July 1 Monday – Clara Clemens and Isabel Lyon were on board the Red Cross liner Rosalind from New York off the coast of Halifax, Nova Scotia when it collided with the coast steamer Senlac. The Rosalind was not damaged, but the other vessel was, all passengers escaping to the Rosalind. “Miss Clemens says that, instead of going to St. John’s, as she intended, she will return to New York” [NY Times, July 2, p.2, “Steamer Run Down by Liner Rosalind”]. See IVL’s journal entry below.
21 Fifth Ave - Day By Day
July 10 Monday – Sam wrote to G.E. Stechert & Co., New York, ordering a subscription to the German periodical, Simplicissimus; Illustrierte Wochenschrift. Sam’s letter is not extant but referred to in the company’s reply of July 12.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: This afternoon Mr. Clemens came down with the day’s ms. –“44” turns time backward in order to accommodate the ghosts who’ve been invited to the ghost dance.— He was so handsome as he sat reading with lovely color in his cheeks, and his eyes flashing. Such a delight.
July 10 Tuesday – At noon, 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Dublin, N.H.
July 10 Wednesday – Ashcroft’s notes: “Went to Liverpool with Tay Pay. Attended banquet in the Town Hall in the evening” [MTB 1399]. Note: “Tay Pay” was T.P. O’Connor.
Insert Cartoon. Caption: “Mark Twain and the Jumping John Bull Frog have been having a good time together” [The Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury, July 9, 1907, p. 9].
The Evening Standard and London St. James’s Gazette reported on Sam’s departure for Liverpool.
MARK TWAIN
“DIOGENES AND HIS LANTERN”
NEW YORK, July 11 1905.
To the Editor of Harper’s Weekly:
July 11 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.):
July 11 Thursday – Ashcroft’s notes: “Returned to London with Tay Pay. Calls in the afternoon” [MTB 1399].
In Liverpool, England Sam sent a telegram to Henry Rawcliffe Kirkland in West Kirby, England:
“Very very sorry not to have seen you please accept my cordial thanks for your kind letter and my hearty wish for renewed health and strength for you / Mark Twain” [MTP].
July 12 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote his plans to Isabel V. Lyon in Dublin, N.H.
Checks received & banked.
We sail at 9 a.m. to-morrow, for over-Sunday. [to Fairhaven]
I resume business here on Monday, when Col. Harvey arrives. I shall expect to be here all the week [MTP]. Note: in her July 13 journal entry, Lyon calls this “a note not so big as a post scriptum.”
July 12 Friday – At Brown’s Hotel in London Sam wrote to daughter Clara, a letter which reveals his activities this final day in England:
Clärchen dear, we sail tomorrow in the Minnetonka (I think.)
We are due to arrive in 8 or 9 days.
I have been most mannerly & etiquetical. I have returned every call—card-calls by card, delivered by myself; personal calls in person.
July 13 Friday – In the a.m. Sam and H.H. Rogers sailed again for Fairhaven on the Kanawha [July 12 to Lyon].
Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.):
“Zarathustra” has arrived!
July 13 Saturday – The Pall Mall Gazette, announced the leaving of Mark Twain.
Tonight at dinner Mr. Clemens talked about Mahommed [sic] and the wonder of him
Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Wrote Mr. Duneka, suggesting that the word ‘Damn’ be struck from the title of You’re a Damnfool Mary, you always was” [MTP TS 23].
July 14 Saturday – Sam was at the Rogers’ residence in Fairhaven, Mass. for a weekend stay [July 12 and July 16 to Lyon].
Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.):
Here am I reading “Thus spoke Zarathrustra” & I do not pretend to be qualified to say how wonderful I find it. …
July 14 Sunday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka. This from a Mark Twain dispatch to the NY Times from London, July 17: “Left the Channel Sunday at 1:50 in doubtful weather and sighted the Scilly Islands ten miles off. At 6 o’clock ran into a dense fog, which broke into patches during the night” [July 18, p.4, “From Twain by Wireless”].
Harry E. Brittain wrote from Westminster to send Sam a photo that appeared in the Sphere; he asked Ashcroft if he could obtain Sam’s autograph on the photo [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Tonight Jean came home. I drove over to Harrisville for her. Tired and big eyed and pale and hungry and full of C.C. and doings. Ugo is back again in the employ of Casa Clemens.
July 15 Sunday – Sam was at the Rogers’ residence in Fairhaven, Mass. for a weekend stay [July 12 and July 16 to Lyon].
Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.): “I am alone today;—wonderfully alone! / All the morning I had a rich solitude here in my room, reading Nietzche & theosophy… / A solitary luncheon—more reading—& then at 4.30 lovely Gladys Thayer came, & we had tea & talk together. I played for her the Tannhauser Overture & Grieg & Träumerer, before she left to hurry home” [MTP TS 96-97].
July 15 Monday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka. The ship struck a small French bark, the Sterling on this day. New York Tribune, July 20, p.7:
Steamer Minnetonka, at sea, July 20.
July 16 Monday – N.Y.C. 10 a.m. Sam wrote to Isabel V. Lyon in Dublin, N.H.
“I have just arrived. Please thank my nephew Sam Moffett for me, & say I wonder at his sending a valuable letter to ‘Redding,’ a place I have no recollection of ever having heard of in my life. Preserve his statistics. / With love to Jean” [MTP].
July 16 Tuesday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka.
Cooley writes of the time aboard ship and of a new acquaintance made with one of the younger of 129 passengers during the voyage, likely early on:
You dear, read these & return them. No, there is no need of “private”—no one will open your letter. Do not write about the letters —it is a secret of mine—just return them without comment.
Jean & I were out from 5 yesterday until 8, calling, & had a good time. We sup with Raphael Pumpelly this evening.
July 17 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.):
Jean, 3:30
July 17 Wednesday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka. Sam came down with another case of bronchitis on this day [July 29 to Rogers].
John Briggs, Hannibal boyhood pal, died near New London, Mo. (1837-1907) see entries Vol 1.