August 14 Wednesday – On Rogers’ yacht Kanawha en route from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia to Bar Harbor, Maine, Sam wrote two letters to Livy. Sam’s first letter puts him at sea, his second at Bass’s Bay near Bar Harbor.

The fog rose, this morning, & we put to sea. Not for Halifax, however, for the news from there said that the region was still under the dominion of the fog. So we stood to the westward, & shall probably make Bar Harbor before night, & anchor there [MTP].

Remembering the cable that came about Susy’s grave illness some six years before (see Aug. 14, 1896 entry), he wrote again to Livy.

Livy darling, I am with you in spirit every hour, now, & I know how you are feeling as these sad anniversaries dawn & drag their course & decay. To-day is one of them—& I remember. Your mother-instinct warned you that there was danger & you went to the tragedy fearing it; but I was suspecting nothing, & the awful cablegram found me unprepared, & struck with force unmitigated. I wish I could be with you these days; I know what you are suffering, & although I could do nothing to relieve your pains by words, neighborhood & sympathy would be a help for both of us.

After his signature he added that they might still go to Halifax [LLMT 329]. Note: they did not go to Halifax.

Sam’s ship log: August 14, Wednesday. Sailed about noon; westward 80 or 90 miles.

Anchored in Bass’s Bay.

Poker.

Get another dog. Mr. Reed deemed it unsafe to entrust the ship to a dog-watch with only one dog in it.

Dias reports a variation on Sam’s ship log TS: “August 14 — Upon complaint of Mr. Reed, another dog was procured. He said he had been a sailor all his life and considered it dangerous to trust a ship to a dog-watch with only one dog in it. Poker for a change” [Dias, Odd Couple 102-3].

In Bar Harbor, Maine Sam gave a talk to some young people to demonstrate speechmaking. Fatout introduces Sam’s remarks, which were given in a later autobiographical dictation (Aug. 28, 1906):

At Bar Harbor, Mark Twain demonstrated speech-making technique to a group of young people. When he asked for a text, they gave him “Marriage Engagements.” He said he had noticed that few girls knew how to blush properly, and that he hoped to have a class to whom he might teach the art of the Graduated Blush. A well -trained girl, he said, would not furnish a pale No.1 blush when the occasion called for a vivid No. 6 or a crimson No.14. He illustrated by concentrating on one of the girls present—to get back at her for suggesting the topic—but says that he let her off before producing the No. 31 Conflagration.

Sam’s remembered speech:

Now here at my side sits a young lady to whom I have given nineteen lessons, and I will prove to you that she is an expert. When I call for a No. 1 she’ll not make the mistake of furnishing a No. 4, which would be overdoing it. When I call for a No. 10, No. 14, and so on, you will see the exactly proper and requisite sunset flush rise in these beautiful cheeks—there, just that casual little remark, you see, brings a No. 2. Now if you will look into her lovely blue eyes, if you will examine her charming features, her satin skin, her tawny hair, the fine intelligence which beams in her face—there now, look at that! Here where I touch her cheek with my finger an inch in front of her dainty ear, is the meridian which marks the degrees reaching from 1 to 5. See the color steal toward 5. Now it crosses it. Keep your eye on it. I move my finger forward toward her delicate nostril—see the rich blood follow it! When I tell you that here is the loveliest form, the loveliest spirit that perhaps exists in the world today, that she is a darling of the darlings—but I need go no further. The blush has reached her nostril and her collar, and is a No. 16—the most engaging blush, the most charming blush, the most beautiful blush that can adorn the face of any earthly angel, save and except the No. 31, which is the last and final possibility, and is called the “San Francisco, or the Combined Earthquake and Conflagration.” I will now produce that blush [MT Speaking 403]. Note: the remembrance of this speech included the 1906 S.F. earthquake and fire, which had not yet occurred. So it was with Sam’s memory.