Tyringham Day By Day

October 27 Thursday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to daughter Jean.

Dear Jean: / Let Miss Lyon tell them your registered-letter address “will be as above for the next few weeks while the dwelling at 21 Fifth avenue is undergoing repairs.” Don’t let them return the certificates to Lee. Sign in ink, Jean, wherever I have written your name in pencil. Let the witness sign where the penciled cross is.

This has been an awful secretarial job. My brains are absolutely caked with its perplexities. I haven’t sworn so much in three days.

October 28 Friday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Joe Twichell.

It is good & relieving news that you send me about Joe. Now, then, let him make a sacrifice for his mother’s sake & call Jean’s hand: * [at bottom margin: * Ecclesiastical poker term] Jean has given up horse-back riding, for my sake. I shall try to make it up to her some way.

October 29 Saturday – Sam inscribed each of the 23 volumes of the new Hillcrest Edition of his works, using a different aphorism (most from “Pudd’nhead Wilsons New Caledar” in FE) just out by Harper & Brothers, to William R. Coe, H.H. Rogers’ son-in-law. Volume one is not extant and only five is dated.

To Will R. Coe with the kindest regards of The Author. October 29, 1904.”

October 31 Monday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Charles Erskine Scott Wood. Dear Wood: / I have read “A Masque of Love” with strong pleasure. It is a beautiful poem & wise & deep. What Alp shall you subdue next? You were an able instructor of West Point lads in the science of war; then you took up the law & distinguished yourself in that profession; & now you have proven that you are a poet. Well, go on, old time friend; the more triumphs you achieve the better will be pleased [MTP].

October 4 Tuesday – The postponed dedication of the Fairhaven church ( Unitarian Memorial ) that Rogers built and dedicated to his mother. (See Sept. 21) was carried out this day; in his Oct. 7 to Lyon, Sam claimed he’d been “too busy dedicating churches in Fairhaven” to write Jean. It’s not known just when he went to Fairhaven, nor how long he stayed, but the Oct. 7 note suggested he was at least there the day of dedication, which was Oct. 4. The lack of any outgoing letters for the prior weekend suggests perhaps he spent several days in Fairhaven.

October 7 Friday – In N.Y.C. at the Grosvenor Hotel, Sam dictated a letter to Ralph W. Ashcroft for Isabel V. Lyon about the purchase of stock from Ashcroft.

Dear Miss Lyon: / Please fill up stub of check No. 68 in the Guaranty Trust Co. with the amount: “$4000,” the name: “R. W. Ashcroft,” and the explanation: “first payment completing purchase of International Spirit Pen [sic Spiral Pin] Co. stock.”

Please also send me another numbered Guaranty check, (in blank,) to the Grosvenor.

October 8 Saturday – George W. Hobbs of Hobbs Bros. Carriage Builders, Ninevah, NY, wrote a letter of condolence and admiration to Sam [MTP].

An unidentified person from Freemantle, Western Australia sent Sam a picture pamphlet of aborigines; no note enclosed [MTP].

October 9 Sunday – Muriel M. Pears wrote to Sam. She planned to sail for New York early in December and divide her “three short months” between NY and Washington. She thought it would be disloyal to pass through without seeing him [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Put this in the tin box. SLC”

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 10 Saturday – In N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore: “Where is the carved oak mantelpiece that stood in our library? Is it stored in Hartford?”[MTP].

September 11 Sunday – In N.Y.C. Sam replied on a banquet invitation sent by Melville Elijah Stone for the Associated Press. “Dear Mr. Stone: It is so long since I was at a banquet, that I probably shan’t know how to behave—still, I shall be there.” Sam added a request after his signature to please keep his “hotel address secret” [MTP]. Note: strangely the enclosed card was for a Sept. 22 banquet at the Claypool Hotel in Indianapolis, Ind. Sam did not travel to Indiana on that date, so the card was likely used for another event.

