October 24 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Funeral of Charles Dudley Warner” [NB 43 TS 27]. Note: the funeral was Oct. 23 at 2 p.m.
Sam also wrote to Charles Hopkins Clark [MTP]. UCCL 12759 letter not available.
October 23 Tuesday – Samuel Clemens went to Hartford for the funeral of Charles Dudley Warner. Paine writes that Sam was a pallbearer, and also that while in Hartford the Clemenses “looked into the old home” [MTB 1112]. A. Hoffman writes: “Livy stayed in New York; she could not face her Hartford memories” [433]. Sam intended to stay “but an hour or two,” and then return to N.Y.C. The funeral was held at 2 p.m. at the Asylum Hill Congregational Church.
October 22 Monday – At the Hotel Earlington in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich and Lilian W. Aldrich: “It is lovely of you to welcome us. And it would be lovelier still to see you, which we hope to do tomorrow at poor Warner’s funeral” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to John Kendrick Bangs that after Wednesday he expected some free time from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. “Do you think Mr. Nicholson could do me up in one sitting, or two on a squeeze?” [MTP].
October 21 Sunday – At the Hotel Earlington in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Charles H. Clark upon hearing of the death of Charles Dudley Warner the day before:
October 20 Saturday – Charles Dudley Warner (1829-1900) died of a sudden heart attack in Hartford. He was cheerful earlier in the day at a luncheon. Sam attended his funeral on Oct. 23 [NY Times, Oct. 21, p.1].
October 18 Thursday – At the Hotel Earlington in N.Y.C., Sam replied to an unidentified man’s request, perhaps a reporter’s for an interview:
I would have done it with great pleasure on “interviewing day,” but I have been saying no, ever since, & it would not be fair to those others to say otherwise this time. Consistency is seldom a virtue, but you will concede that in a case like this it is [MTP]. Note: “Interviewing day” likely being the evening they arrived in port.
October 17 Wednesday – Mark Twain wasted no time upon his return to the U.S. to speak in public. In the evening he spoke at a benefit for the Galveston orphans at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (of the Sept. 8 -9 hurricane). From the N.Y. Times of Oct. 18.
BAZAAR FOR GALVESTON ORPHANS
Mark Twain Closes the Benefit—Net Receipts Estimated at $25,000
October 16 Tuesday – At Hotel Earlington, N.Y.C., Sam wrote one sentence to Arthur Lumley (1837-
1912), illustrator, painter. “Gen. Bunker means well, & so I’ll not criticise his history, though I give you my word there isn’t a single molecule of truth in it anywhere” [MTP].
Originally known as the Hotel Gerlach:
One of the residents that year [1895?] was Yugoslavian scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla. His laboratory was located at No. 33-35 South Fifth Avenue. Here he worked on his experiments in fluorescent lighting and wireless transmission of power. The lab and the hotel were approximately 30 blocks apart—the perfect distant for experimenting with wireless transmissions.
October 14 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Noon. About 500 miles to make. A spacious ship & most comfortable. Rides the seas level—hardly any motion. No sea-sickness on board. No table-racks” [NB 43 TS 27].
The New York World ran an article, “Mark Twain, the Greatest American Humorist, Returning Home, Talks at Length,” which included Twain’s ideas about autobiography given to reporters before sailing on Oct. 6 in London: