October 21 Wednesday – Sam went to New York City and attended a banquet for Lord Northcliffe at the Union Club, given by Leigh Hunt. He wrote of the evening in his Oct. 23. That excerpt:
I stopped over in New York, night before last, for a banquet to Lord Northcliff, given at the Union club by Leigh Hunt. I didn’t go until 10 P.M. & so it didn’t tire me.
There were only a hundred guests, & as I knew all of them, it was very pleasant. Old Chauncey Depew was there, & D. O. Mills & Pierrepont [sic] Morgan; & Laffan;—and, well, everybody including Mr. Rogers. I did not expect to go to a banquet for a year to come, but this was an exception, for Leigh Hunt is a special friend of mine [MTP] Note: See Oct. 23 for the rest of the letter. Lord Northcliffe (Alfred Harmsworth – 1865-1922) headed up the Harmsworth firm in London, which owned The Daily Mail, Evening News, Globe, Observer, and 35 other British publications [NY Times, Oct. 23 p. 4, “Pilgrims to Dine Lord Northcliffe”]. Leigh S.J. Hunt (1854-1933), educator and publisher who became a multi-millionaire by 1901 through tax-free gold mining concessions in Korea.
Since he did not go to the banquet until 10 p.m., it’s likely he stayed the night at the Wolcott Hotel before going on to Deal, N.J. the next day. It is the hotel he mentioned for his return trip to NYC on Oct. 24 to daughter Clara.
Miss Ethel Newcomb, pianist and past student of Theodor Leschetizksy ended her visit to Stormfield on this day [New guestbook].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: I went away this morning on the earliest train, to get away from the gloom that misunderstandings frequently put into my heart. As far as S. Norwalk I talked with Mr. Oddy, the man who struck burglar Williams over the head with a billy, and so saved the lives of 2 or 3 on the train that morning. Benares met me at the station—even at the train, and before I had time to banish my glooms, they were written all over my face—but he scattered them. And all day he wouldn’t leave me; he even came down with me and we drove home in the twilight, along these darling roads and through the woods, made so stately by their naked trees. We had a most lovely evening. We got an electrical vibrating machine for the King, in N.Y., and tested it on me and on him—Benar—and he read aloud to me. Benar is a very wonderful man [MTP: IVL TS 74]. Note: Skandera-Trombley made a reference to the vibrating machine as a “sex toy” and “gift” from Lyon, to which Robert Hirst replied forcefully in a post for the online Mark Twain Forum, May 2010: “That Clemens would have recognized the vibrator as a potential sex toy is entirely Laura Skandera-Trombley’s idea; and since Skandera- Trombley specifies that it was a sex toy “for women,” its meaning as a putative present to Clemens would be deeply puzzling.” For more, see the MTP’s rebuttal which claims the device was “osteopathic and not masurbatory,” see Benjamin Griffin’s excellent article in the UC Press blog: “Mark Twain: His Own Devices.” http://www.ucpress.edu/blog/9857/mark-twain-his- own-devices/
H. Walter Barnett wrote to Lyon (though catalogued to Clemens) [MTP].
F.S. Griffen wrote from Brookfield Center, Conn. sending a block for a quilt she wished Clemens to sign. The quilt was to be for St. Paul’s church [MTP].
Henry Hersch Hart wrote from San Francisco doubting that the autograph he recently rec’d was indeed that of Samuel Clemens; could he get one in “Clemens’ own name”? [MTP]. Note: “ans. Nov. 3 MLH”
Ezekiel Leavitt for The Time, a New Haven Jewish weekly wrote again to Sam about translating his Autobiography into Yiddish and Russian; as directed he would contact Harpers. He then asked for “two favors”: Sam’s “testimony” on Leavitt’s book Songs of Grief and Gladness which he’d sent, and a date when he might call at Redding to talk over the translation “and many other things” [MTP]. Note: “Ans. Oct 23 / 08 MLH”