21 Fifth Ave - Day By Day

April 25 Thursday – Sam was on the Kanawha bound for Jamestown, Va. According to Lyon’s journal entry below, he sent a telegram upon arrival—if 17 hours from 1:30 p.m. Apr. 24, the arrival was approx. . 7 a.m.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Telegram that the King had swift good passage. 17 hours” [MTP TS 54]. Note. telegram not extant.

A.K. Wright, Minister, Church of Christ, San Jacinto, Calif. wrote to Sam, enclosing a newspaper clipping of his poem, “The Desert” [MTP].

April 25 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Helen Schuyler Allen.

I miss you ever so much, you dear Helen. There’s been a queer & constant reminder of you— salt in my hair—ever since that pleasant bath, until an hour ago when I washed it out with 5 separate & distinct soapings & scourings.

April 26 Wednesday – Clemens had a discussion with Louis E. Van Norman concerning his ideas for Postal Checks (money orders) [Apr. 27 from Van Norman].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The chronicling isn’t gay. Bambino’s doom in sealed. He must go— yesterday he was sweeter than usual, but that was only the beginning of his dear older ways. Oh, little cat—it’s so very dreadful” [MTP TS 54].

Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: Sent Mrs. Tabitha Greening’s check.

Palmyra, mo

Mr van Norman came from Review of Reviews to talk about Postal check matter.

April 26 Friday – Sam was in Old Point Comfort, Va. In his May 2 to Clara, Sam wrote of the first day that it was “sunny and bright.” After that the fog rolled in.

“But the first day was very gay, & really paid for the excursion. I blundered into the Virginia building, thinking it was the Maryland one; but it was all right: the Governor was holding a reception & I took it off his hands. It gave him a rest & he was thankful. I knew him & his wife before.”

April 26 Sunday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Eden Phillpotts.

Dear Mr. Phillpotts:

The Human Boy Again has arrived, & I have just begun it & am greatly enjoying it. Meantime (in Bermuda) I read—& re-read—The Mother of the Man, with high admiration. A great book!

I wish I had energy enough to resume work upon one or two of my several half-finished books —but that is a dream, & won’t ever come true. / Cordially your friend … [MTP].

April 27 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to William Dean Howells.

April 27 Friday – In the evening at 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Gertrude Natkin.

April 27 Saturday – Sam was in the Fort Monroe, Va. area after seeing the Jamestown Exposition, having a “foggy & gashly time!” In his May 2 to Clara he wrote that after the first day:

April 27 Monday –  Helen Schuyler Allen wrote to Sam.

My dear Mr. Clemens, / I was afraid that possibly you had forgotten to write me, so decided I would write you first, and tell you how much I have missed you, I shall always remember the lovely times we had together and particularly our fine swim that last day you were in Bermuda.

When ever I use my camera I think of you, and how kind you were to help me get it. Please do write me soon. I remain you loving and devoted “Angel-fish” / Helen Schuyler Allen

April 28 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Andrew Carnegie.

Dear St. Andrew: / For thirty-eight years I have striven for the position of world’s benefactor, but you have gotten the start of me, I am too old to struggle longer—take the place, you’ve won it fair! If you had told me of this great thing when you were at my bedside the other day I would have resigned without waiting till now; & you could have had my halo, too. It may be tin, but no matter, it’s good tin, & paid the duty when it came down.

April 28 Saturday – Sam wrote to Gertrude Natkin, his letter not extant but referred to in Natkin’s reply of early May. From the context of her reply, Sam asked her if she would like to have an autographed photo of himself for her room [MTP].

April 28 Sunday – Sam was in the Fort Monroe, Va. area.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Mrs. Baker came—stricken. Thompson came—pastels. I’m not well” [MTP TS 54].

Dorothy Butes wrote from the Hotel Majestic (NY?) to thank Sam for his “lovely book” JA. She’d been “chuckling over CS and his criticism of Mrs. Eddy’s English.” She offered an anecdote from her Latin class about a classmate, Lorraine, who she described as “about a hundred and sixy pounds, who tries to be kittenish” [MTP].

April 28 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Nancy Langhorne Astor.

I am very sorry to hear that you have been sick, & very glad to believe that you are well again.

I wonder if I am really to have the lark of darting over to England & back, in the summer? The thought of it is enticing, but—There’s always a but. I do not suppose I can go—still, it is good enough material to dream upon, till by & by.

April 29 before – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Emily B. Hapgood : “Dear M . Hapgood: / Mr. Clemens wishes me to write for him—and say that he will be very happy if you and Mr. Hapgood can dine with him and Miss Jean on Saturday evening Apr. 29th at half past seven” [MTP].

April 29 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “No news from the King, and I’m down with something. Pains almost unendurable and a temperature” [MTP TS 54-55].

In Fort Monroe, Va., Sam telegraphed Isabel Lyon: “Delayed indefinitely by fog. Clemens” [MTP]. Note: Lyon mentions this the following day.

H.H. Rogers and son Harry Rogers left the Kanawha and returned to N.Y. by rail [NY Times May 4, p.1, “Twain and Yacht Disappear at Sea”].

April 29 Wednesday– Sam wrote a sketch unpublished until 2009: “Dr. Van Dyke as a Man and as a Fisherman”  [Who Is Mark Twain? xxvi, 87-94]. Note: title assigned by the MTP. Undoubtedly the sketch owes itself to an Atlantic article in the May 1908 issue by Henry Bradford Washburn, “Shall We Hunt and Fish? The Confessions of a Sentimentalist,” where Washburn opens with a quotation from Van Dyke’s “Some Remarks on Gulls, with a Foot-note on a Fish,” Scribner’s Magazine Aug. 1907. In his A.D.

April 3 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Mother and I went to a delicious little restaurant, Italian—around in 10th Street. There we met Lilian Griffin. We had a friendly chat and enjoyed the Chianti and the macaroni. The Griffins’s have a studio here on 25th St. and Walter is painting portraits. Lilian is quite stout and looks matronly.

The Aphrodite is going to be placed on exhibition again. I must manage a view of it, and the exhibition of pictures too, up on 57th Street [MTP TS 49-50]. Note: see also Sam’s of Feb. 26.

April 3 Wednesday – In Elmira, N.Y. Sam attended a recital of the unique Robert Hope- Jones organ in Park Church. Jerome & Wisbey write:

It was on April 3, 1907…that this instrument was put through its melodic paces for probably the most critical audience that could be assembled—a group of New York’s leading organists. They came to Elmira in a special car on the Lackawanna….

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 30 Sunday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to St. Clair McKelway.

Dear McKelway,—Your innumerable friends are grateful, most grateful.

As I understand the telegrams, the engineer of your train had never seen a locomotive before. Very well, then I am once more glad that there is an Ever-watchful Providence to foresee possible results and send Ogdens and McIntyres along to save our friends.

April 30 Tuesday – On the yacht Kanawha in Old Point Comfort, Virginia, Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka asking him to send a green cloth set of his books to H.H. Rogers to the yacht at the N.Y.C. pier, foot of E. 23 [MTP]. Note: the NY Times article of May 4, p.1, included a bit about this day: