Stormfield - Day By Day

August 23 Sunday – Zoheth S. Freeman was visiting Sam in Redding [new guestbook].

August 24 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:  Zoe and Margery left today. The King seems to improve with every day. Paine who came up for billiards remarked that the King doesn’t play as good a game as he did. But that is clearly understandable, for the King has been teaching the game to young strong men, who now are playing as well as he does, and better, for many of them have had instruction from experts in “draw shots” and “English” etc. and have no more wit than to come here and to tell the King how to make his shots.

August 24 Tuesday — In his Lyon-Ashcroft MS Clemens wrote on Aug. 25 of this day:

August 25 Tuesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam replied to H.J. Learoyd, Managing Editor of the N.Y. Evening Post, heading the note “Private.”

August 25 Wednesday — William Dean Howells wrote from Carlsbad, Austria to Sam.

Dear Clemens: / Your friendly letter of prevention found me already taking quarts of cure, here. I hated abominably to come, but doctors and dear ones of all ages and sexes joined in thrusting me away. Surgeons suggested prying me open with cutlasses, and painted the process in glowing colors. But the next time I have bilious colic that ties me up in a double bow-knot I will get an osteopath to untangle me.

August 26 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The King watches Tammany’s kittens by the enchanted half hour. We get them into the library after dinner. They carry on like beautiful wild monkeys” [MTP: IVL TS 62].  

Jeannette Cholmeley-Jones wrote from Redding Ridge to Sam. “I hardly know how to express to you how much I enjoyed our all too short visit at ‘Stormfield.’” She thought it a “great privilege” and “one of the greatest treats” she’d ever had, and she was still reflecting on what he talked about [MTP].

August 26 Thursday —In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Héléne Elisabeth Picard.

August 27 Thursday – Anna Goldschmidt wrote from Hamburg, Germany to Sam about “A Dog’s Tale,” and the great pleasure she had translating it. Since this was the first translation she’d attempted she sent a copy for his review, hoping he would give permission for her to publish [MTP].

August 27 Friday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Margery H. Clinton in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.

August 28 Friday – In Redding, Conn. Sam replied to the Aug. 25 of  Fred V. Christ: 

Dear Sir: / You say: “I often owe my best sermons to a suggestion received in reading” . . . and let us add, “or from other exterior sources.”

Your remark is not quite in accordance with the facts. We must change it to “I owe all my thoughts, sermons & ideas to suggestions received from sources outside of myself.”

The simplified English of this proposition is—

August 29 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Benares [Ashcroft] came back from Canada today and arrived when Paine was playing billiards with the King and I was unpacking books” [MTP: IVL TS 62].

August 3 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara in Norfolk, Conn.  

August 3 Monday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Dorothy Sturgis.

Dear Dorothy: /Good! Then you will be very welcome in September, & your journey from Boston will not be a heavy one. We will tell you how to come, & what trains to take.

And so this is hoping you can come September 18 , & stay till Sept. 25 . Francesca M. A., (Member of the Aquarium) will arrive Sept. 20th or 21st from England. Other guests will arrive on the 26th.

August 3 Tuesday — Jean Clemens, following up on the July 19 letter of her father’s to Eric L. Pape in Gloucester, Mass., wrote to Mrs. Pape. In part:

Dear Mrs. Pape, / Please pardon my discourtesy as being caused by my necessity as a farmer, of working not intentional. I meant to write long ago when I first received the invitation to attend the Gloucester celebration, but I am excessively busy these days as father’s secretary and farming on my own account, the days slipped by—rushed by, without my realizing how they sped.

August 30 Sunday – In his Sept. 3 to Dorothy Quick, Sam related, “We had a kind of house- warming three or four days ago, & the people of the countryside came, about 300, young & old, & boys & girls, & we had a very pleasant afternoon.” The gathering was likely this day, and included the guestbook entries below; these guests were residents of the surrounding area, which Sam gave no addresses for.

Sam’s New guestbook:  

Name Address Date Remarks

August 31 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “John and Isabel Wayland came today” [MTP: IVL TS 62].

James Ross Clemens wrote to Sam, having arrived in South Dartmouth, Mass. and finding Sam’s invitation for him and his wife to visit Stormfield. Unfortunately only he could come and wanted to look in the following Sunday. He would stay overnight [MTP].

August 31 Tuesday

August 31? Tuesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam replied to David Rutherford’s offer of Aug. 19 to illustrate Sam’s next book for nothing, thereby applying what he perceived to be Mark Twain’s “system” of rising in business. Sam wrote on Rutherford’s letter:

August 4 Tuesday – Sam went to New York City for the funeral of his nephew, Samuel E. Moffett, and where, per Robert Collier, he wrote to the Accident Insurance Co. which had determined that Moffett did not die from an accident but from natural causes. Moffett held an accidental death policy but had few assets.

Dear Sir

I shall be obliged to you for giving every consideration in your power to the case of my nephew, Samuel G Moffett, who was insured in your company and who died on Sat. Aug. 1st.

August 4 Wednesday -The New York Times, p.1 continued to report on the conflict between Mark Twain and his former secretary:

ASHCROFT ACCUSES MISS CLARA CLEMENS

Says Mark Twain’s Daughter Made Charges

Because She Was Jealous of Her Success.

QUOTES HUMORIST’S LETTER

In It He Praised His Secretary and Rebuked

Daughter for Complaints—No Diversion of Funds.

August 5 Wednesday – Sam called on H.H. Rogers’ office at 26 Broadway and talked William Robertson Coe into visiting Redding with his wife “later in the season.” Later in the day he returned to his Redding home, accompanied by Col. George B. Harvey and David Munro (of the N.A.R.), who stayed over until Aug. 7 [Aug. 6 to Emilie Rogers; IVL TS 56 below].

August 5 Thursday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to John Brown, Jr. (“Jock”) in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Dear Mr. “Jock:” / Don’t you think you can find for me, among your father’s papers, a fugitive scrap of that dear little Marjorie’s penmanship? If you can, I will take good care of it & return it to you as soon as the engraver is done with it.

August 6 Thursday – Paine writes of Sam’s reaction to Samuel Moffett’s death:

Clemens was fond and proud of his nephew. Returning from the funeral, he was much depressed, and a day or two later became really ill. He was in bed for a few days, resting, he said, after the intense heat of the journey. Then he was about again and proposed billiards as a diversion. We were all alone one very still, warm August afternoon playing, when he suddenly said:

      “I feel a little dizzy; I will sit down a moment.”

August 6 Friday - Sam’s new guestbook:

August 7 Friday – George B. Harvey and David A. Munro ended their 2 day visit [new guestbook].

H.C. Fish for N. Dakota State Historical Soc. wrote from Bismark, N.D. to ask if under date of May 26, 1874 Clemens had checked into the Capitol House in Bismark [MTP]. Note: IVL: “Mr. Clemens was not West at all in 1874.”

August 7 Saturday - In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Elinor M Howells (Mrs. William Dean Howells),

Dear Mrs, Howells: / Clara thinks that if she knows young Alden’s sister it must be under a married name, as she is doubtful if she has met any Miss Alden.