Tuxedo Park 1907 - Day By Day

August 4 Sunday – John and Clara (nee Spaulding) Stanchfield ended their two-day visit with Sam in Tuxedo Park, N.Y. [New York Times, Aug. 4, p.7, “Tuxedo Park News”].

Robert P. Elmer wrote from Wayne, Pa. to Sam, asking if the “Moult” in Chapter IV of IA was his grandfather Moulton, “Moult” being his nickname [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter: “Answd. Aug 14, ‘07” and “Moult was a young fellow from Mo. quiet & rather diffident; he had not been away from home before. I have never heard of him since.”

August 5 Monday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote the aphorism about improving bad liquor to Mr. Martin [MTP]. See index for other aphorisms or maxims.

Sam also replied to the July 30 from W.J. Phelps, by writing instructions to Lyon on the bottom and right margin of Phelps’ letter.

August 6 Tuesday – Dorothy Quick was visiting Sam in Tuxedo Park, N.Y. being brave not to be homesick.

Pardon B. Gifford wrote from New Bedford, Mass. to ask Sam “to express some little sentiment about our old city to assist us in booming old home week” [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter: “Answd. Aug 9, ‘07”

August 7 Wednesday – Dorothy Quick was visiting Sam in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.

Katherine Gregory wrote to Miss Lyon; this is miscatalogued as to Clemens [MTP].

Adelaide M. Lee (Mrs. Bruce B. Lee) wrote from Sacramento remembering Sam’s lectures in Sacramento and also her late husband’s lectures. She wished he would come to California for the National Irrigation Congress on Sept. 2-7 [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter: “Answd. Aug 20, ‘07”

August 8 Thursday – Dorothy Quick was visiting Sam in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.

Howells & Stokes wrote to Sam, advising that arresting work at the Redding house at this time would “make you liable for between ten and fifteen thousand dollars,” and enclosed a letter from Mr. Carter of Carter & Haskell attys. [MTP].

August 9 Friday – In the evening at Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Miss Dorothy Quick in Plainfield, N.J. some five hours after she’d departed from her Aug. 5 to 9 visit.

Dorothy dear, one of these days I am going to write you a letter the first time I write my other children, but not now, now I haven’t time, because I haven’t anything to do, & I can’t write letters except when I am rushed.

July to August – Sam wrote a sketch unpublished until 2009: “The Force of ‘Suggestion’” [Who Is Mark Twain? xxvi, 51-54].

July – Sometime after his return to Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick [MTP].

In London Sam inscribed a photograph of himself in front of the House of Parliament, to I. Benjamin Stone [MTP].  

July 23 Tuesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dorothy Butes at the Hotel Webster.

Your letter has arrived to night. Tried to telephone you but you are out. To-day mailed letter to you in New Hampshire. I have engagement here tomorrow or would go and see you. Please telephone me here first thing in the morning. Call 113 Tuxedo. I am unspeakably sorry you are going without seeing you. If I had known you were in town I would have called last night [MTAq 46].

July 24 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: The King is lonely and so we make calls in the afternoons, but mostly people are out. We did see Mrs. Davies and Mrs. Ogden who gave us iced coffee and the King sat on their beautiful terrace and told about the Punch Dinner and the King’s Garden Party, and those 2 ladies were very sweet and worshipful, Mrs. Davies was a little flustered when she glanced up at her window to see her undershirt hung on some kind of a wire and swinging cheerfully at us [MTP 86].

July 25 Thursday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote a note on a small card to Dorothy Butes, who was sailing: “Miss Dorothy BUTES / Steamer CELTIC. / Goodbye you dear child, and a happy voyage.” [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the verso, “The King was heart sick to have Dorothy sail away for England.” In her journal entry below, Lyon referred to the above message to Butes as a “wireless.” Likely this card survives but the telegram does not.

July 26 Friday – Jean Clemens’ 27th birthday. Clemens A.D. for this day is listed by MTP.  

Dr. Edward C. Rushmore attended to Sam; his bronchitis had worsened the day before upon reaching Tuxedo Park.  

In Tuxedo Park, N.Y., Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Charles M. Fairbanks and Pauline M. Fairbanks in Brooklyn. Sam was home now and was “overwhelmed with mail,” and asked Isabel to write thanks for their message of welcome home [MTP].

July 27 Saturday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Clara at the Hotel Victoria, Boston.  

Clara dear, Clara very dear, I am in bed with a bronchitis caught in mid-ocean, but am not going to stay in bed after to-day. Nein, I will get up & sail for Bermuda next Thursday, & take Colonel Harvey along for courier, if I can’t shake off the cough in the meantime.

