October 2 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam began a letter to daughter Clara that he finished Oct. 3.
Clara dear, perhaps you thought I couldn’t leave my niece, Mary Rogers, but I did it. I came away from Fairhaven yesterday. Everything is going well here, except that Miss Lyon is still feeble & has to go carefully & not over-exert herself. But she is up & around, comes to meals, chats, laughs, plays the orchestrelle a little, & signs checks. I believe she will soon be quite well.
October 2 Wednesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam on Edward Anthony’s Sept. 29: “Mr. C[lemens asks me to] write for him and say that he has given all the cigar bands from his imported cigars to a little friend who asked for them; and he regrets that he has none” [MTP].
Sam also began a letter to Dorothy Quick that he finished on Oct.3.
October 20 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara.
Clarchen dear, I wish to learn to make the right & just allowance for Jean, & to try to keep constantly in mind that she is heavily afflicted by that unearned, undeserved & hellish disease, & is not strictly responsible for her disposition & her acts when she is under its influence (if there is ever a time when she is really free from its influence—which is doubtful). She has had 2 attacks to-day.
October 20 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam inscribed a photo of himself in a rocking chair to Josephine S. Hobby: “Let us save to-morrows for work. / For / Miss Hobby— / Oct. 20, 06.” [MTP].
October 20 Sunday – Alice Minnie Herts wrote for the Children’s Theatre to Miss Lyon, correcting a prior invitation [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Answd. Oct. 23”
October 21 Saturday – As planned (see Oct. 15 and Oct. 20 to Clara; Oct. 19 to MacAlister), Sam went to stay with the Pearmain’s Back Bay, 388 Bacon St., Boston. He was telegraphed there on Oct. 25 by Miller Reese Hutchinson [MTP].
October 21 Sunday – In N.Y.C. Sam went “Sabbath-breaking” to Urban H. Broughton’s, and beat him five out of seven games at billiards [Oct. 22 to Mary Rogers].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “All day it has rained hard & Mr. Clemens went out to the Broughtons to play billiards. He is restless & finds a great emptiness in life. He doesn’t like this house & finds no comfort outside of his own room. My own little six sided room is the only place I care for—that & the King’s room” [MTP TS 137-138].
October 21 Monday – A run on the Knickerbocker Trust Co. bank in N.Y.C. caused panic elsewhere, and the bank was forced to close its doors the next day. Sam had deposits of about $51,000 at the bank. J.P. Morgan would gain the help of fellow bankers, including John D. Rockefeller, to raise funds and import $100,000,000 in gold from Europe to restore confidence. See Oct. 22. H.H. Rogers and Katharine Harrison had originally recommended the Knickerbocker Trust Co. to Sam. A business slowdown from the resulting spreading panic lasted for months.
October 22 Sunday – Sometime during Sam’s stay in Boston, he conferred with Dr. Haley; Thomas S. Barbour of the Congo Reform Assoc. (Sam was an “honorary” Vice President) wrote on Nov. 23 that he hoped Sam had a good talk with Dr. Haley, and was sorry he could not join them.
October 22 Monday – In the a.m. at 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.).
October 22 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Oh, it’s too dreadful. Every penny the King has, fifty one thousand dollars, is in the Knickerbocker Trust Co. and it has suspended payment. It has gone crashing into a terrible state. I was in town and read of the panic in the Times, and Ashcroft and I went to the bank, at 30th st and Fifth Avenue to see crowds of people there, with bank books in their quivering hands. And then I came back to Tuxedo to find the King in bed and so cheerful and beautiful and brave, and trying not to show his anxiety.
October 23 Monday – During his stay at Pearmain’s Boston home, Sam met a young Liberian, Dihdwo Twe, a sophomore at Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Mass. Twe had been in the Congo before coming to the U.S. He would correspond with Twain into 1906 [Hawkins 170].
Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Sent MS of ‘Eve’s Diary’ to Mr. Clemens in Boston” [MTP TS 32].
October 23 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dihdwo Twe, a Liberian who visited Sam several times and was deeply interested in the Congo reform movement. Sam dictated the letter for Twe to use as an introduction to a pamphet calling on the world to help the Congo. Basically, Sam wrote, the human race is made up of humbugs; he felt Twe should deal with the human race as it is, not as he wished it to be—it had “no desire for uncomfortable truths, no appetite for them…” etc. [MTP].
October 23 Wednesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to “Miss Anonyma.”
Dear Miss Anonyma: / This is to express my joy in the fact that you are able to go fishing, & to thank you very heartily for letting me share in the result. It is my purpose to call & say these things orally this afternoon, & so I am merely uttering them with the pen as a precaution, since it often happens—as you will have noticed—that the things we propose to do get interfered with & do not occur.
October 24 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Emilie R. Rogers.
Dear Mrs. Rogers, it is lovely of you! Yes, Mr. Coe is the very man. He will know the exact size of the Fairhaven table, & can duplicate it. When he examines this room I think he will say it is large enough: it is 15 feet wide by 18 long, & the 18 can be increased to 18.6 if necessary, by removing a bookcase.
October 24 Thursday – Sam returned to 21 Fifth Ave. for the winter. Clara Clemens had been “domiciled in the house several days”; Isabel Lyon and servants would follow on Oct. 26 [Oct. 28 to Nunnally].
October 25 Wednesday – In Boston, Mass. Sam wrote and directed Isabel V. Lyon to answer Miller Reese Hutchison’s Oct. 24 telegram: “Dear Miss Lyon— / Please write him I am not able to undertake it.” [MTP].
Sam also wrote Miss Lyon to deposit $200 for daughter Clara, and that he would return to N.Y.C. the next day, expecting to be there “only a few days” [MTP].
October 25 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mary B. Rogers now in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.
Mariechen dear, it must be a Latin word, as it isn’t in the Unabridged. The U. has only “Accipient (obsolete) a receiver.”
October 25 Friday – The annual Cotillion Ball of the Tuxedo Club was held and the New York Times reported the event, Oct. 26, p.11. If Sam attended, as his letter of Oct. 23 to “Miss Anonyma” shows, he would have had to have returned from 21 Fifth Ave. for the event, since he moved back on Oct. 24. No mention of him was made in the Times article, though H.H. Rogers, Jr. (Harry) and wife Mary were listed, so he likely canceled plans to attend, returning to his N.Y.C. house. Possibly the events at the Knickerbocker Trust Co. led to the changed plans.
October 26 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich.
It is with mighty pleasure that I record the fact that you will spend Nov. 9 & 10 (& as many days thereafter as you can spare), under this roof. We will gather some more stags together & eat, drink & get drunk, understanding that on some happy to-morrow we die & are likely to be damned. I am very very glad you are coming, old man [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
October 26 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: I don’t know how I got through all of it—doing 9 days’ work in 3 days, but it is over and I am in New York. Arrived at 3 to find the King and AB at billiards. I brought in the pretty little cat and the King was glad to see it. Myron Whitney came in to rehearse his concert program with Clara for the 11th. His voice is superb. They had to have the King come in to hear it, but the King was much annoyed, and hated to leave his billiards, even tho’ he had to concede that Whitney’s voice was wonderful.
October 27 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
The King came down while Mrs. Crane & I were at breakfast to say that Mr. Leigh Hunt has invited him to go to Egypt for the winter—to spend his days & weeks on the Nile, & to take with him whomsoever he will. It will mean to take with him a stenographer & a biographer. He couldn’t take me because I’m needed at this base of action, although he says he wishes to take me. I’m so stunned.