July 7 Saturday
Sam’s notebook: “Bram Stoker. Good morals, & how to get along without them. / Diffidence—& how to acquire it. Irving. / Savage Club—6. / How shall we divide up China? Stanley. /A. By giving it all to Russia under a “temporary lease,” like Port Arthur [NB 43 TS 21].
Sam inscribed the Menu for the Savage Club dinner to Mrs. John Y. MacAlister: “Punctuality is the thief of time / With kindest regards to Mrs. Mac Alister” [MTP]. Note: the menu bore a caricature of Mark Twain.
July 8 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Ogilvie—the hospital ? in S.A. Explain why a dog carrying 10,000 fleas will break down if you add 5. / We have secured real estate in S.A. worth a portion of what it has cost” [NB 43 TS 21].
July 9 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Full board meeting 12. noon. To pass important resolution. / 38 Montpelier , S.W. / 21 Carleton H.T. — 3.” [NB 43 TS 21]. Note: square after “Montpelier” drawn in.
July 10 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Dr. Haig, 7 Brook st (just around the corner.) / A.D. Provand, M.P. 2 Whitehall Court SW / The pocket-mine (or Frenchman’s Tunnel) in 1855. The 3 meet there again, aged 75) & strike it rich. But the girl, oh where is she? Chapparal quail” [NB 43 TS 21].
Will M. Clemens replied to Sam’s objections in his June 6 reply.
July 11 Wednesday –At Dollis Hill House in London, England Sam wrote to Brander Matthews.
My souls, I’m glad to see you!
But look here—I’m to come in to London & dine with my old friend J.Y.W. MacAlister (20 Hanover Square) & he is inviting Bronson Howard.
Can’t I come after dinner to the Savile Club, & fetch MacA. With me, & have a smoke? [MTP].
July 12 Thursday – At Dollis Hill House in London, England Sam wrote to James R. Clemens.
Those were the best Indian cigars I have smoked outside of Calcutta. Won’t you please order 100 to be sent to me at above address, & the bill for the same.
We of the family send warm greetings to you & Mamma Caroline & Muriel. I suppose you are flown from London by this time, but I expect this to be forwarded… [MTP].
July 13 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “House Commons tea with Provand, M.P., 4. / Dine at MacAlister’s. / After dinner, take Mac to Savile Club, 107 Piccadilly, W. & smoke with Brander Matthews & Bronson Howard & Austin Dobson” [NB 43 TS 22]. Note: See July 11 for Bronson Howard info. Henry Austin Dobson (1840-1921), English poet and essayist; two volumes cited by Gribben, p. 196
July 14 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “In afternoon Mac & wife & Saml Bergheim will drive out to Dollis Hill” [NB 43 TS 22].
At Dollis Hill House in London, England Sam wrote to F.S. Higman, London, that he had “quitted the field” for lecturing, “permanently” [MTP].
July 15 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “About this time make week-end at Cambridge with Livy” (Prof. A.C. Haddon, F.R.S.) [NB 43 TS 22]. Note: Dr. Alfred Cort Haddon (1855-1940) an influential British anthropologist and ethnologist.
July 16 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “PLASMON 12 / Smythe, 16 Adams st Portmon Square” [NB 43 TS 22].
At Dollis Hill House in London, England Sam wrote to C.F. Moberly Bell, editor of the London Times, and enclosed, “The Missionary in World-Politics,” which he wanted printed anonymously. He did not send the note nor the essay, however.
Dear Mr. Bell:
Don’t give me away, whether you print it or not.
July 17 Tuesday – Richard Watson Gilder of Century wrote to Sam (who enclosed this letter to H.H. Rogers on Aug. 17):
Before leaving London I had your telegram [July 6] about the impossibility of “promising.” While that, of course, disappointed me a good deal, still the very word “promise” leaves a little hope that perhaps a promise might be made later; that is, within a certain time when it would still be available for us.
