September 9 Friday – At the Hotel Wolcott In N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Susan Crane.

Susy dear, the first time I ever heard “In the Sweet By and Bye,” a street-organ played it near the St. Nicholas in December 1867; & that was the first time I ever saw Livy Langdon, a sweet young slender girl & beautiful. In our engagement-year some of us often sang it, evenings, along with other songs. Present:

• Father, †
• Mother, †
• Yourself,
• Theodore, †
• Mr. Slee, †
• Hattie Lewis,
• Livy Langdon †

How many are gone!

September 7 Wednesday – Clara Clemens left N.Y.C. to spend a month or so resting in Connecticut. Sam described this in his Sept. 9 to Susan Crane:

I saw Clara off, day before yesterday, to a rest-cure in Connecticut. She is to shut up 4 or 5 weeks, in bed, without books, without companionship, writing no letters, reading no letters, seeing no one but physician & nurse—a horrid solitude, with grief and memory for company [MTP].

September 6 Tuesday – Sam wrote an aphorism to an unidentified person: “We ought not to use our morals week-days, it gets them out of repair for Sunday / Truly Yours / Mark Twain.” Underneath this Clara Clemens offered her own aphorism: “He who finds the serpent loses himself” [MTP: Lion Hart Autographs 2007 NYC Bookfairs]

September 5 Monday – Odoardo Luchini wrote to Sam, letter not extant but referred to in Sam’s Sept. 22 reply.

September 4 Sunday – In Deal, N.J. Sam wrote to daughter Clara (only the envelope survives) [MTP]. Note: Postmarked from Deal Beach, N.J Sept.4, 4 p.m., which shows he spent the night of Sept. 3 there, probably at Harvey’s home.

Sam returned early to N.Y.C. where he rode in the park with Clara [Sept. 4 to Crane].

Later he wrote from the Hotel Wolcott to Susan Crane.

September 3 Saturday – In Deal Beach, N.J. Sam wrote to Louise Brownell Saunders (Mrs. A.P. Saunders) in Clinton, N.Y. (Susy’s old paramour, now married):

Dear Mrs. Saunders: / I am grateful to have those hallowed names thus consecrated, & in reverence I bow my white head before them in their new place. How long they stood for the grace & beauty & joy of life—& now, how they stand for measureless pain & loss! We are come upon evil days: may they be few! / Affectionately [MTP].

September 2 Friday – This issue of Collier’s Weekly ran a quote of Sam about Christians and voting: It will be conceded that a Christian’s first duty is to God. It then follows, as a matter of course, that it is his duty to carry his Christian code of morals to the polls and vote them. Whenever he shall do that, he will not find himself voting for an unclean man, a dishonest man. If Christians would vote their duty to God at the polls, they would carry every election, and do it with ease.

September 1 Thursday – John Hays Hammond’s handling of the Plasmon Co. of America’s near-insolvency created a dispute (see Aug. entry). A stockholders’ meeting was held on Sept. 1, and a new board of directors elected. Ralph W. Ashcroft was immediately elected general manager of the company by the new board. [Report of Cases Vol. 187 (1910): Ashcroft v. Hammond 491]. Sam may have attended, or may have given Ashcroft his proxy .

September – Sometime during the month, Clara Clemens checked herself into a sanatorium in Norfolk, Conn. Note: Clara returned at the end of the month to Dr. Parry to “continue her recuperation” [MTOW 44].

August 31 Wednesday – Sam’s sister, Pamela Ann Moffett, died in Greenwich, Conn., age 76.