Submitted by scott on

June 29 Monday – Sam and Albert Bigelow Paine left Redding and traveled to Boston, where they took rooms at the Touraine Hotel. Before they left,  Paine wrote a letter for Sam to Dorothy Quick, then followed it with a telegram and another letter. The first letter:

Mr Clemens asks me to write a line to you to say that we expect to leave here Thursday morning (8 am), for Redding, Mr Clemens’s new home. We shall reach South Norwalk in time to catch the same train that you would take, if you left N.Y. (Grand Central Station) at 12:03. Mr Clemens hopes that you will do this & bring your mother along, as it will be quite hard for him to come to the Grand Central, as was his first plan, and as Miss Lyon has no doubt written you. Now, if for any reason you cannot take the 12:00 train, or if your mother can’t come through with you, then please write first as soon as you get this and say just what you can do.

You can write to Mr Clemens at this Hotel [Hotel Touraine, Boston] & he will get it, if you write at once & put on a special stamp.

I shall also telegraph you tonight that I have written you about coming. Of course this letter takes the place of anything that Miss Lyon may have written or telephoned you, as we left her this morning early & did not change our plans until we got started.

Remember, the train that leaves the Grand Central at 12:03 for So Norwalk will meet our train there—that is, we will be waiting for you, there & all go to Redding together, & your mother is going to bring you & spend a day or two, if she can— / Yours truly /  A B Paine [MTP].

Then the telegram: “Have written you about Visit Please wait for letter / S. L. Clemens” [MTP].

And finally the third communication, a letter, repeating the first, for reasons Paine explained:

Mr Clemens has changed his mind about his return from Boston & asks me to say that he will leave here at eight o’clock Thursday morning & will reach South Norwalk in time to meet the train that leaves New York at 12:03 (noon) He hopes you will take that train, with your mother, & come to S. Norwalk, when you will change & take the Redding train. I am with Mr Clemens & we will be on the platform waiting for you & then we will all go up to Redding together— I wrote a letter a while ago, like this, to you, but I’m afraid I forgot to put on the name of your hotel, so am writing again. I have also sent a telegram to you to “wait for a letter.” Remember, you are to take the 12:03 train from the Grand Central, for Redding, via South Norwalk Conn. & we will meet you at the latter place, & your mother is to come for a day or two, if she can spare the time.

Write as soon as you get this & put on a spl stamp. Write to Mr Clemens, here c/o Touraine / Yours ever / A B Paine [MTP]. Note: evidently Dorothy could not make connections, but wrote she could come on Wednesday, July 8. See July 2 from Quick.

On this first day in Boston, Sam went to Dorothy Sturgis’ house but found no one at home [July 5 to Sturgis].

Isabel Lyon’s journal:  “Dorothy Harvey, Miss Martin” [MTP: IVL TS 54]. Note: Hellen Elizabeth Martin.

James M. Dodge for Link-Belt Co., Phila. wrote to Sam enclosing photographs (one remains in file) for him to enjoy again [MTP].

Day By Day Acknowledgment

Mark Twain Day By Day was originally a print reference, meticulously created by David Fears, who has generously made this work available, via the Center for Mark Twain Studies, as a digital edition.   

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