June 2 Wednesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote two notes to James R. Clemens, asking the good doctor cousin to meet him at the box office of the Adelphi Theatre on the Strand the next evening, June 3 at eight or five after to see William H. Gillette’s play, Secret Service. If James couldn’t go, would he name another day?

[MTP]. Note: evidently James agreed; see Sam’s June 3 reply. It was Gillette’s first performance in England and it was a great success; the critics praised it.

Sam also wrote to John Y. MacAlister, “ready to come up & dissipate, either with you alone or with a few added, you to choose them and I to help enjoy their society. Next Sunday—or if you prefer, make it the Sunday after & send me my orders” [MTP]. Note: MacAlister was a member of the Savage Club, and sometime after June 14 responded by taking Sam there; the club voted Mark Twain an honorary lifetime member.

Sam also wrote to Frank Fuller in N.Y.C. Only the envelope, marked “Private” survives [MTP].

Sam also wrote a note of thanks to Allen Upward (1863-1926), British poet, lawyer, politician and teacher. He committed suicide after learning that George Bernard Shaw won the nobel prize. “Those are very pleasant words to me, and although you have not required an answer, I think it was most kind of you to take the trouble to say them, and so I cannot deny myself the gratification of thanking you—which I do, cordially. / Sincerely yours…” [Some Personalities (1921) by Allen Upward, p. 238]. Note: Upward prefaced this letter by writing he’d just met Mark Twain in his publisher’s office and had been too shy to tell him of his admiration. It would seem Upward then wrote to Sam, a letter not extant, complimenting him, and here is Sam’s reply.

At 7:15 p.m. Sam sent a telegram from the Sloane Square post office to Frank Marshall White, London correspondent for the New York Journal :

The New York Journal then ran “Mark Twain Amused,” p. 1, an interview about him being in good health and quoted him about the erroneous rumor of him living in poverty and near death in London [MTCI

316-18]. Note: see June 1 for excerpt.

The NY Times, p. 7, ran “Mark Twain’s Health Good” datelined London, June 1. This was an expanded version of earlier articles that referred to Sam’s health. Plans to leave London at the end of June and spend the summer in Austria were mentioned, and that Twain’s book was finished, with his publisher (Bliss) on route at that time to “fetch the manuscript.”

On Thursday last [May 27] Mr. Clemens dined with a few male friends, including Mr.[Henry Loomis] Nelson, the editor of Harper’s Weekly, and the correspondent here of the Associated Press. Mr. Clemens’s hair is almost white, but his face has a good color, his eyes are bright, and his figure is upright and alert. He talked most entertainingly all the evening about his travels, his book, and his experiences in London. After he left Mr. Nelson, who is an old friend of Mr. Clemens, referring to the latter said:

“I have never seen him in better form. He looks far better than when I saw him in New York a few years ago.”

From the Boston Globe, p.6:

GOOD NEWS ABOUT MARK TWAIN.

Hardly had the report of Mark Twain’s serious illness reached these shores when it was followed by a contradiction that brought cheer to the hearts of the multitude of his admirers.

So far from being a physical wreck, Mr Clemens seems to be alert, vigorous and hopeful, despite the trials and troubles which have come with his later years. Let us hope that the author of “Huckleberry Finn” may live to earn and enjoy comfortable royalties for many a year to come. He is a man whom the world can ill spare. He is more than an entertainer—he is a skillful delineator of life and character, and his work appeals in truth to all sorts and conditions of men.

Sam’s notebook contains an entry that George Griffin (1849?-1897), longtime Clemens butler died [Pettit 103]. Note: Griffin’s birth derived from the 1880 Census and verified by Frank Munsey in his May 17 to Sam, which likely reached Sam about this day.

In an unpublished MS, “A Family Sketch”, Sam wrote of Griffin:

…handsome, well built, shrewd, wise, polite, always good-natured, cheerful to gaiety, honest, religious, a cautious truth-speaker, devoted friend to the family, champion of its interests…. He was the peace-maker in the kitchen—in fact the peace-keeper, for by his good sense & right spirit & mollifying tongue he adjusted disputes in that quarter before they reached the quarrel-point.

Paine erroneously gives the news of George’s death as “just then” after news of Orion’s death on Dec.11:

There came also, just then, news of the death of their old Hartford butler, George. It saddened them as if it had been a member of the household. Jean, especially, wept bitterly [MTB 1053]. Note: Pettit gives perhaps the most complete account of the life and influence of Griffin, pages 93-106.