December 26, 1901 Thursday

December 26 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Jules Hart, responding to a letter not extant.

“I realize that you are perfectly right: to publish the letter would do harm, not good. If I could spare the time I would gladly write another, but I am away behind with my work, & must try to keep my mind from getting side-tracked from it” [MTP]. Note: See Dec. 16 and Dec. 17 to Hart.

December 25, 1901 Wednesday

December 25 before – The New York Sun, p.8, January 25, 1901 ran a squib about Mark Twain, which appeared on Christmas Day in Vienna’s Neues Wiener Tagblatt:

Prosperity and happiness to my friend in the Emnira. The same to my enemies—on Christmas Day, but not after that date. Mark Twain.

December 24, 1901 Tuesday

December 24 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote on a postcard, the verso containg a printed: “A Bright and Happy Christmas,” to niece Ida Langdon.

—‘sh! Ida dear, do not let these sweet maids beguile you of the shivery shuddery secret, known to none but you & me, of the fate of the Tale, the Tear & the Joke That Went Out Seeking the Truth and Met Up With a Bryn Mawr Girl.

Remember the Great Oath of our Order:

“Silence should be seen, not heard.”

December 21, 1901 Saturday

December 21 Saturday – Sam’s old friend and enemy, Edward H. House, died in Tokyo, Japan, where he had been living and writing since 1892. Days before his death the Japanese emperor bestowed upon House the Second Order of Merit of the Sacred Treasure. At his memorial service he was called “the most brilliant writer ever connected with journalism in the Far East” [Huffman 18]. Note: see entries on Edward (Ned) House in Volumes I & II.

December 20, 1901 Friday

December 20 FridaySam’s notebook: “Must be at home–Clara” [NB 44 TS 19].

In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to Elisabeth Marbury’s Dec. 19, his letter not extant but noted on hers:

“Dec. 20/01. / Wrote her to give them 80% & me 20%” [MTP].

Sam inscribed a copy of FE to Robert B. Cone: “To / Mr. Robert B. Cone / with the compliments of / The Author. / Riverdale, Dec. 20, 1901. / S.L. Clemens / [cross-signed:] Mark Twain” [MTP].

December 16, 1901 Monday

December 16 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Jules Hart of the Hebrew Infant Asylum. Hart’s address: 173 St. Nicholas Ave., N.Y.C. “When politics enter into municipal government, nothing resulting therefrom in the way of crimes and infamies is then incredible. It actually enables one to accept and believe the impossible.” This is often quoted.

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