March 22-26 Monday – During this period Sam replied to Maude Clement Rice in Sawnee on Delaware, Penn.: “I am glad to have a copy of that letter, & shall also be very glad to sign the photograph—” [MTP]. Note: incoming not extant; possibly a relative of old “Unreliable,” Clement Rice?
March 22 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, Isabel V. Lyon wrote notes for Sam to answer Elisabeth Cutting. “Mar 22—Think out a date for Reception. The Spanish girl Senorita Marcial will be here about Apr. 2. Would they like to invite Sen Marcial & her chaperon Miss Sanborn to this recep.” [Lyon:] “Mention this as M . Clemens would like to help her along in her work—in any way that comes along” [MTP].
Lyon also wrote the notes to reply to Moses Allen Starr’s Mar. 21 (the answer was sent at John Larkin’s suggestion by Isabel V. Lyon)
Clemens met biographer Albert Bigelow Paine in 1906 while living in New York City.
March 19 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to W.T. Hall.
I thank you very much for the clipping from the Atlantic [sic Atlanta] Evening News. I have waited these many years for you to hear me lecture, but now it is too late: I am taking my farewell of the platform three weeks hence. The hostiles say “But you are forgetting the gallows—” a joke which I am too proud & arrogant to notice [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Jean, 8:20 10:30
March 17 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to an unidentified person:
“Mr. Clemens not very well wishes me to thank you very much for your letter which greatly interested him—& that far from objecting to his translating the article into French it is a compliment which I accept with pleasure & hold at a high value—” [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
March 16 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam began a siege with a bad cold which would keep him in bed until Mar. 23. He wrote to Gertrude Natkin:
To whom these presents shall come—greetings & salutation. And thereto—this: It’s postponed to April 10 , you little rascal. Unknown Friend” [MTAq 20].
Gertrude Natkin wrote a short reply:
March 15 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote an aphorism to Florence Watson- Cadieu, secretary of the Whidden Memorial Hospital Guild, Everett, Mass. “On the whole it is better to deserve honors and not have them, than have them & not deserve them. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain” [MTP].
Sam hosted a dinner for the Rogerses and Dr. Edward Quintard [Hill 124].