April 24 Monday – Poultney Bigelow wrote a postcard from Vichy, France to Sam.
Just arrived at this city of stinking springs & am vigorously flushing my guts every day while waiting for a water melon, which I hear, ripen in June at Murcia in Spain. I am now on my 12th doctor & he says I must stay here at least one month. We have left the 3 children at a French boarding school near Dinard on the Brittany coast…& we both propose to hire a villa there for 6 mos. & revel in animal delights [MTP].
April 24 Tuesday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote to an unidentified man from an unidentified committee to decline an invitation to respond to a given toast, also unidentified. Sam could not do so, and would have to prepare a speech, but afterward “should never be able to remember it.”
April 25 Monday – The Salt Lake City Tribune ran “Dan De Quille and Mark Twain. Reminiscences by an Old Associate Editor of Virginia City, Nevada” (C.A.V. Putnam) in honor of Dan De Quille, who died on Mar. 16.
Spain declared war on the United States. The US noted that the two countries had in effect been at war since Apr. 20. Tensions ran high since the mysterious explosion of the Battleship Maine on Feb. 15.
April 25 Tuesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Samuel E. Moffett about the biographical sketch of Mark Twain to be used for the Uniform Edition:
Your letter [not extant], with the picture of the cordial boy, has arrived, & I have five minutes in which to answer.
April 25 Wednesday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote to Frank Bliss.
Col. Harvey has been here, & I arranged with him that the Harpers are to issue no cheap editions of the old books….That is all stopped.
If you were going to issue a cheap “Library of Humor” it is just as well that the plates were melted, for we don’t want any cheap editions, I think. They don’t pay. / Sincerely… [MTP].
April 26 Monday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam began a long letter to H.H. Rogers that he finished on Apr. 28. In his May 3 to Frank Bliss, Sam disclosed he’d received “Mr. Rogers’s letter a week ago,” which would have been this day, so it’s likely this long missive to Rogers is a same-day reply.
April 26 Tuesday – A final batch of letters of thanks from paid creditors of the C.L. Webster & Co. were forwarded by Katharine I. Harrison to Sam [MTHHR 323 and n1]. See also Feb. 25 from Harrison.
April 26 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Bigelow—dinner, 7.30” [NB 43 TS 8].
April 27 Tuesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to “Friar” Arthur Spurgeon (1861-1938), declining an invitation to the Whitefriars Club, after changing his mind to make only “several engagements.” He would keep only those and not add any.
I am to dine with Mr. Moberly Bell May 4th, but even if I were free I should avoid adding a public engagement.
You will have a good time. Max O’Rell made a delightful speech that other time, & he will do it again [MTP].
April 27 Thursday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to John Kendrick Bangs.
Dear Sir: Do you think you could persuade Mr. Howells to come out of that polling-booth & let me keep game a while? / Supplicatingly / Mark Twain [MTP: Bangs, Francis H. John Kendrick Bangs. (1941) p.205]. Note: see Apr. 2 to 13 to Howells.
April 27 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “11.30 a.m. Plasmon 56 Duke st” [NB 43 TS 9].
Patrascan, a Mark Twain fan, wrote again in French, from Bacau, Roumania [MTP]. Note: Holger Kersten kindly provides the English translation.
1900 Avril 27
Bacau
Roumanie
Illustre Monsieur,
April 28 Wednesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam finished his Apr. 26 to H.H. Rogers.
The issue of including South Africa in FE had been settled in the affirmative—by Livy:
“Mrs. Clemens urged that you & Bliss were right. She said—but that ain’t any matter. The only thing is, that I have started in on South Africa, & have done two chapters on it & am moving along” [MTHHR 275-6]. Note: See May 3 to Frank Bliss.
April 28 Friday – Sam’s notebook:
“Miss Harrison—date, Apl. 28/99: To our credit, $ 51,995.29 cash. Invested in American Smelting Co., $5,000—now worth $6,300. 50 pfd & 35 com—selling at 90 & 52” [NB 40 TS 55].
April 28 Saturday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote to Grace Reuter, mother of child prodigy on the violin, Florizel Reuter (or von Reuter; 1890-1985) and protégé of Lyman J. Gage (see Apr. 30 to Gage in which this letter was enclosed). Evidently Sam had heard the young fiddler at his parlor some time before this letter, and had been duly impressed.
April 29 Friday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder who had replied (not extant) to Sam’s article, “From the ‘London Times’ of 1904.” “All right, measure it by the page & call it $140 per page.”
April 29 Saturday – Wilfred R. Hollister and R. Harry Norman wrote to Sam of their intent to publish a book, Five Famous Missourians (published 1900 by Hudson-Kimberly Publishing, Kansas City, Mo.) Could he provide contacts who might report on “unpublished incidents” in Sam’s life? On May 13 Sam asked his nephew, Samuel E. Moffett, to answer their letter [MTP].
April 29 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Punctuality is the thief of time. / S.L. Clemens interviews Mark Twain.
Subject: What do you think of Interviewers & their trade?” [NB 43 TS 9].
April 3 Saturday – Johannes Brahms, composer, pianist died in Vienna.
April 3 Sunday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote an afterthought to his Apr. 2 to Richard Watson Gilder: “P.S. / This should be the heading: / From the London Times of 1904. / The MS was mailed / before I thought of / the change. / S L C” [MTP].
April 3 Monday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam finished his Apr. 2 to Poultney and Edith E. Bigelow.
Apr. 3. Would you recommend Guernsey? Or the Isle of Wight? I sort of warmly incline to the former.
Mrs. Clemens’ idea is not an inn, and of course not a pension [boarding house]. Nothing remains, then, but a furnished dwelling. That is probably not to be had.
How’s Devonshire? …
April 3 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Testify before the Copyright Committee, House of Lords (on copyright). Lord Monkswell, Knutsford, Avebury, & 2 others” [NB 43 TS 6a]. Note: in his Apr. 5 NB entry Sam identifies Lord Avebury as “formerly Sir John Lubbock”.
London: Sam spoke before the Select Committee on Copyright in the House of Lords. On Apr. 4, p.6
The New York Times reported Mark Twain’s testimony:
April 30 Saturday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to ask Chatto & Windus to send one each of his books P&P, JA, PW, TS, and HF for a “vast Fair (benevolent) to be held here May 17”
[MTP: Remember When Auctions, Inc. catalogs, Mar. 21-2, 1998, No. 43, Item 882].
April 30 Sunday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus asking them to spend one pound, no more, to obtain some illustrated books including Jack and the Beanstalk which were for sale at a charity bazaar [MTP].
April 30 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Never waste a lie, for you never know when you may need one” [NB 43 TS 9].
At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote to Lyman J. Gage (1836-1902) concerning his protégé, Florizel Reuter enclosing a copy of his Apr. 28 to Grace Reuter, Florizel’s mother [MTP].
The accompanying copy is what I wrote to Mrs. Reuter. [on Apr. 28]
April 4 Sunday – William Dean Howells wrote to Sam.
“I am very sorry that I cannot read at the Authors’ Guild Entertainment. I long ago decided not to take part in Author’s readings, and there is nothing but your kindly wish, to make me revise this decision in the present case. Yours…” [MTP; not in MTHL].