March 12 Thursday – At the Princess Hotel in Hamilton, Bermuda Sam began a letter to Dorothy Quick that he added to on Mar. 13, and 16. Sam relates activities of this day, as well as time spent on Mar. 10 and 11.
My poor little Dorothy, I hope you are well again, & will write a line & tell me so. I wish you were here—you would be on your feet right away.
We are to be here about 20 days yet. We sail for New York April 1.
March 13 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Susan Crane. Only the bottom of the page survives: “Sue dear, beg for me with St. Peter if you get there first. He will remember me as the young fellow who tried for his place & couldn’t pass the examinations—at that time” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Muriel M. Pears, now in Washington, D.C.
March 13 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: The check has gone off for the Bermuda tickets, & we are to sail on Saturday. Mr. Howells came in to see the King this afternoon & said that Mrs. Howells is proposing to go to Bermuda on the 28th, but that he has to pretend indifference, otherwise she’d back down at once. For tht’s what she always does. It’s her illness that causes her to oppose anything that Mr. Howells wants to do.
March 13 Friday – At the Princess Hotel in Hamilton, Bermuda Sam added to his Mar. 12 to Dorothy Quick.
Friday, 9 p.m. This has been a lovely summer day, very brilliant & not uncomfortably warm. If you would only come, you could stop those deadly medicines & soon get well.
The ball has begun, & I think I will go down & look on.
March 14 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam replied to Joe Twichell’s Mar. 13.
Dear Joe,—I have a Puddn’head maxim:
“When a man is a pessimist before 48 he knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little.”
March 14 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam replied to Edward M. Foote’s Mar. 9 invitation:
March 14 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: This morning I mentioned R.U. Johnson not being at a meeting & the King let on to be astonished, & he said “Oh Jesus, No Johnson. Undershirt!” Mr. Rogers arrived pretty early & the King was in the bathroom; he came along the hall in his night clothes & his old red slippers, saying “Oh yes, oh yes, I reckon you’ll find that somebody else is up just as early as you are” & then as the door closed, followed the usual affectionate abuse of each other.
March 14 Saturday – At the Princess Hotel in Hamilton, Bermuda Sam began a letter to Frances Nunnally that he added a PS to on Mar. 16.
I was very glad to get your letter, Francesca dear, & also glad that you all escaped uninjured from the fire. But I hope you won’t be subjected to any more risks of that kind.
March 15 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to an unidentified woman (possibly Lucy J. Taylor, who wrote for the Quarter Club on Feb. 17 asking for signatures on Twain’s books) explaining Sam was not well enough to autograph “so many books,” but he would be glad to “autograph the ten extra volumes if that will do” [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Today Mr. Coburn came and photoed Jean and then he took six more of
March 15 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote an aphorism to Florence Watson- Cadieu, secretary of the Whidden Memorial Hospital Guild, Everett, Mass. “On the whole it is better to deserve honors and not have them, than have them & not deserve them. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain” [MTP].
Sam hosted a dinner for the Rogerses and Dr. Edward Quintard [Hill 124].
March 15 Friday – Sam sat for A.F. Bradley, a New York photographer. Isabel Lyon’s journal recorded the event:
March 15 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: The Yoke—Hubert Wales. / We lunched with Mrs. Peck today and had some wonderful Bermudian Pepperpot. The heart of it was a chicken and it had strange spices and pepper corns. It came on the table in what is called a buck kettle— a big black heavy old kettle, full of the flavor of many pepperpots.
March 16 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
March 16 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam began a siege with a bad cold which would keep him in bed until Mar. 23. He wrote to Gertrude Natkin:
To whom these presents shall come—greetings & salutation. And thereto—this: It’s postponed to April 10 , you little rascal. Unknown Friend” [MTAq 20].
Gertrude Natkin wrote a short reply:
March 16 Saturday – Sam, Isabel Lyon, and the “pretty young girl” Paddy Madden left on the Bermudian. The trip would be a five-day getaway for Sam, who was suffering from gout, but all but one day would be on board the ship. Also on the outward voyage Charles W. Eliot (1834-1926), president of Harvard, and Thomas D. Peck, woolen manufacturer from Pittsfield, Mass., were on board. Sam and Peck conducted a lottery on the ship to benefit the Cottage Hospital in Bermuda, the only civilian one there [D. Hoffman 78-9].
March 16 Monday – At the Princess Hotel in Hamilton, Bermuda Sam finished his Mar. 12 and 13 to Dorothy Quick.
March 16. The Bermudian has arrived, with / 60 bags of mail & 250 passengers. She sails to- morrow.
We don’t sail April 1. We have postponed to April 11. I am sorry, but Mr. Rogers is improving ever so fast, & we want him to stay as long as he will. Bermuda is better than four or five or six million doctors. Don’t you forget that, dear. / With lots of love [MTP].
March 17 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal #2: “Mr. Vernon called to see Mr. Clemens this morning” [MTP TS 8].
March 17 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to an unidentified person:
“Mr. Clemens not very well wishes me to thank you very much for your letter which greatly interested him—& that far from objecting to his translating the article into French it is a compliment which I accept with pleasure & hold at a high value—” [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
March 17 Sunday – Sam was en route to Bermuda on the Bermudian. It was now a two-day voyage.
March 17 Tuesday – Howells & Stokes sent another typed advisory about the Redding house under construction, specifically the wainscoting in the various bathrooms [MTP].
March 18 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Herr Heinick came for dinner tonight. The table talk wasn’t very brilliant for Mr. Clemens was tired (?) or didn’t like the man—(since, I’ve found that he didn’t like the man, for he had expected to find an old and wise professor.)
Life in this way is so vitally interesting. The hours are like pearls in a string and I hope that the cord that holds them is a strong one [MTP: TS 46].
March 18 Monday – Sam, Isabel Lyon, and Paddy Madden reached Bermuda.
March 18 Wednesday – Elisabeth Marbury wrote to Sam, enclosing their readers’ criticism of the JA play produced by John W. Postgate [MTP].
The New York Times, p. 7 “Great Men’s Letters Sold at Auction” reported that three letters from Mark Twain sold for greater amounts than those from Theodore Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, Andrew Carnegie, and others.