December 28 Wednesday – Dr. Matthew Gaffney wrote from Newark to Sam. He’d written before asking for “Just a word” about Rev. Dr. Edward McGlynn and Henry George, to be included in a bio of the former [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter that she’d written him saying in time his letter would be put in front of Sam, who had been ill.
December 29 Thursday – Marion von Kendler wrote from Vienna, Austria to Sam, noting the old year had been a cruel one for him and wishing him better with healing of time in the new year [MTP].
December 30 Friday – Herbert Ashcroft of the Koy -Lo Co. wrote to Sam. “I am today in receipt of a cable from my brother stating that the London Plasmon Company will not make any contract and that they prefere to stand the ‘freeze out’ with which they are threatened. He also confirms …that he will return on the ‘Lucania’ arriving her probably Saturday morning, the 7th prox.” [MTP].
E. Prentiss Bailey of the Utica Observer (NY) wrote to Sam.
December 31 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “The puppy & the Christian are born blind. The puppy gets over it” [NB 47 TS 17].
George Standring sent Sam a 3×4” card with his name nicely written in the center, and in the upper left corner, was printed:
“A PLAIN CARD: FROM A PLAIN MAN: WITH NEW YEAR GREETING; WISHING YOU ALL THE GOOD YOU CAN REASONABLY HOPE FOR OR DESIRE IN THE YEAR NOW ABOUT TO BEGIN—–FROM GEORGE STANDRING TO” [MTP].
January [1905]– In N.Y.C. Sam spent the last part of December and all of January in bed, recovering from another case of bronchitis, followed by attacks of gout in his feet [Jan. 8 Lyon to Whitmore; Jan. 25 to Crane].
Sam wrote to the International Plasmon Co., London
January 1905-December 1909 – Sam wrote two drafts to be used to unidentified persons, thanking for a letter rec’d. In the first draft he saw no objection to the translation of Sam’s article on JA “for private circulation,” but that permission would have to come from Chatto & Windus; in the second draft he did not mention a specific work of his but referred the writer to Harper & Brothers [MTP]. Note: these two notes were likely boiler-plate to be used to many requests for use of Sam’s work.
January 1 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: contains a list of things to do lined through as if completed:
January 2 Monday Sam’s notebook: contains an aphorism circled, followed by a list of things to do lined through as if completed:
January 3 Tuesday – Charles Langdon wrote to Sam, enclosing a check for $120, payment of coupons on bonds (Park Co. Montana, and General Electric Co.) which had been owned by Susie Clemens [MTP].
Sam’s notebook:
Reduce p.c. on Congo.
Do you want Jean’s new article?
Man born with fal[s]e teeth
Palmistry article [with hand pointing up to next page] [NB 47A TS 1].
January 4 Wednesday – The Aberdeen (S.D.) Daily News, p. 2, “Mark Twain’s Pranks” reported reminiscences by Captain H. Lacy, who was born in Hannibal in 1839. Lacy claims it was not Jim Wolfe who was the victim of the famous skeleton-in-bed prank (sometime in the 1840s), but “a tramp printer named Snell,” who “blew into Hannibal one day and was given work on the paper.” Lacy claimed to be along on the prank; his account offers not only adifferent victim than has been imagined (see MTL 1: 18n4; also Ch. 23 TA) but a different outcome:
January 5 Thursday – Literally thousands of articles, reprints, and mentions of Mark Twain appeared in American newspapers from coast to coast during this period. This tidbit, from the Dallas Morning News, p. 6, borrowed from an unspecified issue of Harper’s Weekly:
What Is In a Name.
Mark Twain once went into a restaurant and sat down at a table near a solitary man who had just arrived and was giving his order to the waiter.
January 6 Friday – In San Remo, Italy, William Dean Howells wrote to Sam.
January 7 Saturday – Sam’s notebook:
“60 years ago, optimist & fool were not synonymous terms. This is a greater change than that wrought by science & invention. It is the mightiest change that was ever wrought in the world in any 60 years since creation” [NB 47A TS 3].
