February 15 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Madeleine Sinsheimer.

Dear Miss Madeleine: / Your good & admiring & affectionate brother has told me of your sorrowful share in the trolley disaster which brought unaccustomed tears to millions of eyes & fierce resentment against those whose criminal indifference to their responsibilities caused it; & the reminder has brought back to me a pang out of that bygone time. I wish I could take you sound & whole out of your bed & break the legs of those officials & put them in it—to stay there. For in my spirit I am merciful & would not break their necks & backs also, as some would who have no feeling.

It is your brother who permits me to write you this line—& so it is not an intrusion, you see. May you get well—& soon! [MTP].

Note: the New York Times published this letter three months later, on May 15, 1905 (p.9 “Merciful Mark Twain Writes to Maimed Girl”) with a dateline of May 14. Miss Sinsheimer of Newark, N.J. had become an invalid as a result of a trolley accident in 1903. The article notes Sam also sent one of his books (unspecified) inscribed with his aphorism: “One of the most remarkable differences between a lie and a cat is that the cat has only nine lives.” See Jerome Sinsheimer’s Nov. 7, 1908 to Sam. Also on or after Nov. 30, 1905: Madelaine reported she had recovered.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: This afternoon a Mrs. Judd came to read the story of Joseph to Mr. Clemens. She plans to use it for public presentation. She has very intense admiration for Mr. Clemens, so intense that she bubbles with it. The reading was a failure, for she filled the simple Bible speech with elocutionary effects and blasted it. But she kissed Mr. Clemens’s hand at leaving and while I was showing her the Spiridon portrait she showered very sweet speech upon me and kissed my forehead in homage for the man who stands as my complete master. She said that I will not need a heaven when I die for I have it here. She doesn’t half suspect the truth of her words. She wondered how I “managed it” to become his secretary. Those things aren’t managed they just come to one and you mustn’t try to “manage” them into existence. / Tonight mother and I went to an organ recital over at the Ascension. The music was superb, satisfying and filling [MTP: TS 40]. Note: Mrs. Ida Benfey Judd, noted monologist, founder and president of the Mark Twain Association (1926), now called the Mark Twain Association of New York. Judd studied drama under Alexander Bell, inventor of the telephone. WNYC’s website claims her association with Twain was “brief but influential,” though it doesn’t explain which was influenced, presumably Judd “After seeking his advice on elocution she spent a half-hour in discussion with the great author. See also Feb. 10, 1906 entry. Hal Holbrook credits the Association as giving him his 1958 start in portraying Twain.

Isabel Lyon’s journal #2: “About this date we hear that Miss Clemens is well enough to go out to walk for a little while each day”[MTP TS 5]. Note: Clara Clemens was recovering.

Sydney J. Roy for the Hannibal Merchants Assoc. wrote to Sam, announcing the formation of a company to build a new hotel in Hannibal, to be named “The Mark Twain Hotel.” Would he approve, and could he be there about September 1905? [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the top in pencil, “No objection to the hotel but shall not be able to go there”