September 12 Monday – Carlo Paladini, journalist, wrote from Italy to Sam, hoping he was remembered, and asking for an American flag for his cottage, as he was unable to get one there; in exchange he would send “the best Chianti wine of our beloved Tuscany.” He also asked if the autobiography Sam wrote in Florence would be published, and asked after Sam’s “nice, beloved, bright daughters,” recalling Clara’s “voice of nightgale” [MTP].

September 14 Wednesday – Sam met Mr. & Mrs. H.H. Rogers at the pier as they disembarked from the Oceanic from Liverpool. The New York Times, Sept. 15, p.6, reported Rogers’ homecoming:

H. H. ROGERS HOME AGAIN. –––

Has Been Busy Having a Good Time—Mark Twain Meets Him.

September 15 Thursday – Sam, who was staying at the Hotel Wolcott in New York, accompanied by Ralph W. Ashcroft, went to see John Hays Hammond at his hotel, but discovered he was in Gloucester, Mass. Sam then sent the following telegram to Hammond:

NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 1904.

JOHN HAYS HAMMOND:

September 16 Friday – With Mr. and Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Sam left New York on the Kanawha for Fairhaven, Mass. to “help dedicate that church” (Unitarian Memorial Church), that Rogers built and dedicated to his mother. Sam would return on Sept. 22 [Oct. 23 to Crane; NY Times, Sept. 20, p.1 (below) ]. Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote to Sam. “As I’m to be in jail before sun down (so Wheeler says) I’ve written out my defence to his & Hammond’s charge & enclose it herewith. / Try to digest and assimilate it before Wednesday” [MTP].

September 17 Saturday – In the morning, the Kanawha arrived in Fairhaven, Mass. With Mark Twain, and Mr. and Mrs. H.H. Rogers. The New York Times, Sept. 20, p.1 reported:

H.H. ROGERS IS ILL. ——

Dedication of Fairhaven Church Postponed—Indisposition Slight.

Special to The New York Times.

September 18 Sunday – Sam was in Fairhaven, Mass.

September 19 Monday – Sam was in Fairhaven, Mass. Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote two letters to Sam. “Wheeler went to St. Louis with Hammond. / I enclose amended Second page of my ‘defence’ which please attach to the other pages, & destroy (or return to me Wednesday) the page it supplants.” His second letter discussed The International Spiral Pin Co. and stock which Sam might purchase. “On behalf of my uncle, Capt. W.D. Garside, of Melbourne, Australia, I hereby offer you all or any part of $6,000. of the preferred shares…” [MTP].

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].

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 20 Tuesday – Sam was in Fairhaven, Mass.

September 21 Wednesday – Sam was in Fairhaven, Mass. The dedication of the church was postponed; it finally took place on Oct. 4, 1904, and was reported on Oct. 8 by the Fairhaven Star. The article did not mention either Mark Twain nor Henry Rogers on those dates. However, Sam’s Oct. 7 to Lyon included a note that he’d breen “too busy dedicating churches in Fairhaven” to write Jean, which reveals Sam did attend the Oct. 4 event. Note: thanks to Carolyn Longworth, Millicent Library.

September 22 Thursday – Sam returned to N.Y.C. and wrote to Senator Odoardo Luchini in Florence.

Your kind letter of the 5th has just reached me from Lee, Mass., where Jean & Katy & Miss Lyon are occupying the cottage in the hills; Clara is in a rest-cure in a village in Connecticut, where she sees no one but the nurse & the doctor & neither writes letters nor reads them; I am kept constantly in New York.

I am very sorry Mr. Traverso has had an accident, & I hope he is well again by this time. Jean had one, but is well again. She & her horse… [etc.]

September 24 Saturday – William Evarts Benjamin wrote to Sam, enclosing a bill from C.H. Curtiss Co. for repairs to the Tarrytown house, which Sam offered to continue leasing, but turned down the tenant’s offer to purchase the house for what Sam paid, $45,000 [MTP].

September 25 Sunday – Cesare Bellucci wrote a short note to Sam in Italian from Florence [MTP].