June 23 Wednesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Joe Twichell.
Dear Joe:
I have escaped the interviewer thus far. It has been difficult, still I have escaped.
The public probably think the Ashcroft incident a very trifling matter, & the newspapers doubtless think the same. That is my protection.
June 24 Wednesday – In Princeton, N.J.. ex-president Grover Cleveland succumbed to a heart attack. His last words were, “I tried so hard to do right.” Sam consistenly held the man in high esteem, and wrote condolences to Cleveland’s widow on June 25.
Alice Minnie Herts for the Children’s Educational Theatre wrote to Sam announcing their move and asking for “a good picture of yourself” [MTP]. Note: IVL: “Answd/ June 29, 08 / Say, yes. For her to get the photo & Mr. Clemens will present it. Mr. C. is in his country home”
June 25 Thursday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Frances F. Cleveland (Mrs. Grover Cleveland) in Princeton, N.J..: “Your husband was a man I knew and loved and honored for twenty-five years. I mourn with you. S.L. Clemens” [MTP]. Note: for some reason the NY Times reported this as June 26 [June 27, p.2, “From Mark Twain to Mrs. Cleveland”].
June 25 Friday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to “any Inspector of Customs on the Hamburg-American line, Hoboken.”
Dear Sir: / I suddenly learn that the Kaiserin Augusta Victoria is due to-morrow, whereas I was not expecting her so soon. Miss Mary Clark is on board, & is bringing a dog for my daughter, Miss Jean Clemens.
June 26 Friday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
Dear Mr. Rogers: / Will you & Mrs. Rogers come & pay me a visit? I hope you can, & that you will give me that pleasure. I have been in the house a week, now, & am nearly wonted. I am sending this note to New York, as you were still there & making preparations for Bermuda when I last heard of you, which was a week ago.
June 26 Saturday — In Redding, Conn. Sam replied to Elizabeth Jordan’s June 23. The MTP shows this as two letters, the first being merely a sentence Sam wrote on the back of Jordan’s incoming: “Wir hätten sollen alle des Morgens um die Arbeit vorbehalten müssen. Let us save the tomorrows for work” [MTP]. The second short note: Dear Miss Jordan: I have with pleasure autographed the books, & my daughter Jean will do them up & forward them to you.
June 27 Saturday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Augusta M.D. Ogden in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.
June 27 Sunday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to William R. Coe.
Dear Mr. Coe: / Well then, good-bye & a pleasant trip! Perhaps you will run across those fine hyphenated Lyon-Ashcrofts in the court circles of England. They took to the water when the investigation began to get pretty warm. They had said they were not afraid, & had promised my lawyer to stay here till it was finished. It was finished yesterday. The result proves that Miss Lyon did well & wisely to travel for her health.
June 28 Sunday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick.
“Dorothy dear, bring with you a doll about 8 inches long—Paine’s little daughter Frances will fetch a doll when she comes up the hill to visit you, & you and she can have a fine domestic time together./ With lots of love” [MTP; MTAq 181]. Note: Frances Paine was a younger sister to Louise Paine.
June 29 Monday – Sam and Albert Bigelow Paine left Redding and traveled to Boston, where they took rooms at the Touraine Hotel. Before they left, Paine wrote a letter for Sam to Dorothy Quick, then followed it with a telegram and another letter. The first letter:
June 29 Tuesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Helen Keller.
June 3 Thursday — Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote a registered letter to Sam, acknowledging the revocation of the Nov. 14, 1908 power of attorney, which was recorded by John N. Nickerson on this day (see entry). He added:
June 30 Tuesday – In the morning, Sam and Paine traveled to Portsmouth, N.H. for the dedication of the Thomas Bailey Aldrich Memorial Museum, an event staged by Lillian Aldrich.
The New York Times, July 1, p. 16 covered the event:
MEMORIAL TO T. B. ALDRICH
———
Notable Speakers at Opening of Poet’s Home as Museum.
