October 12 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam added to his Oct. 11 to Mary B. Rogers.

Next Day, 11a.m.—Friday.

What a useful creature you are, Saccharin! When I’ve lost my sleep & can’t dictate coherently & have to quit trying, I can turn for relief to you—I can entertain myself with scribbling incoherently to you, & you have to put up with it. Clara likewise.

October 13 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam added to his Oct. 11 and 12 to Mary B. Rogers.

9.30 a.m. Saturday

I have been editing this letter with the scissors—for I had put into it the very dismal news which I had spared you in that recent note. I went to that dinner-party at the MacVeagh’s palace last night—in white clothes. All the others of both sexes—in their noblest evening costumery. (But I know all those people familiarly.)

It is a time of surprises.

October 14 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Mrs. William Cabot came out this afternoon for a quiet talk with me, recalling still more of the great depths of Gerry’s nature. Then Mrs. Pumpelly came in with Mrs. H. Cabot. The Pumpellys are leaving next week & expect to sail on Nov. 3rd for Italy. Thence they go down to Egypt for 6 weeks, then stop at Athens on their way back to Italy, where they expect to spend the rest of the winter in Capri.

October 15 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Jean, 8 a.m. / The King dictated today & I went over to Keene & dentistry” [MTP TS 136].

Clemens’ A.D. of this day included: Item from Susy’s biography about Sour Mash & the flies —Livy Clemens’ experiment for destroying the flies in the Hartford house—Soap-bubble item from Susy’s biography; Clemens’s comments—Clemens’ experience in learing to ride-high bicycle—Letters regarding his fiftieth birthday [MTP Autodict2].

October 16 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam finished his Oct. 11, 12, 13 to Mary B. Rogers.

Tuesday

You hope you will come out of it “a better woman.” You don’t need it, Mary. You have the clean mind & the right heart, & this is a condition which is not really betterable. It is going to carry you far out of Harry’s reach & mine. But I believe—I truly believe—we shall be allowed to call, sometimes, as the aeons drift by on their long course. St. Peter will sniff & say—

October 17 Wednesday – Sam took “The long railway journey from Dublin” N.H. to N.Y.C. which he later wrote, “destroyed me for 7 whole days!” [Oct. 24 to Emilie Rogers].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “This morning the King left early for Boston & he was in a dear mood. / Jean left by way of Keene. I took her over & put her on the train” [MTP TS 137].

October 18 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Sack-Cloth & Ashes   will have a good home with a Mr. Fisher—a clerk in Mr. Allison’s shop. The dear little cats have been distraught for 2 days now, for they sense the coming of something.

October 19 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “19th Oct. ’06. This is what Katy is celebrating as her ‘anniversary.’ We also celebrate it, cordially. She has been with us 26 years” [NB 48 TS 5].

Agnes L. Brown wrote from Ottawa, Ontario Canada to Sam appreciating his article on Howells. She sent Sam two books, The Cape Breton Giant by “Mr. Gillis” and another unnamed [MTP]. Note: Gillis not in Gribben.

October 20 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam inscribed a photo of himself in a rocking chair to Josephine S. Hobby: “Let us save to-morrows for work. / For / Miss Hobby— / Oct. 20, 06.” [MTP].  

October 21 Sunday – In N.Y.C. Sam went “Sabbath-breaking” to Urban H. Broughton’s, and beat him five out of seven games at billiards [Oct. 22 to Mary Rogers].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “All day it has rained hard & Mr. Clemens went out to the Broughtons to play billiards. He is restless & finds a great emptiness in life. He doesn’t like this house & finds no comfort outside of his own room. My own little six sided room is the only place I care for—that & the King’s room” [MTP TS 137-138].

October 22 Monday – In the a.m. at 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.).

October 22-November 10 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Henry Mills Alden [MTP: Harper’s Weekly Magazine Dec. 15, 1906]. See letter under Dec. 15 entry.

October 23 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dihdwo Twe, a Liberian who visited Sam several times and was deeply interested in the Congo reform movement. Sam dictated the letter for Twe to use as an introduction to a pamphet calling on the world to help the Congo. Basically, Sam wrote, the human race is made up of humbugs; he felt Twe should deal with the human race as it is, not as he wished it to be—it had “no desire for uncomfortable truths, no appetite for them…” etc. [MTP].

October 24 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Emilie R. Rogers.

Dear Mrs. Rogers, it is lovely of you! Yes, Mr. Coe is the very man. He will know the exact size of the Fairhaven table, & can duplicate it. When he examines this room I think he will say it is large enough: it is 15 feet wide by 18 long, & the 18 can be increased to 18.6 if necessary, by removing a bookcase.

October 25 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mary B. Rogers now in Tuxedo Park, N.Y. 

Mariechen dear, it must be a Latin word, as it isn’t in the Unabridged. The U. has only “Accipient (obsolete) a receiver.”

October 26 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich.

It is with mighty pleasure that I record the fact that you will spend Nov. 9 & 10 (& as many days thereafter as you can spare), under this roof. We will gather some more stags together & eat, drink & get drunk, understanding that on some happy to-morrow we die & are likely to be damned. I am very very glad you are coming, old man [MTP].

Isabel Lyon’s journal:

October 27 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

The King came down while Mrs. Crane & I were at breakfast to say that Mr. Leigh Hunt has invited him to go to Egypt for the winter—to spend his days & weeks on the Nile, & to take with him whomsoever he will. It will mean to take with him a stenographer & a biographer. He couldn’t take me because I’m needed at this base of action, although he says he wishes to take me. I’m so stunned.

October 28 Sunday – Clemens was still in Tuxedo Park, spending time with Harry and Mary Rogers.

Isabel Lyon’s journal:

October 28-31 – Sometime between these dates George C. Riggs and Kate Douglas Riggs sent Sam and Clara Clemens an invitation to meet Mr. & Mrs. Forbes Robertson, Sunday, Nov. 4 at 9:15 p.m. [MTP]. Note: possibly Johnston Forbes-Robertson (1853-1937), English actor, considered the finest Hamlet of the Nineteenth Century. Robertson got his start by playing second fiddle to the great Sir Henry Irving.

October 29 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Katonah, N.Y.  

October 30 Tuesday – In N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Ralph W. Ashcroft, in care of the advertising agent for Canadian Pacific railway, Montreal: “Mr. Clemens is indefinitely bedridden with bronchitis & has been persuaded to give up the trip to Egypt entirely” [MTP].

Note: see Nov. 7 to Mary Rogers.

October 31 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam was down with a bad cold.

November – In N.Y.C. Sam inscribed a copy of Eve’s Diary to Elbert Hubbard: “Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economise it. Truly yours Mark Twain. To Elbert Hubbard, Nov./06.” [MTP: Parke-Bernet Galleries Catlogs, 25 Feb. 1938, Item 40].  

Henry Hahn, Sven Riars, Agnede Larsen, Cecilic Kiar, & Bassemig wrote from Copenhagen, Denmark for birthday wishes to Sam [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Answered”; Lyon wrote “Answer / Dec 5”

November 1 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Tonight D. & Francesca Gilder, C.C. & I went up to see Forbes Robinson and Gertrude Elliot in Bernard Shaw’s “Cleopatra and Caesar.” Beautifully, quite perfectly staged it is, but there are no climaxes, & it ends only because the actors & everyone else is (are) tired, & it’s time to go home, so unconvincing it is.

The King is still in bed but longing to get up at the billiard table.

November 2 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.).