February 10 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: All day the King has been playing with Dorothy, & when she left this afternoon he went upstairs quite lonely, but tired too & so he slept. I was having a long interview with a Dr. Beal who is a friend of the Col. Ingersoll family and surreptitiously he is trying to interest some rich people to buy the house Mrs. Ingersoll is now living in. And the man told me how he had been the one to start the fund for Mr. Clemens when he met with his failure through the Webster Company. Beall spoke of it as a smart thing to have done, & I said, “But of course neither Mr. nor Mrs. Clemens could consent to that, etc.” Such a long winded creature.
Tonight after I had played the Tannhauser overture to Mr. Clemens & he said in the front room he said that little Margaret Blackmer asked Miss Wallace if Mr. Clemens were married and when she said no, the child said that if she were Mr. Clemens’s wife she would never leave him an instant, but would take care of him and watch him & look after his comforts always [MTP: IVL TS 19-20].
Harry Brook for the Los Angeles Times Mirror wrote to send Sam a copy of his 70th birthday speech from yesterday’s paper. For 30 years he’d been told he looked like Twain. He offered a page of his personal history and enclosed his photograph and asked for Sam’s photo [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Thanks for letter. / Has a photograph etc”
Herweigh von Ende wrote from NYC to ask Sam for “an hour of your time in the near future” to gain his opinion on “an educational matter” [MTP]. Note: staff note in the file asks why this, dated only Feb. 10, is 1908.
Jervis Langdon II wrote to arrange for Sam and Andrew Carnegie to visit the St. James Church, NYC sometime this week or next to hear the new Hope-Jones organ just installed [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Name the date & telegraph me so that I an see if it will meet Carnegie’s convenience”
Jennie Pomerene for the College Women’s Club, NY wrote to invite Sam to their annual benefit on Feb. 10 [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “My engagements cover that day very strongly—you can express regret but not grief”
February 10 Monday ca. – Bridget W. Guinness (Mrs. Benjamin S. Guinness) wrote to Sam, replying to Clara’s recital invitation [MTP].