July 2 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Drove out to Dollis Hill (4.35 to 5.10) in the rainstorm & took possession. It is certainly the dirtiest dwelling-house in Europe—perhaps in the universe. / Plasmon 12? / Goerz, 7.30” [NB 43 TS 20].
The Clemens family moved to the Dollis Hill House on the outskirts of N.W. London.
Sam gave a private reading, place and time unknown; he may or may not have stopped by John Y. MacAlister’s home [July 1 to MacAlister].
Sam replied on a postcard to Frederic William Myers (1843-1901), President of the Society for Psychical Research in Cambridge, England.
“It is in the biographies.
“‘Power of Sound’ has been ready for the post; but not sent—it will presently be on its way” [MTP]. Note: see Gribben, p.495 on Myers. Wordsworth, English Men of Letters Series (1899) by Myers, NY: Harper & Brothers.
Power of Sound, by Edmund Gurney (1847-1888), who associated with Myers.
July 2-September 10 – At Dollis Hill in London, England, Sam wrote to the editor, London Times.
It has often been claimed that the London postal service was swifter than that of New York, & I have always believed that the claim was justified. But a doubt has lately sprung up in my mind. I live eight miles from Printing House Square; the Times leaves that point at 4 o’clock in the morning, by mail, and reaches me at 5 in the afternoon, thus making the trip in thirteen hours. It is my conviction that in New York we should do it in eleven [MTP].
Sometime during their summer stay at Dollis Hill, the Robert Jones Burdette family paid the Clemens family a visit. Mrs. Clara Bradley Burdette writes:
We visited them when they were living outside of London, and as our two boys and their two daughters played tennis, Mrs. Clemens and I chatted, and Mr. Clemens and Mr. Burdette went off into another room for a visit.
Finally Mr. Clemens said, “Bob, do you know what a —— fool you have been all your life”. “Yes, Mark, I reckon I do. No one but the dear Lord knows that better than I do. But in what particular respect do you mean, Mark?” Mr. Clemens replied, “You have gone around the world all these years just lecturing to folks who forget you tomorrow. Why haven’t you written books and charged ‘em two dollars and a half apiece for them?” “Well, I’ll tell you, Mark,” said Mr. Burdette, “I suppose its because I care more for folks than I do for the two dollars and a half” [427-8].