February 8 Saturday – Sam’s notebook:
To-day and yesterday lay abed & starved a cold.
This evening went to Belvedere & dined with the Lt. Governor of Bengal (Sir Alexander Mackenzie) & a dozen — private dinner party [NB 36 TS 40].
Sam sent a short note to Child & Co. after receiving some pipe tobacco:
This is the brand I wanted. I have smoked your Honey Dew Mixed in another part of the world, and learned to prefer it. Truly yours [MTP].
Sam also wrote a short paragraph to James B. Pond, acknowledging receipt of “Farm pictures,” taken at Quarry Farm.
Yes, indeed we got the Farm pictures, and mama has written you, but goodness knows when you will get the letter. They made us very homesick and I feel farther away than ever. I wonder if we shall ever see America again. I hope so. The world never seemed so big before. But I am glad to be in it [MTP: Paraphrased in Overland with Mark Twain, by Karanovich & Gribben].
Note: Pond had gone to Elmira after leaving Sam and Livy in Canada. See photograph of Susan Crane, Mrs. Martha G. Pond, her son Bim, and Susy Clemens taken on Sept. 15, 1895 at Quarry Farm, perhaps the last pictures made of Susy, in Mark Twain, an Illustrated Biography, by Ward & Duncan, 2001.
Sam also wrote to H.H. Rogers, having just received his Dec. 7 letter (not extant).
Yours of Dec. 7 met us here yesterday, & I perceive that a letter of yours of an earlier date has failed to reach us. The first paragraph — about the finding of the Referee — plainly refers to something we know nothing of — also the paragraph at the top of the 3d page. You speak as if May has been in trouble of some sort. Is it so? We hope not. But at any rate, whatever it was she is evidently out of it again and we are very glad of that.
[Note: On July 28, 1893 May (Mai) Rogers eloped with Joseph Cooper Mott at Sheepshead Bay on Long Island. An annulment was granted in Dec. 1895 – MTHHR 195n1].
Sam was glad that the Webster & Co. assets might pay as much as 38 per cent of the debt, when all was liquidated. He bemoaned the idea that Frank Bliss might be entitled to the copyrights on Sam’s older books for 42 more years, and repeated the claim that Elisha Bliss “robbed me of $25,000 on a single contract” for RI. Frank Bliss’ claim was honored by Harper & Brothers, and they allowed Bliss to continue publishing some books on Harper’s list, but Sam later decided Bliss’ claim was false, but by then “the damage had been done.” [MTHHR 194n2].
Sam agreed to allow Century Co. to bid on his new book, but only by subscription with an advance payment of $10,000-$12,000, and Bliss had already offered the lower amount. Also, Sam was gratified that Rogers had managed to make “one or two thousand dollars” investing Livy’s money. Sam closed with a paragraph reviewing places he’d lectured, and that he’d been invited (by Col. F.W. Chatterton) to see “a series of magnificent military tournaments — regular mimic war” on Feb. 10 and 11. After his signature Sam wrote a short paragraph that the Century Co. didn’t have a “very large ‘moral right’” over him, for they drew a contract that he “couldn’t possibly agree to” [MTHHR 193-4].
† During his stay in Calcutta, Sam met Francis Henry Bennett Skrine (1847-1933) and Helen Lucy Stewart Skrine. Francis would become an English author (see Gribben 645). Later references exist to the good times had with the Skrines in Calcutta, but no specific dates could be determined. (see also Gribben 645).
Arthur Parker wrote from Benares, India to Sam, transcribing a paragraph from the Jan. 4 issue of Punch which referenced HF, and which he had discussed with Sam earlier. Parker sent regards [MTP].