Day by Day entries are from Mark Twain, Day By Day, four volumes of books compiled by David Fears and made available on-line by the Center for Mark Twain Studies.  The entries presented here are from conversions of the PDFs provided by the Center for Mark Twain Studies and are subject to the vagaries of that process.    The PDFs, themselves, have problems with formatting and some difficulties with indexing for searching.  These are the inevitable problems resulting from converting a printed book into PDFs.  Consequently, what is provided here are copies of copies.  

I have made attempts at providing a time-line for Twain's Geography and have been dissatisfied with the results.  Fears' work provides a comprehensive solution to that problem.  Each entry from the books is titled with the full date of the entry, solving a major problem I have with the On-line site - what year is the entry for.  The entries are certainly not perfect reproductions from Fears' books, however.  Converting PDFs to text frequently results in characters, and sometimes entire sections of text,  relocating.  In the later case I have tried to amend the problem where it occurs but more often than not the relocated characters are simply omitted.  Also, I cannot vouch for the paragraph structure.  Correcting these problems would require access to the printed copies of Fears' books.  Alas, but this is beyond my reach.

This page allows the reader to search for entries based on a range of dates.  The entries are also accessible from each of the primary sections (Epochs, Episodes and Chapters) of Twain's Geography.  

Entry Date (field_entry_date)

March 31, 1908 Tuesday

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March 31 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:  “The King is going boating with Nicholas Murray Butler and Lord Gray [sic Grey] who arrived yesterday on the Bermudian” [MTP: IVL TS 40-41]. Note: Albert Henry George Grey, 4th Earl Grey (1851–1917) served as Canada’s Ninth Governor General (1904-1911). He established the Grey Cup for the Canadian football championship. The Cup was initially for the top amateur rugby team in 1909, but since 1965 it has been the prize for the top professional football team.

April 1908

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April – Gessford’s photograph of Mark Twain ran in Forum,  facing p. 441. “No significant commentary” [Tenney, ALR Third Annual Supplement to the Reference Guide (Autumn, 1979) 192].


 

April 3, 1908 Friday

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April 3 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Bermuda: “I’ve just been reading AB’s article on Stedman in the April ‘Pearson’s’ and somehow it isn’t all Stedman at all. I’m afraid that some of it is a eulogization of Paine through a dead man” [MTP: IVL TS 37-38].

April 4, 1908 Saturday

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April 4 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Bermuda: We went out to the Euryalus again to the children’s party this time—and it was a rough little voyage. 15 of us had to cramp-up in a tiny cabin and our stomachs felt badly. But we got inside the breakwater and onto the flagship and officers Gray and Boyer and Beatty showed us about and were very good to us and made the children adorably happy.

April 5, 1908 Sunday

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April 5 Sunday – At the Princess Hotel in Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote to daughter Clara in N.Y.C.  

Clärchen dear, I hope you are entirely well & hearty by this time. I don’t know where you are, but you are drifting professionally around somewhere, I suppose—& hope.

April 6, 1908 Monday

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April 6 Monday – Bermuda. Mark Twain and Earl Grey met and talked to the children at the garrison school. Their comments appeared in the Apr. 19 NY Times. See Apr. 8 below for these.

April 7, 1908 Tuesday

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April 7 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Bermuda: The King and I went out to the reefs this morning in a kind of royal party, for Lord Gray the Governor General of Canada and Lady Gray and Mrs. (Bermuda Governor) Wodehouse went—and I did like it very much. Mostly it was quiet and restful. But I had a talk with Mrs. Wodehouse who turned to me at once when someone said of me “That is Mark Twain’s private secretary.” We got into the glass bottomed boats and were rowed out over the coral reefs.

April 8, 1908 Wednesday

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April 8 Wednesday – The New York Times, Apr. 19, p. X4, “Mark Twain’s Outing in Bermuda” ran with three photos of Twain and Irene Gerken (not identified), Twain and H.H. Rogers, and one of Earl Grey and Lt. Gen. Wodehouse:

Mark Twain Tells About the Cat.

April 9, 1908 Thursday

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April 9 Thursday – Bermuda. Either this day or the next, Sam lost his half of the seashell used to identify him to Margaret Blackmer (see May 25 to Blackmer). It was found by a servant in the mess hall at Prospect Army Garrison and handed to Major Malcolm D. Graham, who mailed it back to Sam in New York. See also May 25 to Graham.

April 10, 1908 Friday

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April 10 Friday – Several photographs of Mark Twain swimming in the Bahamas are given this date [Bob Slotta, eBay item 180516263500, June 4, 2010; See Hellen Allen’s of Apr. 27, D. Hoffman, picture p. 122]. Note: advertised at that time as the “Only known Under Water Images of him.”