June 30 Wednesday — In Redding, Conn, Sam wrote to Frederick A. Dumeka who had forwarded a letter from Granville George Greenwood to Greenwood’s publisher, John Lane, listing three errors Sam had made in “Is Shakespeare Dead?”
June 4 Friday - In Redding, Conn, Sam wrote a postcard (picturing Stormfield) to Dorothy Quick.
“Dorothy Dear, it is too bad, but I shall be in Baltimore from the 8th to the 12th, This is an engagement I made with Francesca several months ago—she graduates on the 10 th of June. “It is a nice photo—thank you, dear, with lots of love—S L C” [MTP; MTAq 259].
Sam gave this day as the day the Ashcrofts left Redding for New York and Europe:
June 5 Saturday — In Redding, Conn. Sam replied to a non-extant letter from James Beauchamp (“Champ”) Clark, House of Representatives, Washington.
Dear Champ Clark: / Is the new copyright law acceptable to me? Emphatically, yes! Clark, it is the only sane, & clearly-defined, & just & righteous copyright law that has ever existed in the United States. Whosoever will compare it with its predecessors will have no trouble in arriving at this decision.
June 7 Monday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Amelia Dunne Hookway.
June 8 Tuesday — Clara Clemens’ 35th birthday. Sam left for New York and Baltimore with Albert Bigelow Paine. They would spend the night in NYC and leave for Baltimore and Catonsville, Maryland on June 9 [June 7 to Nunnally].
June 9 Wednesday — Sam and Albert Paine arrived in Baltimore and took rooms at the Belvedere Hotel. Sam refused to see all reporters, who were clamoring for his response to charges of plagiarism for not fully crediting Greenwood in Is Shakespeare Dead? In the evening, in response to a written question on the matter, Sam gave a reply (see article following the next).
March 1 Monday — On or about this day Jean Clemens moved from Babylon, Long Island (she hated it) to a cottage named “Wahnfried,” in Montclair, N.J., supervised by Miss Edith Clapp, a nurse. Jean had still not seen Stormfield [Hill 225]. Note: on Mar. 3 Sam replied to a non-extant letter from Jean; allowing a day each way would put Jean’s letter and probably her arrival in Montclair, to this day.
Sam’s new guestbook:
March 10 Wednesday — Clemens A.D. for this day is listed by MTP. In a note in the L-A MS, Clemens wrote, “About10th (suspicious) Duneka examined securities. Reported 12th.”
March 10 Thursday — Albert Bigelow Paine wrote from Redding to Clemens about his bank statement and thanked Sam for his list of checks sent. He wondered if Jean’s estate should be settled and suggested a “Jean Clemens Memorial Library building on the lot Adams donated. Jean passed there every day on her way to the mail and the farm was her joy. She spent eight of her happiest months here in Redding, & she loved it here, and I would like the people to remember her and love her memory” [MTP].
March 11 Thursday — In Redding, Conn. Sam began a letter to daughter Clara that he finished Mar. 14, expressing concerns about her suspicions of theft by Isabel Lyon from household accounts. Some time previously, while Lyon was recovering from her breakdown in Hartford, Clara began investigating for irregularities in the household finances. Sam’s reference to losing sleep “again” indicates Clara had voiced her suspicions sometime prior to this day, and Ashcroft had been asked for a reporting of the books.
March 11 Friday — Sam went to the Hamilton Hotel, Bermuda to hear the garrison band play. Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Collier arrived for a two-week stay in the Islands [Mar. !2 to Clara].
March 12 Friday — In a note in the L-A MS, Clemens wrote, “About 10th (suspicious) Duneka examined securities. Reported 12th. Note: securities? Hill writes of the Lyon-Ashcroft MS:
Ashcroft was “guilty” of selling Clemens Spiral Pin stock, of having fired Horace Hazen, of having presented a number of legal documents for Clemens’ signature which the forgetful old man could not remember signing, and of having an excessively florid prose style.