July 18 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Write George Standring, 7 & 9 Finsbury st. E.1 Printer” [NB 43 TS 22].
Note: George Standring (b.1855), author of The People’s History of the English Aristocracy (1891) [Gribben 657]. Standring visited Sam some time during the Dollis Hill stay, enjoying a smoke with him. See Jan. 1, 1903.
July 19 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “The time we supported young Bartlett on surreptitious remittances & he pretended they came from a rich uncle. Told of the Lizt days in Weimar—’53-‘54” [NB 43 TS 22].
July 20 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “There is a divinity that roughs our ends, smooth-hew them how we will” [NB 43 TS 22].
July 25 Wednesday – At Dollis Hill House in London, England Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow. Inviting him to “Come out & see me,” and giving directions, then advising, “Don’t get lost—it takes an artist to do it.” After his signature Sam added, “If my friend J.Q. Adams of 88 Oakley street calls, you can freely talk about ‘Hadleyburg’ with him, you being my agent” [MTP]. Note: John Quincy Adams II, namesake of the President, died in 1894; so this JQA is not identified but may be a descendant.
July 26 Thursday – Jean Clemens’ twentieth birthday. Sam’s notebook: “Rev. Mr. Fowler came out to tea” [NB 43 TS 22].
At Dollis Hill House in London, England Sam wrote to Daniel Willard Fiske, having just received Fiske’s note (not extant).
“Do run out, to-morrow or next day, or any day but Sunday (which is pre-empted) & take tea with us—or dinner if you can” [Sam gave directions] [MTP].
July 27 Friday – At Dollis Hill House in London, England Sam wrote to Miss Helen F. Levy, Franconia, N.H.
“The signature in that telegram is genuine, but I think the date is an error. Whenever we can get half of a thing genuine let us be content, & hope it will not happen often enough to become monotonous” [MTP]. Note: neither Miss Levy nor the telegram are further identified
July 28 Saturday – At Dollis Hill House in London, England Sam wrote to John Campbell Gordon (1847-1934), aka Marquess of Aberdeen:
July 29 Sunday – Lina W. Berle wrote from Boscawen, N.H. to Sam after having read JA for the fourth time; she liked it better each reading. She was a senior at Salem High School there [MTP].
July 31 Tuesday – At Dollis Hill House in London, England Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder regarding a cable sent previously.
August – At Dollis Hill House in London, England Sam wrote to Frank Fuller [MTP]. Text not available.
Sam also mailed his photograph to Harper & Brothers. Only the photograph and envelope survive; a letter may or may not have been enclosed [MTP].
Will M. Clemens’ article, “Mark Twain on the Lecture Platform, etc.” ran in Ainslee’s Magazine (NY),
August 1 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Postcard from Bigelow. Apparently he has gone to Germany without attending to the Hadleyburg dramatic business” [NB 43 TS 23].
At Dollis Hill in London, England Sam wrote to William Dean Howells.
“I read the Difficult Situation [sic] night before last, & got a world of evil joy out of it.
August 2 Thursday – At Dollis Hill in London, England, Sam wrote to William Archer (1856-1924), Scottish critic and author who helped establish the work of Henrik Ibsen.
August 3 Friday – F.R. Fast, attorney at 100 Chambers St., N.Y. wrote to Sam to see if he wanted to be a publisher again, as he had a “very eminent scientist” who had “a remarkable manuscript” and had given him $32,000 of advance subscriptions [MTP].
August 5 Sunday – In his Aug. 12 letter to Joe Twichell, Sam revealed a visit “a week ago” for tea by Daniel Willard Fiske, Brander Matthews, and Mr. and Mrs. Dean Sage, the latter visiting from Buffalo, N.Y. Katy Leary recalled a visit by the Matthews family at Dollis Hill [Lawton 191].
T. Douglas Murray wrote to Sam. His wife had found the “lecture MS” in a box and he had had a “good clear copy of your original made …which please accept from me” [MTP].