August 6 Thursday – Paine writes of Sam’s reaction to Samuel Moffett’s death:

Clemens was fond and proud of his nephew. Returning from the funeral, he was much depressed, and a day or two later became really ill. He was in bed for a few days, resting, he said, after the intense heat of the journey. Then he was about again and proposed billiards as a diversion. We were all alone one very still, warm August afternoon playing, when he suddenly said:

      “I feel a little dizzy; I will sit down a moment.”

      I brought him a glass of water and he seemed to recover, but when he rose and started to play I thought he had a dazed look. He said:

      “I have lost my memory. I don’t know which is my ball. I don’t know what game we are playing.”

      But immediately this condition passed, and we thought little of it, considering it merely a phase of biliousness due to his recent journey. I have been told since, by eminent practitioners, that it was the first indication of a more serious malady [MTB 1458-9].

Note: See Aug. 9 to Jean and Aug. 12 to Crane. Also, in his Aug. 12 To Emilie Rogers, Sam wrote he was “threatened with a swoon, 10 or 12 days ago, & went to New York a day or two later to attend my nephew’s funeral…” which places Paine’s above account of Sam being dazed after returning from New York in question; Was there more than one such episode? Or, if only one, it seems more likely that Sam’s “swoon” and Paine’s account of “dazed” took place sometime between July 31 to Aug. 2.

In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Emilie R. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers).

Dear Mrs. Rogers:

Yes, it is as you say: I am perfectly contented with my new home, perfectly delighted with it; & I realize that I haven’t had a real home, until now, since we left the Hartford one 17 years ago. It is a long, long time to be homeless. I can hardly bear to go a mile from this one; that is the reason I haven’t been to Fairhaven, though I have longed to go there. It was always lonesome & home-sicky in New York, with Clara & Jean seldom in sight & no guests but 2-hour & 3- hour luncheonites & dinnerites, but is not lonesome here. The friends come & bring a trunk, & stay from two days to eight. Already we have had 21 in the 7 weeks that I have been here, & the guestrooms are fast being taken for August & September. The distance from New York is so easy that the friends do not mind the journey. I wish you & Mr. Rogers had elected to come here for a few weeks’ rest, for this is the very quietest place outside the dungeon of St. Peter & St. Paul; no strangers, no crowds, no fashion, only one neighbor within three-quarters of a mile —Miss Lyon’s mother. Whereas it ain’t so where you are, in the mountains, & of course you can’t rest there. I guess the Clam-bake would be a very pleasant thing, with uncle Henry for company, but I shan’t be able to go, because friends will arrive on the 26th & 28th to stay several days, & the Clam-bake is to take place on the 25th.

I saw Will Coe at 26 Broadway yesterday, & he has engaged to come with his wife later in the season; & Miss Harrison promised also. I was down there to attend the funeral of my nephew, Samuel E. Moffett, who was drowned in the sight of his little son, & also in sight of his wife. It is the most heart-broken family I have seen in years. Sam left $30,000 or $40,000 accident insurance, but no other property of consequence; & as the body had no water in the lungs, it is claimed that he died not by accident but by apoplexy, a natural disease, brought on by fright caused by the turbulent seas. Robert Collier & I took measures to do what can be done to contest that curious view.

Col. Harvey & David Munro came up with me yesterday to stay overnight, but they like it here & are not going back until tomorrow. This was the place for you; still I am aware that Poland Spring is next best, & I hope you will soon be as well & strong as ever you were.

With love to you both & best wishes, … [MTHHR 650-1].

Redding neighbors, Miss Ida M. Tarbell & Miss Jeannette Gilder, came to luncheon with Sam, George B. Harvey and David Munro [Aug. 10 to Quick]. Sam’s new guestbook:

Name Address Date Remarks

Jeannette L. Gilder Redding Ridge       August 6  {The Big Four }

Ida M. Tarbell Easton  –    –          “        “

Colonel George Harvey Deal Beach, N.J.          “        “ |  6-   {They lunched with us 7

David A. Munro Editor North Am. Review          “        “ |  {

      Note: none of the above names were in the original guestbook.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: Miss Tarbell and Miss Jeanette Gilder were here for luncheon today. Paine came too. It was pleasant company and the King approves of those 2 fine old girls. They love the house with its mellow colorings, its “mouth watering” colorings, as Jeannette Gilder calls it. But the King was only half the King, for he was tired. At dinner he was so silent that several times I spoke to him to see if he were conscious. He dropped like a leaden man on the couch after dinner, and then at the Colonel’s suggestion they played and played billiards. I hovered near the room in great anxiety, for I could see that the King was ailing and then I made the game stop and we came up for bed. Just as I was getting in, there came a groan from the King’s room, and I sped wrapperless to him to find him staggering and vomiting in the bathroom. It was a terrible experience. I called the Colonel’s valet to fetch the Colonel. But all night, after we got the King to bed, I could not sleep, and at every little sound from his room I would go in to find him lying like a sick and restless baby; but he had no fever. Nobody knows what happened to David Munro, but anyway he came into my room in the middle of the night. I think he was drunk, for his pajama coat was open, showing his hairy chest, and he didn’t seem to know which way to go in his embarrassment. At a quarter before seven, I heard the King go into David’s room and say, “Well I did have a clearing out.” And then I went to the King and found him lighting a pipe and feeling as fresh and looking as sweet as a baby. In the afternoon AB told me that the King had a faint spell 10 days ago while they were playing billiards [MTP: IVL TS 56-57].

Hill writes and quotes from Isabel Lyon’s diary:

In August 1908 the “sunstroke” that Clemens suffered at the funeral of Samuel Moffett produced in Miss Lyon a response that was distinctly proprietary in its sense of dedication. She wrote in her diary that on August 6, 1908

Thursday evening Col. Harvey and I had a talk about a literary executor for the King and I told him how nearly Paine had called that for himself. Now Col. Harvey is to do the editing of the Biog. Benares [Ashcroft] and I have a moral obligation now in looking after the King. I shall not leave him for an hour unless Benares or another as good is here to look after him, and together we must uphold him in our spiritual arms. The plan was for me to take Jean to Germany, but I must not go away from the King, ever. He is too wonderful [Hill 207-8; MTP IVL TS 58-59]. Note: Lyon wrote this on Aug. 8 referring to Aug. 6; Hill’s emendations are removed to display the exact text of IVL’s journal.