October 13 Friday – United Cigar Stores Co. in the Flatiron building, N.Y.C. wrote asking for permission to use Sam’s letter endorsing the La Tunita cigars. On or just after this day Isabel V. Lyon responded for Sam: “Mr. Clemens would like to do so—but the request comes so frequently that he has had to decline them all” [MTP].
21 Fifth Ave - Day By Day
October 13 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam added to his Oct. 11 and 12 to Mary B. Rogers.
9.30 a.m. Saturday
I have been editing this letter with the scissors—for I had put into it the very dismal news which I had spared you in that recent note. I went to that dinner-party at the MacVeagh’s palace last night—in white clothes. All the others of both sexes—in their noblest evening costumery. (But I know all those people familiarly.)
It is a time of surprises.
October 13 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: All day except when we went to Mrs. Hoyt’s for luncheon we have been playing Hearts and using Coffee beans for counters. Ashcroft makes a pleasant, bright, considerate and properly appreciative third hand. The King won everything, with occasional streaks of very bad luck, and on one occasion when he picked up a bad hand he said, “This would be a hell of a hand even in the Kingdom of Heaven.” He is so sweet and winsome to play with, and shouts with delight when I pile Hearts upon Mr.
October 14 Saturday – Thomas S. Barbour, of the Congo Reform Assoc., Boston, wrote to Sam, asking for a “few minutes at your place of entertainment” the following week when Sam planned to be in Boston [MTP]. Notes: MTP gives “on or after 14 October” for Lyon’s response for Sam. Oct. 14 is reasonable for a post to reach Dublin from Boston. The response: “Perhaps it would be better to call up Mr. Clemens at Pearmains address private”. Sumner Bass Pearmain and Alice Whittemore Upton Pearmain were active in Boston society, educational and social work.
October 14 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Mrs. William Cabot came out this afternoon for a quiet talk with me, recalling still more of the great depths of Gerry’s nature. Then Mrs. Pumpelly came in with Mrs. H. Cabot. The Pumpellys are leaving next week & expect to sail on Nov. 3rd for Italy. Thence they go down to Egypt for 6 weeks, then stop at Athens on their way back to Italy, where they expect to spend the rest of the winter in Capri.
October 14 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
October 15 Sunday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara at 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y.
Dublin, Sunday,9.30 & 10.30 a.m.
Dublin, Sunday,9.30 & 10.30 a.m.
October 15 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Jean, 8 a.m. / The King dictated today & I went over to Keene & dentistry” [MTP TS 136].
Clemens’ A.D. of this day included: Item from Susy’s biography about Sour Mash & the flies —Livy Clemens’ experiment for destroying the flies in the Hartford house—Soap-bubble item from Susy’s biography; Clemens’s comments—Clemens’ experience in learing to ride-high bicycle—Letters regarding his fiftieth birthday [MTP Autodict2].
October 15 Tuesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Theodore A. Bingham.
Dear Bingham: / Here is a far-wandering breath from over the fields of Long Ago. Ten days ago we found this letter among relics & mementoes of Susy & her Mother. It is from Susy to her Mother. It was an eager message out of a beating heart then; it is compliment, affection & gratitude uttered from the grave, now.
Yours sincerely
S. L. Clemens
October 16 Monday – Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Ambrose Lee, acknowledging his letter of Oct. 13. Lyon’s response is not extant but is referred to in Lee’s Oct. 18 to Sam [MTP].
Clemens also wrote to the Congo Reform Assoc. in Boston, the letter not extant but referred to in Tyler’s Oct. 17 reply.
October 16 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam finished his Oct. 11, 12, 13 to Mary B. Rogers.
Tuesday
You hope you will come out of it “a better woman.” You don’t need it, Mary. You have the clean mind & the right heart, & this is a condition which is not really betterable. It is going to carry you far out of Harry’s reach & mine. But I believe—I truly believe—we shall be allowed to call, sometimes, as the aeons drift by on their long course. St. Peter will sniff & say—
October 16 Wednesday – The New York Times, Oct. 17, p.18, ran an article about humor in Ashcroft v. Hammond libel case, and a deposition of Sam’s read in court this day:
SWORN JEST BY MARK TWAIN.
———
Humorist Says He First Met John Hays Hammond in Jail—Ashcroft’s Suit.
October 17 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister in London about the passing of Henry Irving: “All our people mourn him. He earned their love & esteem at his first coming & never lost it. He was endeared to me by a warm friendship of thirty-three years” [MTP]. Note: Sam also ordered a wreath sent to Irving’s funeral [Clara’s enclosure in Oct. 19 to MacAlister].