January 8 Sunday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon wrote to Harriet E. Whitmore (Mrs. Franklin G. Whitmore). Excerpted here only the passages dealing with the Clemens family:
January 9 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
The days fly busily along. There seems no chance of ever settling the house. Mr. Clemens is still in his bed—and the best things in the day are the games of 500 beside his bed. We play on a big square cigar box. Today a long gaunt reporter from “The World” came to have Mr. Clemens comment upon an account of himself. He tried to extract information from me, but I am solemnly non-committal [MTP: TS 36-37].
January 10 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Today busy with check book and uninteresting mail during the morning. Mr. Clemens is still in his bed, but looks very much better than he did, and today Dr. Quintard pronounced him nearly normal. I played over the Tschaikowsky Finale of the Sonata Pathetique today. It is very beautiful.
January 11 Wednesday – On or just after this day at 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam responded to a questionnaire (“Questions Pertaining to Medical Legislation”) sent by Andrew C. Biggs, a “non-Medical physician” sent this day, from Greensboro, N.C. To all but two of the questions Sam either answered “no” or left unanswered. To the other two:
4. In your opinion, are the medical practice laws now in force in some of the states, drawn solely in behalf of the general public? If not, what other purpose do they serve?
January 12 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Mr. Twichell has been very interesting in his description of the way that General Sickles lost his leg in the battle of Gettysburg. Mr. Twichell was chaplain in Gen. Sickles’ regiment. / Today Mr. & Mrs. Twichell left” [MTP: TS 37]. Note: Daniel Edgar Sickles (1823-1914), General, NY Congressman, attorney. See AMT 1: 565-6 for more on Sickles.
Isabel Lyon’s journal #2: Miss Harrison deposited $800 in the Manhattan bank credit of Haskard & Co. Horace
January 13 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “I have lost 2 days of real living owing to my strange headache. Mr. Clemens is still in bed. Gout again. We play cards every evening. Today Mother went to the Customs Office and found there Don Raffaello’s gift to me. A book in a bottle, very realistic” [MTP: TS 37].
January 14 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Trying to catch up the threads lost by that eadache. It is David’s [her nephew] birthday” [MTP: TS 37].
January 15 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Today has been very full of the joy of living. I wrote letters and read some in the morning. Looked out of my window just in time to see dear Mother look up at me on her way home from Church and in the afternoon she came over. Later I played cards with my chief. Some day the penalty for having such perfect living will come [MTP: TS 37]. Note: on Jan. 3, 1933 she added a note to this entry that “No penalty attaches itself to perfect living. No penalties ever attach themselves to joys.”
January 16 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Very busy with much writing to do. Mother came in the afternoon. I went this evening to a Beethoven concert with Francesca and Rosamond—such sweet children. There was a stupid lecture on Beethoven and then 3 beautiful numbers. I met Mrs. Nowell, the one who sketched Mr. Clemens for The Outlook—and some Tuesday I am going up for a dish of tea with her. I had a late game of cards with Mr. Clemens, on my return from the concert [MTP: TS 37]. Note: Kate Rogers Nowell.
January 17 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Busy every moment. / (Dublin note—July 7, 1905) Mr. Clemens takes up a novel and begins in the middle and swings along to the finish” [MTP: TS 38]. Note: just why she added this to Jan. 17 is not known. Isabel Lyon’s journal #2: “Today Mr. Clemens sat for several hours in the study. Gout Continues. Miss Harrison sent a check to Mr. Larkin for $841.21 for transfer tax to be paid on Mrs.Clemens’s estate” [MTP TS 2].
January 18 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Today Santissima’s beautiful black cat Bambino arrived. Katie brought it down in a cab. A patient in Santissima’s sanitarium cannot stand cats and she is to be there for a fortnight. It is Mr. Dana’s birthday” [MTP: TS 38]. Isabel Lyon’s journal# 2: “Mr. Clemens took more cold when he sat in the Study yesterday, and today he is not so well” [MTP TS 2].
January 19 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave. Jean Clemens wrote for her father to Anne Sullivan.
My dear Miss Sullivan; / As Father is still ill in bed with gout he cannot write you himself and has therefor asked me to do so for him.
He was of course very much pleased to hear of your happy engagement, especially so as he once met M Macy, at Mrs. Hutton’s, I believe.