January 20 Friday – Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote on Koy-Lo Co.letterhead to Sam, concerning ongoing disputes with Howard E. Wright and the American Plasmon Co. “The other day, I came across the card of admission issued by Hammond to Butters in connection with the ‘freeze-out’ game. I enclose it” [MTP].
January 22 Sunday – “Bloody Sunday” (or “Red Sunday”) in St. Petersburg, Russia was the impetus for Mark Twain’s “The Czar’s Soliloquy,” written shortly after this day. (See Jan. 30, and Feb. entries.) Peaceful demonstrators petitioning Czar Nicholas II were gunned down by the Imperial guard. Budd writes:
January 23 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Sent card to Mrs Clander, for Mr. Clemens” [MTP TS 2].
George B. Harvey wrote to Sam, soliciting him to attend the “little dinner to the Archbishop Thursday evening,” urged by Mr. O’Day [MTP]. Note: this may be Daniel O’Day.
January 24 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, casting his vote for the election of Thomas Bailey Aldrich as the fifteenth member of that select group. On Dec. 2, 1904 Sam had been one of the original seven elected [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Today mother and I did some shopping together. It was blustery, but fine. Ugo is going away tomorrow. / Mr. Clemens is still in his bed, though better” [MTP: TS 38]. Note: Ugo Piemontini, the Italian servant brought back from Florence.
January 25 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Susan Crane.
January 26 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal #2: “French butler Leon arrived today. / Sale of Tarry Town property closed today. Mr. Benjamin has had charge of the sale” [MTP TS 3]. Note: Leon not further identified.
January 27 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal #2: “Mr. Langdon arrived this evening at 9:45” [MTP TS 3].
William Evarts Benjamin wrote to Sam concerning papers he’d handed him the day before on the Tarrytown property. Complexities regarding a Trolley Co. encroachment, ownership of half the adjoining streets and “other papers relating to the matter are in charge of” Mr. Andrew M. Clute, Sam’s attorney on the matters [MTP].
January 28 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to William L. Alden.
I thank you heartily for giving me a chance to read it. Your article has given me great pleasure, special pleasure. It requires courage to say what you have said; few can run counter to an accepted & established popular notion & not lose nerve in the transit. We have all seen it, many times.
January 29 Sunday – Harper & Brothers wrote to Sam.
We have an inquiry for the following sketches: “The Grateful Poodle,” “The Benevolent Author,” “The Grateful Husband,” which we are unable to indentify. Our correspondent states that all appeared in the Atlantic Monthly. It occurs to us that possibly these are not independent sketches or that the sketches were reproduced in book form under another title. Can you give us any information? [MTP].
On this day or just after Harper’s above letter arrived, Sam answered:
January 30 Monday – Robert Galbraith wrote from Tarrytown, NY to Sam, having rec’d his letter (not extant) and check on Monday. He’d been kept busy shoveling snow that blew back at night [MTP]. Note: Sam’s letter had likely been sent on Saturday, Jan. 28.
January 31 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal #2: “Pay Rent, / Check for Mrs. Greening – 25.00” [MTP TS 3]. Note: Tabitha Quarles Greening (“Puss”).
February – Clemens inscribed a copy of TS (1903 ed.) to an unidentified person: “One of the most striking and convincing differences between a lie & a cat is, that the cat has only nine lives. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain / Feb. 1905” [MTP: listed in Profiles in History, Oct. 2005, no. 40, item 130].
February 1 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal#2: Mr. Clemen’s preferences for new members to the national Institute of Arts and Letters.
February 2 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s Journal: “Colonel Harvey is here. Mr. Clemens creeps about the house a little, but mostly he stays in bed. Mother comes over every day to sit in my little warm room. Bambino Bronchitis Clemens grows ever better as a cat” [MTP: TS 39]. Note: “Bambino” for short.
Isabel Lyon’s journal #2: “Miss Clemens is now well enough to read. I sent down for Plato and the Iliad & Byron. She has gained 5 ½ pounds, and is allowed to sit up a little while each day” [MTP TS 4].
February 2, ca. – Isabel V. Lyon wrote responding for Sam to Arthur Newall’s Jan. 24 inquiry about obtaining a copy of 1601, writing on the bottom of Newall’s letter: “Mr. Clemens still has no copy & in every case where he thought he was on the track of one it failed—” [MTP].
February 3 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Today we have the news that Santissima can sit up a little and she is beginning to read a little too. She sends down for Plato and Byon and the Iliad and dry essays. All the morning Mr. Clemens has been revising the Russian article and this afternoon he read me the revision. I was glad to hear that Col. Harvey said it was the strongest thing he had ever written. It is wonderful [MTP: TS 39]. Notes: The Czar’s Soliloquy ran in the Mar. issue of the NAR. Gribben (549) mistakes this journal entry for Feb. 2.
February 4 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Isabel Lyon Sam replied for to Elizabeth (Ann Chase) Akers Allen (Elizabeth C. Akers), whose incoming question about the source of the verse on Susy’s headstone is not extant.
February 5 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal #2: “Mr. Johnson called this afternoon” [MTP TS 4]. Note: likely Robert Underwood Johnson.
February 6 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon wrote to Harriet E. Whitmore (Mrs. Franklin G. Whitmore).
This is just a hasty little note to tell you that Katie is planning to run up to Hartford on Thursday of this week to look after and bring away the boxes in the Safety Deposit vaults. If you have the keys will you kindly give them to M . Whitmore so that Katie can get them from his office?
February 7 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Mr. Reeves was here this morning to talk over the renting of the house in Vermont” [MTP TS 4].
William Evarts Benjamin wrote to Sam, enclosing a check for $1,000 from Title, Guarantee & Trust Co., on the Tarrytown property matters, and thought the prospects bright for getting back another $500 [MTP]. Note: monies were held in escrow to insure clear title; notably, removal of the Trolley Co.’s encroachment.
February 8 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam replied to a not extant from David A. Munro, possibly the galley sheets mentioned below in Lyons journal #2 entry.
February 9 Thursday – Lucy Page Whitehead wrote to Sam on a small black-bordered card. “Don’t you think it would do you good to come to Washington for the Inauguration?” [MTP].
On or after this day at 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C., Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to Lucy Page Whitehead. Sam declined to go to Washington for the inauguration, pleading slow recovery to his two-month long illness [MTP].
Isabel also wrote to Harriet E. Whitmore.
February 10 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s Journal: “…Mr. Clemens is writing another soliloquy, King Leopold’s—who is gloating over and excusing to himself the Congo atrocities” [MTP: TS 39; Hill 100] Note: See Feb. 21 Lyon entry.
February 11 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Charles D. Burrage.
February 12 Sunday – Samuel E. Belt wrote from Greenwood B.C. to Sam.
“I am collecting facts about the blowing up of the ‘Saluda’ at Lexington, Mo, being a nephew of the ill-fated Captain,” Francis Thomas Belt. He didn’t simply want an autograph but asked Sam for anything he might be able to tell him about the case [MTP].