21 Fifth Ave - Day By Day

May 11 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

May 11 Saturday – Though Sam’s stay was planned for five days, including a tour of the bay on a special steamer, and a possible visit Sunday to the First Presbyterian Church, but Sam and Isabel Lyon cut it short, leaving this morning, and escorted as far as Baltimore by Governor Warfield [Nolan & Tomlinson 4, 6-7].  

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Home again, the King to Tuxedo, I to No. 21” [MTP TS 56].

May 11 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Margaret Frohman has sent me a darling colonial tea service” [MTP: IVL TS 53].

A.C. Furbush wrote from Georgetown, Conn., hearing of Sam’s plans to donate books to start a library in West Redding at the Umpawaug Chapel. Furbush argued that Clemens’ books would get better exposure if he donated them to Georgetown’s library, which was recently started by laboring people [MTP].

May 12 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Isabel V. Lyon in Dublin N.H. (only the envelope survives) [MTP]. Note: judging from Lyon’s journal entry below, this likely was a telegram with news of Clara’s condition, and news that he was not ready to come to Dublin quite yet.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Santissima’s temperature is normal. There are no complications, but Mr. Clemens won’t come yet” [MTP TS 57]. Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Telegram this morning. / Pulse 80. Temperature 99. / Everything satisfactory [MTP TS 18].

May 12 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Busy with Santa, sleep and packing in the afternoon” [MTP TS 56].

May 12 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick.

You dear little Dorothy, it was very fortunate that you escaped the pinkeye, for although a cold is bad, pinkeye is worse, & is a stubborn & painful malady.

I shall look for you Saturday morning with high anticipations. We’ve got a box for “Girls,” & they say it is very good, & is clean & wholesome & hasn’t any of that horrible ballet-dancing in it, such as we saw last Saturday.

May 13 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: We walked around the Lake, Jean and I—a beautiful walk. The native people are so gentle and sweet-eyed, with soft lazy speech. We met a couple of men who had a setter with them. The owner eyed Prosper and said “I reckon my dawg won’t hurt him.” We found a glorious bank of violets, painted trillium, and trailing “Hobble bush.” You don’t always find it trailing. “Nature’s Garden” makes the country so enjoyable and it is so interesting to hear from Mr. Clemens and Jean how sweet and lovely Neltje Blanchan is [MTP TS 57].

May 13 Monday – Sam addressed a letter from Tuxedo Park N.Y. “(Summer residence)” to Harry Windsor Dearborn.

As I have not heard from you I am taking it for granted that Mr. Vanderbilt, on behalf of the [Fulton] Monument Association, has invited Mr. Cleveland already, or will invite him as soon as he gets back from Europe July 1.

And so I have today, by letter, invited Mr. & Mrs. Cleveland to be my guests in the Kanawha; I invite but one other guest.

May 13 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote a letter of introduction for George M. Robinson, wealthy Elmira furniture maker, to Bram Stoker. “This is George Robinson, a friend of mine of 40 years’ standing, & I hope you will tell him the things he wishes to know, for Clara’s sake & mine” [MTP]. Note: George M. Robinson was a lineal descendant of John Robinson, one of the Mayflower emigrants of 1620. See Aug. 20, 1890 entry, Vol. II. Also, the reference to Clara and the need for Sam’s note become clear by this May 14, 1908, p.

May 14 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Evening now, and the voices of Jean and Italian Teresa come to me as Jean is having her usual confab with Teresa. How their voices rise and fall in the sweet Italian cadences.

The summer, the months and weeks and days and hours must count for many things done when they are ended. I mustn’t write down what I want to do for then they won’t be done. Only everyday I must think toward their completion [MTP TS 57].

May 14 Monday – Carl Schurz, statesman, reformer, and Secretary of the Interior under Rutherford B. Hayes, died in N.Y.C.

At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam sent his sympathies to the Carl Schurz family.

May 14 Tuesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Katonah, N.Y., relating his stops since May. In part: (see prior references to this letter for text excised here).  

Oh, you dear Jean, it shan’t happen again. The next time I go to see you I shall select the train that will give me the longest time with you. Your letter has been lying here some 7 days—but I haven’t been here.

May 14 Thursday – Sam left 21 Fifth Ave. at 10 a.m., sat on the platform for the City College Ceremonies for three and a half hours, then returned home at 3 p.m. and an hour later took a walk: “At 4 I walked out to 57th street & made a call, then came back in the ’bus—for it was raining” [May 15 to Jean]. In the evening he gave a speech for the banquet of the Alumni of the City College, below:

May 15 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “I’m anxious about the Aeolion. It doesn’t come and there is no word from it. Every day Mr. Clemens sends telegrams telling of C.C’s condition. Every day it has improved” [MTP TS 57]. Note: the referred to telegrams are not extant, but when Lyon gives specifics of Clara’s condition it is clear she has rec’d word from Clemens.

May 15 Wednesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam replied to the May 9 from Galveston, Texas Judge and poet John A. Kirlicks (1852-1923):

May 15 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Greenwich, Conn.  

May 16 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote an introductory letter for his nephew Samuel Moffett to Bellamy Storer, American ambassador to Vienna, Austria.

I beg that you will allow me the privilege of introducing to your favor my nephew S. E. Moffett, one of the editors of “Collier’s Weekly” who is sent to Europe to gather some facts from governmental sources, & if you can send him to the officials he needs to see, I shall be very grateful. I vouch for his honorable character, his discretion & his honesty. He will do your kindness no discredit.

May 16 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “C.C. came and finds it charming” [MTP TS 57].

Frances F. Cleveland (Mrs. Grover Cleveland) wrote from Princeton to Sam.

May 16 Saturday – Dorothy Quick arrived in New York for a visit and stay-over at Sam’s house until Monday, May 18. With Isabel Lyon, the pair had tickets for “Girls” at Daly’s Theatre:

May 17 Wednesday – With Clara Clemens out of danger from her appendectomy, Sam left N.Y.C. and traveled to Boston, Mass., where he took rooms at the Hotel Touraine. There he wrote on hotel stationery to Thomas Bailey Aldrich and Lilian W. Aldrich.

I came from New York, arriving in time to dine with you, but I couldn’t raise you on the telephone, so I am turning in, disappointed. You are out dissipating, I suppose.