October 17 Wednesday – Sam took “The long railway journey from Dublin” N.H. to N.Y.C. which he later wrote, “destroyed me for 7 whole days!” [Oct. 24 to Emilie Rogers].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “This morning the King left early for Boston & he was in a dear mood. / Jean left by way of Keene. I took her over & put her on the train” [MTP TS 137].
October 17 Thursday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote a short note of recommendation for Mrs. Frances A. Ramsay as a stenographer “To whom it may concern”: I take the pleasure in saying that as a stenographer I found Mrs Ramsay competent & in all ways satisfactory” [MTP].
October 18 Wednesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara at 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y.
October 18 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Sack-Cloth & Ashes will have a good home with a Mr. Fisher—a clerk in Mr. Allison’s shop. The dear little cats have been distraught for 2 days now, for they sense the coming of something.
October 18 Friday – Joseph B. Gilder for Putnam’s Monthly wrote to again request Sam allow their sketch artist to draw Sam for the magazine; they’d done Choate and Howells; the artist didn’t require Clemens to sit but could walk around the room [MTP].
October 19 Thursday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister. Sam enclosed two letters, he’d received from Katy Leary (Oct. 18) and a partial letter from daughter Clara.
It was most kind & thoughtful of you, & if Clara were here she would thank you, as I do—as you will see by the scrap from her letter enclosed. When your first telegram came I had already telegraphed Col. Harvey & Howells to send cables & include me. That is why I did not send a sentiment until you asked for it.
It was most kind & thoughtful of you, & if Clara were here she would thank you, as I do—as you will see by the scrap from her letter enclosed. When your first telegram came I had already telegraphed Col. Harvey & Howells to send cables & include me. That is why I did not send a sentiment until you asked for it.
October 19 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “19th Oct. ’06. This is what Katy is celebrating as her ‘anniversary.’ We also celebrate it, cordially. She has been with us 26 years” [NB 48 TS 5].
Agnes L. Brown wrote from Ottawa, Ontario Canada to Sam appreciating his article on Howells. She sent Sam two books, The Cape Breton Giant by “Mr. Gillis” and another unnamed [MTP]. Note: Gillis not in Gribben.
October 19 Saturday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick in Plainfield, N.J.
October – Sam sent an aphorism to an unknown person: “Taking the pledge will not make bad liquor good, but it will improve it.” [MTP].
Current Literature published a photograph (no credit given) of Mark Twain, facing p. 353 [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Third Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1979 p. 190].
Sam inscribed his copy of Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, by Sir Samuel Dill (1844-1924): “SL. Clemens / October 1905” [Gribben 193].
Current Literature published a photograph (no credit given) of Mark Twain, facing p. 353 [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Third Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1979 p. 190].
Sam inscribed his copy of Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, by Sir Samuel Dill (1844-1924): “SL. Clemens / October 1905” [Gribben 193].
October – Sam inscribed an aphorism in a copy of P&P to an unidentified person: “On the whole it is better to deserve honors & not have them, than have them & not deserve them. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain / Oct/06” [MTP].
Sam also sent a signed aphorism on an octavo sheet to an unidentified person: “Taking the pledge will not make bad liquor good, but will improve it” [MTP].
October – Possibly this month Sam wrote a poem to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.) [MTP].
BUTTER WANTED
Any Kind: New; Old; Salted; Unsalted;
===
Odorless; Fragrant; Real preferred, but Oleomargarine not turned away.
Apply at the old stand, 21 Fifth av., at the Sign of the Butterfly.
___ ___ ___ ___
CORRECTED FORM
October 2 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka of Harper’s.
I have just finished a short story which I “greatly admire,” & so will you—“A Horse’s Tale”— about 15,000 words, at a rough guess. It has good fun in it, & several characters, & is lively. I shall finish revising & re-revising it & re-revising it in a few days or more, then Jean will type
Don’t you think you can get it into the Jan. & Feb. numbers & issue it as a dollar booklet just after the middle of Jan when you issue the Feb. number?
I have just finished a short story which I “greatly admire,” & so will you—“A Horse’s Tale”— about 15,000 words, at a rough guess. It has good fun in it, & several characters, & is lively. I shall finish revising & re-revising it & re-revising it in a few days or more, then Jean will type
Don’t you think you can get it into the Jan. & Feb. numbers & issue it as a dollar booklet just after the middle of Jan when you issue the Feb. number?
© 2025 Twain's Geography, All rights reserved.