January 15 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Today when I asked Mr. Clemens why mens’ voices singing in the street at night sound so heartbreakingly sad? Or away out in the country, when you are wakened by the sound of a man singing a common place song in a common place voice, why does that make you aware of all the misery of the world? Mr. Clemens replied, “The man is probably dead drunk, but that doesn’t lessen your heartache.”
January 14 Sunday – The New York Times, p.9 “What is Doing in Society”: “Mr. and Mrs. Cleveland H. Dodge have invitations out for a dinner for Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain,) on Friday next,” or Jan. 19. Note: Cleveland Hoadley Dodge (1860-1926), philanthropist active in NY politics, was the grandson of William E. Dodge, Jr. (1832-1903) Clemens’ neighbor in Riverside. See Aug. 13, 1903 entry.
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
January 13 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote instructions to Isabel Lyon for John Larkin: “Ask Larkin to appoint next Saturday for the tax office & make it $5,000. I want to write it up” [MTP]. Note: Larkin characterized Larkin as “my friend and attorney.”
January 12 Friday – Fred Nye of the Sunday N.Y. World wrote asking if Sam would write for their “humorous campaign in favor of the most down-trodden and abused person in the United States—Father.” On or just after this was received Sam answered: “I think it unlikely that the Harpers would approve, but even if they did I have no intention of writing a miscellaneous article on any body.”
January 11 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam declined an invitation from an unidentified man, giving the reason that “I have made all the engagements for this year that I can keep” [MTP].
Sam also sent a telegram to Thomas Bailey Aldrich and Lilian W. Aldrich in Boston: “A happy voyage and a quick return” [MTP].
Clemens’ A.D. for this day involved a Jan. 3 letter from Laura K. Hudson and his reply of Jan. 12 concerning his Dec. 17, 1877 Whittier birthday “debacle” [AMT 1: 260-267].
January 10 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to unidentified gentlemen.
January 9 Tuesday – Sam began a series of Autobiographical Dictations (hereinafter referred to as A.D.) for Albert Bigelow Paine. Paine brought Miss Josephine Hobby, a part- time stenographer, employed by Century Magazine for many years (she would be fired in Sept. 1908 by Isabel Lyon). Miss Hobby had also worked for Charles Dudley Warner and Mary Mapes Dodge [MTB 1266]. The dictations continued with fair regularity throughout 1906 and 7, thereafter intermittently. The last recorded dictation was on Dec. 29, 1909 [MTHHR 607n1]. Note: MTHHR 607n1 uses Jan.
January 8–February 12 – Sometime during this period, Sam wrote to the Robert Fulton Memorial Association, a letter which ran in the Feb. 18 issue, p. 20 of the NY Times:
January 8 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to Thomas S. Barbour resigning from the Congo Reform Assoc.
I have retired from the Congo.
January 7 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
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