July 30 Friday – Sam took the ten-hour train trip to New York City, where he checked into a hotel, took a bath, and wrote to Livy.

I have a note from Laffan [of the NY Sun] asking me to go down [Lawrence, NY on Long Island] & stay over Sunday with him.

Met George Warner in the lobby of the hotel, but only stopped to shake hands with him. [Note: Laffan had a summer residence in Lawrence: NY Times obit Apr. 25, 1912 p.10].

Sam wrote of thinking “of you people all along, to-day, naturally enough,” and pictured the domestic scene in his letter [LLMT 248].

Orion, Mollie, and Jane Clemens were poisoned by some bad cream while on an outing in Bluff Park, near Keokuk. Orion and Mollie wrote about the episode in letters of Aug. 1, postmarked Aug. 2 (see entries). The Keokuk Gate City, Aug. 1 ran an article “Sudden Illness,” and “A Number of Excursionists Suffering from the Effects of Drinking Poisoned Milk,” mentioning Orion, Mollie and “Mrs. Clemens, mother of Mark Twain” [The Twainian, Jan.-Feb. 1981 p4].