April 26 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote congratulations to Thomas Bailey Aldrich and Lilian W. Aldrich in Ponkapog, Mass.

I rejoice with you.. This is from habit, temperament, training, tradition—that straitjacket which keeps its grip on us always & won’t allow our common sense any little liberty to work. And I rejoice with you in earnest, I can’t help it. Oh, I know—I know. I have stood where Talbot stands, & was happy: happy, & not afraid. What riches! And now—what poverty! Life is a silly invention, an immeasurable brutality. Now, then——

April 25 Wednesday – The New York Times, p. 13, “What is Doing in Society” included a squib about Mark Twain and Miss Ida M. Tarbell to be the guests of honor at a May 1 evening celebration in the Gibson Studios for the tenth anniversary of the incorporation of the College Women’s Club. Fatout does not list his appearance; newspapers give the event as May 4, when Sam was under doctor’s orders “to remain in bed two or three days” [May 4 to Teller].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Jean, noon. Eve.” [MTP TS 68].

April 24 Tuesday – In the evening at Madison Square Garden, Sam made some brief remarks at a billiard exhibition of trick shots for the benefit of San Francisco.  

The game of billiards has destroyed my naturally sweet disposition. Once, when I was an underpaid reporter in Virginia City, whenever I wished to play billiards I went out to look for an easy mark. One day a stranger came to town and opened a billiard parlor. I looked him over casually. When he proposed a game, I answered, “All right.”

April 23 Monday – The New York Times, p.12, “Billiard Benefit Plans” announced a billiard benefit for San Francisco at the concert hall of Madison Square Garden on the following evening. Mark Twain had been asked to make “a brief address.”

The Old Guard was to parade with a following banquet at the Hotel Astor. Rain cut the parade short but the banquet went off as planned, with Mark Twain making a characteristic late arrival. The New York Times, Apr. 24, p. 7, reported:

OLD GUARD CELEBRATE THEIR 80TH BIRTHDAY
———

April 22 ca. – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Ella and Margaret McMahon. “I must send you both a word of sympathy in these days of your bereavement, although I know that words cannot comfort the stricken any more than they can convey the sympathy of the one who writes them”: [MTP]. Note: object of sympathy not specified.

April 21 Saturday – In the afternoon Sam presided over a meeting at the Casino Theatre to organize help for the city of San Francisco. The New York Evening World, p. 2, reported:

CALIFORNIANS ARRANGE TO GIVE AID TO VICTIMS.
———
Meeting at Casino Under Auspices of Mrs. Oelrichs and Mrs. W.K. Vanderbilt, jr., Presided Over by Mark Twain.

April 19 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote a note for Gertrude Natkin (and probably her mother): “Please admit these friends of mine by the stage door, & greatly oblige” [MTP].

In the evening Sam gave his “last speech” at Carnegie Hall in the cause for aid to earthquake- stricken San Francisco. New York newspapers covered the event, including the Times, Apr. 20, p.11.

MARK TWAIN APPEALS FOR THE ‘SMITTEN CITY’

Begs the Audience at His Last Public Lecture to be Liberal.

A UNIQUE TALK ON FULTON

April 18 Wednesday – The New York Times, Apr. 19, p. 14, “Sutton Beats Slosson by Superior Billiards,” again mentioned Mark Twain’s evening at the international billiards tourney at Madison Square Garden: