February 12 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to the Jan. 16 from Eden Phillpotts about Phillpotts’ proposed book dedication to Mark Twain:  

My dear friend: / Indeed there is not a single syllable to be altered. The dedication pleases me “to the limit”—it could not be improved. I am anticipating a good time in the society of that book.

I have been disputing with bronchitis again, but I went down to Bermuda & quickly settled it my way. / Always & cordially yours ~ SL. Clemens [MTP]. Note: See Jan. 1 to and Jan. 16  from Phillpots, and also Sam’s reply when the book, The Human Boy Again, arrived.

Sam’s A.D.  

I suppose we are all collectors, and I suppose each of us thinks that his fad is a more rational one that any of the others. Pierpont Morgan collects rare and precious works of art and pays millions per year for them; an old friend of mine, a Roman prince, collects and stores up in hi palace in Rome every kind of strange and odd thing he can find in the several continents and archipelagos, and as a side issue—a pastime, and unimportant—he collected four hundred thousand dollars’ worth of postage-stamps. Other collectors collect rare books, at war prices, which they don’t read, and which they wouldn’t value if a page were lacking. Still other collectors collect menus; still others collect playbills; still others collect ancient andirons. As for me, I collect pets: young girls—girls from ten to sixteen years old; girls who are pretty and sweet and naive and innocent—dear young creatures to whom life is a perfect joy and to whom it has brought no wounds, no bitterness, and few tears. My collection consists of gems of the first water [MTAq xvii]. Note: also from the A.D. of this day (not in Cooley) Sam reviewed his trip to Bermuda with regrets he had not taken Livy there instead of Italy: “…for climate Florence was a sarcasm as compared with Bermuda.”  

Isabel Lyon’s journal: Col. Harvey came in this morning, & toted the King off for luncheon with Mrs. Clarence Mackay. I stayed with him while he finished his dressing & seeing that he hadn’t fastened his trousers, told him so. Darlingly he cocked his head at me & said, “I don’t always; but since you’re so particular I’ll do it this time.” He went along with the Colonel & had a very good time.

Now he is playing billiards with Mr. Riggs.

We’ve been sending notices to the Times & other papers of Santa’s big musicale tomorrow, and then I peeped in to see a tired monarch with exquisitely chiseled features & a cigar between his teeth & that beautiful head nestling against his pillows and Quackenbores [sic] book on Natural Philosophy in his hands.

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Feb 12—At the King’s request I wrote Mrs. Thayer to ask if she would send down the letters the King wrote her many years ago just after the Quaker City Expedition, for the King & Paine to see. Copies can be made there or here. Every day I am reminded of all the Thayers for by my desk is a framed photograph of the beautiful woman, picture that is in the Metropolitan Museum. However could Mr. Thayer express so marvelously the strong, yet warm woman that he gives us in that picture. She is the comforter of women and men, for in a supremest agony I could put my head against that heart & find Solace [MTP: IVL TS 20-21]. Note: George Payn Quackenbos (1848-1881). A Natural Philosophy, etc. (1899) [Gribben 565].