July 8 Monday – Ashcroft’s notes: “Lunched with Plasmon directors at Bath Club. Dined privately at C.F. Moberly Bell’s” [MTB 1399]. From Sam’s A.D. of Aug. 30, 1907:
The luncheon with the Plasmon Directors was a business matter, and of a mutually congratulatory sort. Seven years ago I assisted in founding the Plasmon Company; I took five thousand pounds of its stock and paid par for it; it is worth eighty thousand dollars now, and will soon be worth more. Several years ago an American Plasmon Company was started, and in a little while was robbed, skinned, and reduced to bankruptcy by its own Board of Directors, one of whom—Henry A. Butters, a sharper hailing from Long Valley, California—swindled me out of my investment in it, amounting to thirty-two thousand dollars [MTFWE 94].
At Brown’s Hotel in London Sam wrote to Lady Augusta Gregory, expressing thanks and regrets:
I thank you ever so much for the little book of Saints & Wonders; it was most kind of you to show me by this token that you have not forgotten me.
My time is engaged up to the hour of my homeward departure next Saturday or I would go to Ireland. Good friends of mine, Lord & Lady Aberdeen, invited me by telegraph, June 26th; & to my deep regret I could not accept, because, even so early as that, all my days were mortgaged…. [MTP].
Note: A Book of Saints and Wonders Put Down Here by Lady Gregory According to the Old Writings and the Memory of the People of Ireland (1906); this edition was only 100 pages; the 1907 ed. was 212 pages; undoubtedly, then, Sam had been given the 1906 edition, of which only 200 copies were issued.
Sam also inscribed a photograph of himself taken by H. Walter Barnett to Lady Georgiana Llangattoch: “To Lady Llangattoch, with the homage & best wishes of Mark Twain. July 8/07.” [MTP: Argosy Book Stores catalogs, No. 329, Item 498]. Note: also Langattock.
Sam also wrote to Carlotta Welles.
Didn’t I say you were a little rascal! Didn’t I say it a dozen times? You wouldn’t believe it then, but you believe it now. The idea of your playing jokes on an innocent old dilapidation that had such unlimited confidence in you! Well, it only shows that there are all sorts of criminals in this world; but never never never would I have taken you for one, Charlie dear.
However it did please me—your instinct was right. And you were right again in supposing I was troubled: I was; for I was not absolutely sure that you were the joker, therefore in making the charge I might be in error & you might not like it—then I should be sorry & ashamed; & not just a little ashamed, but a good deal. For there’s nothing that bites & blisters a smarty’s vanity like getting caught in the act of being over-smart—oh, yes, as I know by experience!
I am leaving London for home next Saturday the 13th. Be a good child, & send me a good-bye per post, you convicted little rascal! [MTAq 42-3].
F.I. Baker for the England Anti-Vivisection Society wrote to Sam, enclosing a “Resolution” which praised Clemens for “A Dog’s Tale” [MTP].
London Daily Mirror sent a telegram to Mark Twain, Brown’s Hotel: “May we safely contradict the rumour that your presence in Europe and the robbery of the jewels in Dublin are not a mere coincidence” [MTP].
Edith Day wrote from her school in Germany to Sam. She was alone and reading TA and was lonely and homesick. Would he send his photo? [MTP].
John A. Kirlicks wrote from Houston, Tex. to Sam, enclosing a poem, “Mark Twain,” for which he’d met dead ends trying to have published [MTP].
Sidney Lee wrote from Kensington, N.W. to Sam, thanking him for calling on Saturday and was sorry he was away. He was leaving a photo of “our procession at Oxford”—could he exchange it for a signed one of Twain? [MTP].
George M. McLean wrote from Leicester, England to ask Sam for “a brief message” which he could include in his lecture of July 14 at Victoria Road Church, on “The Union Jack” [MTP].
David MacLaren Morrison wrote from London, as a “Brother Savage” to send “a little book I wrote some time ago,” Life’s Prescription [MTP]. Note: not in Gribben.
H.L. Simmonds wrote from Liverpool to Sam. On his annual business trip from Calif., Simmonds asked about a sign in the window of a shop on Luci Street opposite St. Luke’s Church: “Dyers & Clemens to His Majesty.” He understood why he and Sam had to get their pants cleaned but could not understand why King Edward would [MTP].
Godfrey Scott Smith wrote from Lancashire to Sam: “You made a very sympathetic reference to Mrs. Ewing in your speech at the Savage Club on Saturday.” Smith was her nephew, and thanked him. He asked if Sam could subscribe (donate) funds toward his parish [MTP]. Note: Juliana Horatia Ewing (1841-1885), English writer of children’s stories. Fatout mistakenly identifies the “English authoress, well known in her day” as “Possibly Anna Sewell (1820- 1878) [MT Speaking 576]. This reference to the July 6 Savage club speech corrects the reference, unless Smith was mistaken.
Mrs. K. Suart wrote from London to ask Sam if he might spare ten minutes for a “little country woman from the Mississippi, brought up on a plantation” [MTP].
Newton Wallop wrote from London to Sam: “I presume I ought to hasten to bid you farewell. For with the disappearance of not only the Ascot Cup but the Irish Regalia I imagine you will be disappearing too!! Portsmouth” [MTP].
W. Holt White of the Daily Express, London wrote to ask if their photographer, Mr. Barry could shoot the Ascot Cup, “which was presented to you by the Savage Club on Saturday night? We guarantee that Mr. Barry will not steal it!” [MTP].
Ludwig Zissler wrote from London to ask Sam for “a few minutes” of his time—it wasn’t for money or an autograph, but Zissler didn’t specify the reason [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: It was a trial of a journey. All night in a rocking, banging, jolting sleeper and out of it at 6:25 this morning to take the day coach for Boston where we expect to arrive by 9:10, after traveling through a wearying country: the lumber country of Maine. Since leaving New Brunswick we haven’t seen a human who isn’t a “down Easter”—and the day is a long one. Now we are planning for Santa to stay in Boston where Will and Katie will join her and I will go on to my dear duties in N.Y. and Tuxedo.
4:15—Now we are traveling along the lovely Kennebec which is mainly a logging river now, and its surface is thick with slain trees. Logging camps are scattered along the shores, and groups of men out in midstream run along the tops of the logs and shift them into groups. The simplicity of the people is far removed from anything I have ever seen in America [MTP 81- 82]. Note: “Will” was Charles E. Wark, Clara’s accompanist.