April 11, 1908 Saturday

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April 11 Saturday – In Bermuda, the Clemens party boarded the steamer Bermudian for a return trip to New York. Isabel Lyon’s journal:  “We sailed—Josephine Dascomb [sic Daskam Bacon] is killable—the King calls her ‘Josephine Bastard Bacon’” [MTP: IVL TS 45]. Note: see Mar. 29 on Bacon.

April 12, 1908 Sunday

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April 12 Sunday – Sam was aboard the Bermudian on the way home to New York. In the Apr. 14 edition of the New York Times, p. 9, Sam related an incident aboard ship:

Mark Twain told of one exciting incident of the voyage home. The ocean he characterized as “most rude.” On Sunday afternoon, dressed in his famous white suit, he was standing at the stern rail with Miss Dorothy Sturgis of Boston, watching the play of the ship’s log, when a wave struck the vessel astern and a great comber climbed over the rail and drenched the pair.

April 13, 1908 Monday

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April 13 Monday – The Bermudian docked in New York in the afternoon. On Apr. 14 the NewYork Times, p. 9 ran this tale about Mark Twain and Rogers returning:

TWAIN AND ROGERS BACK FROM BERMUDA

Offer to Lend $2 to Rogers Not Accepted—Strain of Traveling with Financier.

JOINS ANTI-NOISE CRUSADE

Fourteen Banks of England Could Not Finance” Lakes to Gulf Canal.

——— ——— ——— ———  

April 14, 1908 Tuesday

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April 14 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Margaret Blackmer.

Dear Margaret, we arrived from Bermuda yesterday afternoon, & in the accumulation of letters I find yours of a fortnight ago. I’ve brought the little angel-fish pin—badge of my Aquarium— & will keep it for you till you come, which I hope will be as soon as Miss Tewksbury can escort you. Come VERY soon!

April 15, 1908 Wednesday

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April 15 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to the Apr. 14 of  Margaret Blackmer.

I have your letter of yesterday, & you are a very dear Margaret, & have given me great pleasure. Now as I cipher it you are to go away with your papa Thursday the 16th (to-morrow) & will return on or “about” the 23d.

April 16, 1908 Thursday

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April 16 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick in Plainfield, N.J. Thursday night.

Friday—Saturday—Sunday—Monday—then you are here! Monday afternoon. About half-past 2, I suppose. Well, I shall be on the lookout, & powerful glad to see you. Shan’t we have good times? I do most confidently guess so.

In Bermuda I bought a trinket for your Christmas. But I can’t keep it that long, I’ll give it to you now.

April 18, 1908 Saturday

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April 18 Saturday – Mark Twain, H.H. Rogers and State Senator Patrick H. McCarren were guests of honor at the Humorists and Cartoonists Beefsteak Dinner at Reisenwebers in NYC. His speech and the event was covered by the NY Times, Apr. 19, p.16.

TWAIN AND M’CARREN MIX WIT WITH ART

——— ——— ———

Twain on Heroes.

———

LONG PAT WANTS TO PAINT

And Incidentally Devour Beefsteak and Beer with Cartoonists.

April 19, 1908 Sunday

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April 19 Sunday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dorothy Sturgis.

Easter Morning

Yes indeed, dear Miss Dorothy, I want the pictures you took; & I am hoping that Mr. Russell will not forget to send copies of those which he took of you & me, for I want good ones to frame & hand in the billiard room of the house I am building in the country—the said room’s name being “The Aquarium,” because it is to be the Aquarium’s official headquarters.

April 20, 1908 Monday

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April 20 Monday – If Sam’s estimate was correct, Dorothy Quick, Angelfish, would arrive for a vist at about 2 p.m. this day. See his letter to Dorothy of Apr. 16.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Went to look at Cremone bolts” [MTP: IVL TS 47]. Note: Cremone bolts are used for door and window casement locks; sliding bolts.

April 21, 1908 Tuesday

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April 21 Tuesday – Sam, feeling “in the humor to dance” at midnight, “went round the corner,” but not finding Nancy Langhorne Astor there, decided not to dance [Apr. 28 to Astor].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Went to hunt for wall paperings. Santa and her troupe are planning to go to England [MTP: IVL TS 47].

Alice Moran wrote from Oil City, Penn. to Sam.

April 22, 1908 Wednesday

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April 22 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:  The King, Dorothy, Ashcroft and I went down to the Aquarium today for a little frolic, but the King was very limp, and didn’t stay there very long, for there weren’t the wonderful fish that you see in Bermuda waters. The angel fish cannot live here at all it would seem. The King cosied-up in the corner of the elevated train, and come home to rest for Zoeth and Grace Freeman came to dine and to meet ABP. AB wasn’t very well, and so not very bright, but Grace was scintillating [MTP: IVL TS 447-48].