April 20 Saturday – Sam was in Hartford and met with the ladies who were first members of his Saturday Morning Club 30 years before. He wrote of the good time in a letter to Jean on Apr. 22.

Athenaeum printed an anonymous review of CS, p.466-8. Tenney: “Mostly summary; favorable, calls MT ‘one of the sanest, least prejudiced of men’ [43].

Clemens A.D. for this day is listed by MTP as “Imaginary Interview with the President.”  

April 19 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: We’re just starting for Hartford. It is snowing and the King who is lathering his face for a shave suggests that I get Mrs. Whitmore on the telephone and tell her that he “may be a little late in arriving for he has mislaid one of his snowshoes.” And then such a chuckle of delight he gives as he swabs his face and I go spinning up to the telephone. I wouldn’t dampen one joke of the King’s for worlds, except where Mrs. Rogers is concerned, for she can’t be joked with over a telephone. Dinner tonight at Mrs.

April 18 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied on Frank T. Searight’s Apr. 12 letter: “never make another land voyage that can be avoided either honorably or otherwise” [MTP].

At 8:15 p.m. Clara Clemens gave a performance in Fredonia, N.Y. The Fredonia Censor advertised her upcoming concert and on Apr. 24 reviewed it:

April 17 Wednesday – Sam’s A.D. of one year later noted the anniversary: “a fortunate day, a golden day, and my heart has never been empty of grandchildren since.” Cooley writes:  

April 16 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam gave instructions to Lyon for reply to Mark G. McElhinney’s Apr. 3. “Thank him for his letter & say that by & by when his philosophy is printed he will send him a confidential copy” [MTP].

Sam also replied by writing on Dr. Edward Anthondy Spitzka’s Apr. 10. “Well, I read the other one, & got some thing out of it for the C. S. book. Glad to have it. Life’s getting a little dull lately, & nothing excites me like the encephalic” [MTP].

April 15 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Twichells go” [MTP TS 53].

Frederick D. Evans wrote from Fort McDowell, Calif. to Sam being bothered by a statement Sam made in “Concerning the Jews”some four years before, he thought in Harper’s Magazine. “That you had no prejudice against any nationality—save one. / What is that one?” [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter: “Quote the paragraph / no recollection / explain it if he can”

April 14 Sunday – With William Dean Howells and Daniel Frohman and 800 children, Sam attended a matinee performance of P&P by The Educational Alliance, Children’s Theatre, N.Y.C.  and gave a curtain speech. The New York Times, p.9, “Mark Twain Tells of Being an Actor” reported:  

MARK TWAIN TELLS OF BEING AN ACTOR

He Sees His Own “The Prince and the Pauper,” and Relates Story of 22 Years Ago.

——— ——— ———

STAGE SPEECH CUT SHORT

He Managed to Narrate, However,

April 13 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: My hands are full and my outlet for superfluous emotions just now is my Boyagians and their “something junk”. They have thrown at me such delightful things. A marvel of a huge strange old candlestick for 50¢. Mother and I have sat around it and wondered what it’s history must be.

Mr. and Mrs. Twichell arrived and I’m so tired—so tired. They are nice and dear, but killingly hard to entertain, for Mr. Twichell’s deafness is increasing [MTP TS 52].

April 12 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Here I am missing the sweetest of all sweet chroniclings—the daily life of the King. But I have been so busy, for there is this house to look after, and the Tuxedo house to think of and plan for, and the Redding house to be after too, and Santa to love and be with when she was here and do for, and Jean to be anxious over and to help if I can and her doctors to see, and the King’s social life to look after—for in these days he is very lonely and reaches out for people—and people he must have, so now I’m planning parties for him.

April 11 Thursday – William Dean Howells forwarded to Sam a letter he’d rec’d from Brand Whitlock, dated Apr. 8 from Toledo, Ohio, in which he remarked on how Sam’s Autobiographicals in the N.A.R. reminded him of the “delightful afternoon” spent with him at Sewall’s Bridge. See MTHL 2: 825 for details; see also Aug. 9, 1902. Whitlock was a devoted young friend of Howells. 

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Mr. and Mrs. Stanchfield dined here” [MTP TS 51].