July 28 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Tino [ABP]. King is bed with bronchitis and cancelling a luncheon with Mrs. Wolfe and tea with Mrs. Kane. AB and I worked over old letters, until we were limp. Long after midnight there was a thundering rumble of the King’s voice and a slam of a door and some good swears and there hadn’t been a thing in the King’s room. “No whiskey, no towels, no soap, no water.” and it was fine to hear him swear around and wake up everybody in the house. Oh, he’s a darling King.

July 29 Monday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to George Parsons, Mayor of Cairo, Illinois.

I thank you heartily for the high compliment of the invitation, & I would accept it at once if I could make the trip in a ship, but as that is not possible I am obliged to decline it. To me a land journey is the perfection of discomfort, & I am not expecting to try another one until I go in a hearse. A hearse with rubber tires, too, or I cancel the excursion. I hope you will have a good time: indeed I am able to predict that you will [MTP].

July 30 Tuesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y., Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote for Sam to Bowring & Co., N.Y.C., asking for $80 for the unused portion of the steamship Rosalind tickets by Clara Clemens and Isabel Lyon on the recently aborted trip to St. John [MTP]. Note: See July 1 entry.

July 31 Wednesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam sent a telegram to Miss Dorothy Quick at the Turell Inn, Plainfield, N.J.: “Letter for you at your Inn I sent it several days ago. / S.L. Clemens” [MTP].

Dorothy Quick wrote from the Truell Inn, Plainfield, N.J. to Sam.

June 1 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Will came out today and there was very great music in the afternoon. The piano is down in hall and from my 3rd story I slipped down a flight, I had on a long thin black silk gown that made a little swish, just enough for the King who stood in his underdrawers in the 2nd hall, to hear and make him look up at me with his eyes shining with delight. He had come home from Mary Rogers’s and had gone to bed tired.

June – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean, who evidently was dissatisfied at Katonah, and also unhappy with Isabel V. Lyon.  

June 2 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Santa left at 3:14 and I came back to build a fire in my study and to settle down and read Dr. Long’s reply to Roosevelt’s attack on his books of nature[.] I went to sleep in the chaise lounge and rested some weary things within me, and went down at 7 o’clock to a solitary dinner, for the King had lunched with the Rogers’s. To my delight the King came wandering into the room with the salad, and then he talked steadily until after 10.

June 3 Monday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Chatto & Windus. “M . Clemens asks me to write for him & say that he must refer you to the London Harpers, and say to them that he has no objection himself to the cheaper edition of the three books you mention; but that as he is a sort of partner of the Harpers, he cannot give his consent without consulting them” [MTP].

Sam also wrote an invitation to H.H. Rogers, Jr. and Mary B. Rogers, also in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.

June 4 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: We dined with the Ronalds’s tonight. She was like a pretty marquise, and it was nice to fly along home in the electric jigger. The King was in behind a bank of green stuff and so I couldn’t see him at all, but he wore his white clothes, and was beautiful to look upon.

I came home very much exhausted and threw myself on the bed in my evening gown to read a letter from Mother…[MTP TS 64].

June 5 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Tonight we dined at the Mortimers in a very beautiful house, 16 of us. I sat between Dr. Rushmore and Mr. Pell, and had a very good time. They have wonderful pewter there and great stone carved fireplaces. It was a very formal dinner, and so the King wore black.

Tomorrow we start for N.Y. [MTP TS 65]. Note: Edward C. Rushmore. The Tuxedo Club 1908 book lists five men named Pell; Herbert C. Pell as a founder of the Club.

June 6 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Today we came into town to begin the preparations for England. It’s a good thing that Ashcroft can go with him, but it has been making me heart- sick I think. I drifted into a headache and staggered about the house, but went down to dinner. Mr. Wark was here, and Mr. Paine, and after dinner the King led the way at once to the billiard room. I sat with those 2 sweet children for awhile and they gave me a ring, a lapis lazuli, in a quaint setting.

June 7 Friday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote a dedication to Steve Gillis: “To / Steve Gillis / with the unabated love / of his oldest friend— / Mark Twain / New York, June 7, 1907” [MTP].

March 5 Tuesday – In the morning Sam signed the lease for William Voss’ house in Tuxedo Park, N.Y. (about 30 miles from N.Y.C.) from May to October, 1907 [Mar. 5 to Jean; Hill 164]. The house was near Harry and Mary Rogers. Trombley writes that Sam carried on “an extended negotiation” with Voss reducing the rent from $2,400 to $1,500 [MTOW 133]. Note: the gated community was built in 1886 by Pierre Lorillard IV (1833-1901), the tobacco magnate, as a retreat for his rich New York friends.