March 1 Thursday
March 1-15? 1900 – Sam wrote to the Secretary of the London Anti-Vivisection Society secretary, to acknowledge his election as an honorary member: “I am glad of the honor, since I have no friendly feeling toward either ‘sport’ or vivisection” [MTP: NY Times Mar. 18, 1900 p.14, “‘Mark Twain’ on Sport and Vivisection”].
March 2 Friday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam and Clara Clemens wrote to Mildred (Pilla) Howells, sending their approval and pride at her poem “The Particular Princess: An up to date Fairy Story,” which appeared in Feb. 17 issue p.144-5 of Harper’s Bazaar—Sam “choking up…& just damming away with a father pride…” and Clara “dammingly chokingly chucklingly sparkingly add my signature to the above”[MTP].
March 3 Saturday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam gave a reading of a paper before the Copyright Committee of the House of Lords, arguing that perpetual copyright be given to authors.
He then wrote to C.F. Moberly Bell, editor of the London Times, asking for a copy of the reading for the Associated Press to cable to America [MTP].
March 4 Sunday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote to Joe Twichell.
March 5 Monday
March 6 Tuesday – Jonas Henrick Kellgren Osteopath, billed £12.12.0 for Mar. 1 through Mar. 6 for Jean’s treatments [1900 Financial file MTP].
March 7 Wednesday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister . The four paragraphs deal with prospective buying and selling Plasmon at a profit, and mixing it with Bovril. Samuel Bergheim is mentioned [MTP]. Note: Bovril is a trade name for a salty meat extract developed in 1870. Samuel Bergheim (d.1904) is identified as the managing director of the Plasmon Co., London [ MTHHR 442n2]. On Jan.
March 8 Thursday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote and declined an invitation to a festival by the City Liberal Club Chairman and Committee, London. Sam repeated the reason given to others during this period that his work could not presently be interrupted [MTP: Christie’s East Catalog, 14 May 1997, Item 89].
March 9 Friday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam replied to Chester Sanders Lord (1850-1933), a founder of Lotos Club and managing editor of the N.Y. Sun since 1880. Evidently Lord invited him upon his return to America a banquet (Lord’s not extant).
I accept that Lotos complimentary dinner with loud & long-continued applause.
March 10 Saturday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister.
I will ask you to send Mr. Heinberg to Lord George Hamilton’s nearest friend with this proposition: That we deliver in Calcutta or Bombay, carriage free, 2,500,000 pounds of Plasmon per month to end of the famine for £50,000.
The which will furnish to each individual, big & little, of the famine stricken, the equivalent of ½ pound of best beefsteak per day at cost of one shilling per month of 31 days [MTP].
March 11 Sunday – In London, England Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers:
Dear Mr. Rogers:
In bank here- – – – – $5,000
Due from Harper, May 1 – – 3,000
Edinburg, April 1 – – 3,000
Chatto (de luxe ed.) – 10,000 (but not all payable till Sept.)
Prospectively due from Bliss,
Harper, Chatto (old books) & Edinburg by next October, say– 12,000
$33,000
March 12 Monday – In London, England Sam wrote to Pamela A. Moffett [MTP].
March 13 Tuesday – In London, England Sam replied to the Mar. 2 of Rev. F.W. Mortimer:
March 14 Wednesday – about this day Henry Ferguson of Hartford wrote again about the changes he’d requested in the article with his Journals from the Hornet saga.
“There seems to be no end to the trouble that you have brought upon yourself in your kind compliance with my wishes in regard to certain passages in my own and my brother’s journals. I greatly regret that it has been so but it is a great relief to me to have the slight modifications made” [MTP].
March 16 Friday – Jonas Henrick Kellgren Osteopath, billed £12.12.0 for March 7 through March 16 for Jean’s treatments [1900 Financial file MTP].
March 17 Saturday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister, entirely about Harper & Brothers plans to make two books out of his assorted sketches. MacAlister was editor of the Library in London, as well as being a principal in the Plasmon schemes, so may have had some interest in publishing a few of Mark Twain’s sketches. Or, Sam may have considered him a valued advisor in sorting out the complications of British copyright, simultaning, magazine articles, etc.
March 18 Sunday – The New York Times, p. 14 reprinted a short letter from Sam to the London Anti-vivisection Society of London:
“Mark Twain” on Sport and Vivisection.
From the London Times.
March 21 Wednesday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam replied to Frank Bliss.
All right—I perceive that I did tell Whitmore to get the asphalt-money from you. I had forgotten it. If he needs more money I will give him an order on Elmira, so that he will not have to go to you until a time when it will not inconvenience you. …
March 23 Friday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote two postcards and a letter to John Y. MacAlister.
March 24 Saturday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote to Paul Kester in N.Y.
I should like to see Tom Sawyer staged. If you will agree upon royalties with Mr. Howells I will accept the result. You can arrange the rest of the business with my friend Mr. H.H. Rogers, 26 Broadway. And I wish you would leave with him a copy of the play, if you don’t mind. We have no copies of [plays] “Colonel Sellers” & “Pudd’nhead Wilson,” I believe.
March 25 Sunday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote a short PS to his Mar. 24 to Paul Kester. Livy had advised against Kester seeking William Dean Howells’ help in dramatizing TS. Sam advised Kester to “Try him, anyway, & if he won’t, load the job onto Mr. Rogers; he is used to umpiring for me” [MTP].
March 26 Monday – London: Sam was free in the daytime for a meeting with John Y. MacAlister [Mar. 23 postcard #2 to MacAlister].
The New York Times, p. 1, ran a squib:
Mark Twain Coming Home Soon.
HARTFORD. March 25.—Letters received from Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) say that he and his family will return soon to Hartford and take up their permanent home there.
March 27 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Burlingame, 11 am / Mr. Lucy of ‘Punch,’ lunch 1.30. / Enid Stoker, tea 4.30. / Lady Pontifex tea 5.30 / Görz, dinner, 7.30 / MacAlister, 11.30 p.m” [NB 43 TS 6].
March 28 Wednesday – In London, England Sam cabled James R. Clemens and Katharine Boland
Clemens: “WE SEND LOVE AND THE HEARTIEST CONGRATULATIONS” [MTP]. Note: no doubt—a little Clemens!
Muriel Clemens Gotwals (1900-1989); exact birthday not determined.
March 29 Thursday – The New York Times, p. 2, ran a memo sent from the Hartford Courant:
Mr. Clemens to Return to Hartford.
From the Hartford (Conn.) Courant.