December 9 Wednesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam replied to the Dec. 2 of Charles Hopkins Clark.
“a speech to be made on any occasion & on any subject. I remember the p.a.s. but I haven’t any idea where I made it, if I made it, or where it was printed. It must have been printed for I had several examples of it” [MTP]. Note: evidently Clark was looking for a copy of Twain’s “Patent Adjustable Speech,” given at the Yale Alumni Association Banquet on Feb. 6, 1889. His speech was published as “Yale College Speech” [Fatout MT Speaking 235-7].
Sam also wrote to Frances Nunnally.
They will celebrate John Milton this afternoon in New York; & now, when it is too late, I wish I had accepted—which I didn’t, because I was sure I hadn’t anything to say about John that I dearly & particularly wanted to say. But it is different, now: all of a sudden I am full of things I want to say about him; full of things I want to put into Howell’s mouth & then refute them & handle Howells without gloves for saying them. I mourn, I mourn, you dear sweet Francesca, I mourn! for now that is going to be a solemn & sombre function, & I would have lifted some of that cloud from it & let in the sunshine.
Yes, I mourn; for Howells will be the only red Oxford there in all that pack of black gowns, & will have that splendid conspicuousness all to himself; whereas if I could only be there I would get in front of him where nobody could see him, & do all the showing-off myself.
There’ll be a full complement of week-enders arriving here day after to-morrow: Howells, Col. Harvey, Ashcroft, & Margaret Blackmer & her mother. If you were coming too, I should be very glad: I would give you my room & I would sleep on the couch in Clara’s parlor, or in her chicken-coop outside of her windows. Then you could select your tree, down at the pergola. No member of the now sacred group has been consecrated yet—all the 12 stand nameless, for there’s been no angel-fish on the premises since I devoted that cluster to the Aquarium. Margaret will be the first to choose a tree.
The framed enlargement hangs in the billiard room now, & looks really good, though not as good as its neighbor the Atlanta picture, which is incomparable; it is the finest triumph of photography in the house.
No indeed, I shan’t forget about your graduation; & also I shall keep you reminded of Easter.
An hour later. The morning mail is in. The Colonel is caught out & can’t come this week: he has to speak at a dinner to Carnegie. I had told him he must be sure to come, or Howells would get off at Syracuse or Peoria or somewhere around there & get lost, but he says Howells is 72 & must learn to take care of himself before he gets old.
Note from Howells. He can’t come till Saturday, then he will stay till Wednesday, if permitted. He does not believe there is a Lexington avenue station, but will take a taxicab & hunt for it & see. I know he is going to get lost, & we shall never see him again.
Good-bye‘ you dear Francesca— / S L C
[enclosure, a photograph of SLC with Lyon and Ashcroft, inscribed as follows:]
Showing off.
Affectionate greetings from this triangle, or trilogy, or whatever its right name is [MTP; MTAq 240-1].
Note: Cooley provides: “The event was the three hundredth anniversary of John Milton’s birth, celebrated at the Church of the Ascension in New York on 9 December 1908. The rector, Percy Grant, provided the sermon, and Howells and others presented readings and tributes” [241n1].
Sam wrote to New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad requesting a flag stop at Redding for the 3:32 train out of NYC. Sam’s letter is not extant but referred to in the Railroad’s Dec. 12 reply.
Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam to Valdemar Thoresen.
Dear Sir: Mr. Clemens directs me to write for him in reply to your letter in regard to the similarity between “Tom Sawyer, Detective,” and “The Vicar of Wellby.” [sic Veilby] Mr. Clemens is not familiar with Danish and does not read German fluently, and has not read the book you mention, nor any translation or adaptation of it that he is aware of. The matter constituting “Tom Sawyer, Detective,” is original with Mr. Clemens, who has never been consciously a plagiarist. You may therefore deny most authoritatively that this or any other matter that has appeared under Mr. Clemens’s name is based upon the work of any other [MTP: NY Times, 2 Feb. 1910].
Pieter Bausch wrote from Amsterdam to Sam [MTP].
Note: the text of this letter ran in Harper’s Weekly for Feb. 20, 1909, p. 13. Tenney: “…from Pieter Bausch (Amsterdam, 9 Dec 1908) who has written a humorous book under the pseudonym of Peet Boester and asks MT to write a preface to the book. In a brief introduction to the letter MT praises the humor of Bausch’s letter, despite an imperfect command of English, and suggests that if he translated his book it ought to find a market in America: ‘He seldom succeeds in saying exactly what he is trying to say, but no matter, he always says his say felicitously, always quaintly and deliciously, and often brilliantly; and to be brilliant in a tongue not one’s own is a rare feat indeed….I think that his English is perfectly charming, and I perceive that the personality back of it is charming too’” [Tenney, ALR Second Annual Supplement to the Reference Guide (Autumn, 1978) 176-77].
A. Bjerregaard wrote from Newcastle on Tyne, England to praise Sam for CS [MTP]. Note: IVL: “Appreciation”
The Church of the Ascension sent an engraved invitation for the 300th anniversary of John Milton’s birth [MTP].
The Corcoran Gallery of Art for the American Institute of Architects sent an engraved invitation and ticket for the Dec. 15 appreciation of Augustus Saint Gaudens. The ticket is still in the file [MTP]. Note: “Ans Dec 9 MLH”
Estela A. de Lima wrote to ask Sam to “honor the Council of Jewish Women” with his “presence at their annual breakfast” at the Hotel Astor on Feb. 16 [MTP].
Colonel and Mrs. Heistand, Governor’s Island, NY sent an “At Home” card for Dec. 16 [MTP]. Note: “Ans Dec 9 MLH”
Sherman, French & Co., Boston wrote replying to Isabel Lyon’s note of Dec. 7 regarding the “Hibbert Journal,” an English publication made in Birmingham, England. They enclosed a circular of the journal for Sam to review [MTP].