April 26 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Bigelow—dinner, 7.30” [NB 43 TS 8].

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 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 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 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]

May – In London, England Sam wrote to Samuel S. McClure. “We shall spend from June 1 till Oct 1 in England. Won’t you please divert the magazine to /Care Chatto & Windus” [MTP].

May 1 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Noon. Plasmon 11 Cornhill. Go down with Mac & Bergheim. / Vote Mac a right to assume the doctor’s stake himself” [NB 43 TS 9].

May 2 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Sent to McClure May 2 Postal-check contains 5,614 words. $825 or $850.7. for 7.30 sharp. / Royal Library Fund Hotel Cecil, (Entrance east wing.) Lord Chief Justice of England. (Earl of Crewe is Lord Houghton’s son)” [NB 43 TS 9].

May 3 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “11 p.m. ball in honor of the King of Sweden & Norway” [NB 43 TS 9].

May 4 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Director Kellgren discovered that Jean has turned the corner & will get well / Dinner—8(?) Moberly Bell, 98 Portland Place” [NB 43 TS 9]. See May 17 to Moffett. MTHHR 445n1

May 5 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Mr. Hapgood” [NB 43 TS 9].

May 6 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Lord Russell 2 Cromwell Houses—2 o’clock” [NB 43 TS 9].

May 7 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Jim Clemens—dinner / Royal Academy / Mr. Roche—6 to 7—here / Bergheim has returned from Paris. Rothschild takes 6 months’ option on French plasmon patent—can then make it final or withdraw” [NB 43 TS 9-10].

At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote to Bertha von Suttner in Vienna. The following is headed “Copy” and “(Rough draft)”:

May 8 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Mrs. Low—dinner—7.45. 2 Durham Place, Chelsea, S.W.” [NB 43 TS 10]. Note:

Sir Sidney James Low (1857-1932) lived at this address, and editor of the St. James Gazette (1888-1897).

May 9 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Dinner, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. Trevor Laurence [sic], Treasurer. 6.45” [NB 43 TS 10]. Note: Fatout lists a speech or story for Twain at this event [MT Speaking 666]. Sir James John Trevor Lawrence (1831-1913) English horticulturist and politician, was treasurer for St. Bartholomews from 1892 to 1904.

May 10 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Mrs. Hincks–dinner” [NB 43 TS 10]. Note: in the back of this NB Sam wrote Mrs. Hinck’s address: “Maitland House Church street Kensington” [TS 33]

At 30 Wellington Court in London, Sam wrote a short note to Poultney Bigelow.

May 11 Friday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, Sam wrote to Adela M. Goodrich-Freer. At the top of the letter he drew a musical staff and notes, suggesting the nature of the invitation he was replying to (not extant).

“Indeed we shall be very glad to drive out there some afternoon—Mrs. Clemens & I—the daughters stick to their tiresome studies & go nowhere. Would Wednesday May 16 or Friday May 18 be convenient for you?” [MTP]. Note: see also Jan. 11.

May 12 Saturday – Christian B. Tauchnitz wrote to Sam about a piracy of TS,D and a lawsuit concerning the piracy; the defendant maintained that the story was 30 years old and came from an American newspaper. Could Sam confirm the first publication of the story? He hoped his letter of Apr. 18 (not extant) from Maxen reached Sam safely [MTP]. ,

May 13 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Chatto—afternoon carriage will call at noon” [NB 43 TS 10].

May 14 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Hottest 14th of May ever recorded in New York—92. Here in London it was wintry” [NB 43 TS 10].

May 15 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Plasmon Directors meeting 56 Duke st at 11:30” [NB 43 TS 11].

May 16 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Mrs. Hinck’s dinner / Miss A. Goodrich Freer’s address: The Laurels Burshey Heath” [NB 43 TS 11].

May 17 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: Address: 6 Bickenhall Mansions Gloucester Place W.

———

Dine with E. Russell Roberts as “a Bencher’s guest [”] in the hall of the Middle Temple. 6 p.m. He will meet me “at the entrance to the Hall at 5.50.[”] (His address is 3 Old, Lincoln’s Inn.) “Please arrive at the Middle Temple Hall, Middle Temple Lane, & ask to be shown to the Bencher’s room[”].

Balance in Mr. Rogers’s hands, $43,000 [NB 43 TS 11].

May 18 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Miss Chomondeley—lunch. / Meyer’s lecture Frederic William Myers.—& dine at Stanley’s. / RELIEF of Mafeking. The news came at 9.17 p.m. Before 10 all London was in the streets, gone mad with joy. By then the news was all over the American continent” [NB 43 TS 11]. Note: the siege of Mafeking was a famous British action in the second Boer War. The siege was finally lifted on May 17, 1900, when British forces commanded by Colonel B.T.

May 19 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “London wild with joy & noise all day & until two hours after midnight / Weather still horribly cold—we have had 9 months of winter. In New York last Monday, thermometer, 92” [NB 43 TS 11]. Note: See May 8 NB entry.

At 30 Wellington Court in London, Sam finished his May 17 to Samuel Moffett: