August 26 Monday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam began a letter to Dorothy Quick he finished Aug. 27.
At last, you dear little tardy rascal! This morning I was going to stick up a notice on the back porch:
LOST CHILD!
Answers to the name of Dorothy.
Strayed, Stolen or Mislaid.
DISAPPEARED
On or about the 9th of August.
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Anyone restoring this inestimably precious asset to the SORROWING will be richly REWARDED!
—and right away this evening comes your letter, & takes every bit of the uneasiness out of me! I had gone to bed, but Miss Lyon brought it anyway, because she knew I would break her furniture & throw all her things out of the window if she delayed it till morning.
Very well. You have been having good times; so I am satisfied, & will go to sleep now. But wait! Where is that picture of you & me? You have forgotten it, dear, but I must have it [MTAq 57].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Luncheon with Mrs. Clinton at the Club, with Mrs. Corthwait (I think that’s the name) and the Ronaldses and the Deacons. We sat on the porch and chattered, only the King and Mrs. Deacon talked, but they were at one side. We walked home and were tired, oh so tired. So the King went to his room and to sleep and I to mine and to sleep. Again I had a solitary dinner. But after it was over I went to the King’s room with a letter from Dorothy Q. [Quick] which he enjoyed and loved and then he talked for an hour and a half, smoking slowly and constantly. He was speaking of the power of breaking away from a habit and said that when he was a cub pilot he made up his mind not to chew tobacco any longer. He had the plug in his pocket, and he didn’t throw it away and so burn his bridges behind him. No—he kept the plug in his pocket until it was in a powder, and he never chewed again. He said probably some outside influence was the cause of his reform. Then he decided to stop smoking, once when he was a young man in Keokuk, I should say, and he was firm in his resolve until he decided to resume again. Then just before he married he stopped again. Mr. Langdon had said that if he would stop smoking that he would give them a holiday in Europe at his expense but Mr. Clemens said no—he wouldn’t be under pledge to anyone. But he stopped smoking and didn’t resume for more than a year. Then he began to write “Roughing It” and wrote the first 6 chapters in agony. He knew what he wanted to say, but could not say it. Suddenly he realized what the trouble was and taking one of the cigars that lay near at hand he lit it and the thoughts began to flow into words. The words he wanted. Mrs. Clemens felt badly to see him smoking again; but he made up his mind that he would never again break the habit, for it would be because “invisible manacles” were placed about his wrists and that he could never stand [MTP TS 93-94]. Note: See Dorothy’s letter below.
Samuel Byrne wrote to ask Sam if he had sailed from NY to California on Apr. 11, 1859 via Panama [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Answd. Sept. 4”; and “No I never sailed from NY for any port until eleven years later than that date”
Edward W. Foster for Home-Coming Week for Tennessee wrote to invite Sam to attend ceremonies any time from Sept. 23 to 28, since the Clemens family had Tenn.connections [MTP].
Archibald Henderson wrote a three-page, single-spaced typed letter to Sam, full of summaries of contemporary philosophers. He began:
I hope that by this time you have recovered from the effects of the magnificent ovation that was given you in England. Is it not Goethe who says that when a man becomes truly great, the world does everything it can to prevent him from doing other great things—with its receptions, dinners, and diversions of a thousand different kinds?
Henderson then disclosed he’d read Sam’s What is Man? Observing that George Bernard Shaw agreed with Clemens—that “a man never does a single thing which has any first and foremost object but one—to secure peace of mind, spiritual comfort, for himself…” He continues to discuss Nietzsche, Ibsen and Shaw on this point, and closes with:
It has been a great privilege to read your book, and to find that you have given explicit expression to the most fecund philosophic conceptions of this age. You have made perfectly concrete many notions which are only implicit in certain great works of modern art. And your Admonition is beyond praise: “Diligently train your ideas upward and still upward toward a summit where you will find your chiefest pleasure in conduct which, while contenting you, will be sure to confer benefits upon your neighbor and the community” [MTP].
Charles J. Langdon wrote to Sam enclosing draft for $66.50 “in payment of your one-third share of the rent on the Erie Basin property, Buffalo.” He added a personal note: “I am getting desperately hungry to see you and sit down and have a visit with you. Julie has the same feeling and wishes you were where we could get at you more easily” [MTP].
Dorothy Quick wrote from East Rockaway, Long Island to Sam.
I have just gotten your letter I have been watching for it every mail the butterflys are grand I think I like your kind best because they don have to die still I am very proud of my collection and I hope I can get some more when I come back Oh please Mr Clemens try and keep the little baby rabbits I love them so much it will be such fun to see them play around the flower beds We will take thier pictures yesterday I went on my first real picnic we went on a lovely sail boat the gentlemen got off and dug clams then we sailed up the beach and they got off again and cooked the clams while we got the lunch ready it was such fun of course I didint like the clams I never like anything other people think is fine it seems to me but I enjoyed the picnic and had a very find day we left at ten and returned at eight oclock I shall spend my birthday here. / …. [MTAq 55-6]. Note: her birthday was Sept. 1. She also told of crying when she read The Dog’s Tale; and of arrangements for her next visit.