 231].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Today the King went up to call on Mrs. Mary Rogers” [MTP TS 27].
Frederick Palmer wrote from NYC to invite Sam to a dinner next door to Sam at the Brevoort Hotel on Feb. 11 at 7:30 p.m. Frederick McCormick, “who was with the Russian army from the start to the finish of the war, and myself, are to give a dinner to Robert Collins who was my tent-mate on the Japanese side in the Manchurian campaign. The occasion is Mr Collins’ departure to take charge of the Associated Press Bureau in London” [MTP]. Note: Editiorial emphasis. After this date Sam gave instructions to Lyon: “If you will let him come in at nine or 9.30 I would like to be there”
James DeConlay, Jr., a roving correspondent of the Australasian Press and temporarily in NYC, wrote to ask if he might meet Mark Twain [MTP].
M.C.B. Hart wrote from NYC to Lyon, to thank Sam for autographing “the book and photograph” [MTP].
John Y. W. MacAlister wrote to Sam. “Fisher Unwin is bringing out a History of the Savage Club, and is anxious to have an authentic record of your connection with it…they want to know about your first visit, somewhere in the seventies…” [MTP].
Frank A. Munsey & Co. wrote on “The Scrap Book” letterhead, NYC, to ask Sam his opinion of “the greatest figures in American history” [MTP].
J.A. Nolan wrote on New York Electric Music Co. letterhead to Sam. “Please find enclosed contracts for Telharmonic music sent you at the suggestion of a friend” [MTP]. Note: Sam had engaged the company to pipe music through his telephone for his prior New Year’s Eve party, and was quite taken with the technology.