To The Person Sitting in Darkness: Day By Day

December 21 Saturday – Sam’s old friend and enemy, Edward H. House, died in Tokyo, Japan, where he had been living and writing since 1892. Days before his death the Japanese emperor bestowed upon House the Second Order of Merit of the Sacred Treasure. At his memorial service he was called “the most brilliant writer ever connected with journalism in the Far East” [Huffman 18]. Note: see entries on Edward (Ned) House in Volumes I & II.

December 21 Sunday – Sam also wrote a couple lines to Chatto & Windus: “My Xn Science man has backed out, and isn’t going to contribute to my book. I think he is right; it would offend his people, sure” [MTP].

December 21 Monday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto Sam wrote to George Gregory Smith.

Thursday is our day, & I shall be unqualifiedly glad to welcome Mr. Ford, & thereto any other person ennobled by your accolade.

It was almost cruel that Mrs. Clemens should have been denied the sight of you & Mrs. Smith; she is not reconciled yet, altogether. )

December 22 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “N.E. Dinner. To-day [?] Go at 9.30? or 10? / Dinner Tablock—7.30” [NB 43 TS 32]. Note: John Tatlock?

At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote again to Augustus T. Gurlitz.

I hope you can look in here anytime to-day before 6 (or 7) this evening, as I am going to dine at 8 away out toward 90th street, & I leave for Elmira, New York, for several days Monday morning at 9.

December 22 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich.

I know of the bereavement which has befallen your house, & I wish there was some way whereby a friend could assuage a friend’s pain when a sorrow smites him, so that I might help you now; but there is none, & I can only offer my sympathy, freely & from the heart.

December 22 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “ What is so rare as a day in June? That is this day, exactly. Brilliant sun, balmy air, heavy with the odor of roses” [: NB 46 TS 31; Gribben 427 in part]. Note: refers to a line from James Russell Lowell’s “Prelude” to The Vision of Sir Launfal (1861).

Joseph Blouin, builder, billed Sam $306.66 for additional repairs to the Tarrytown house; paid Jan. 15, 1904 [1903 Financials file MTP].

December 23 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Howells and W.B. Suyman the Boer at 11 a.m” [NB 43 TS 32]. Note: W.B. Suyman was identified in a Jan. 31, 1900 NY Tribune, p. 5 article, “Brave Hearts in London” as a Boer General. The above likely a luncheon.

At 14 W. 10th in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Harriet E. Whitmore.

December 23 Monday – Elisabeth Marbury wrote to Sam that she had his letter and that he was “more than generous to the Mayos. I conveyed to them this proof of your kindness” [MTP].

December 23 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Miss Burbank, 73d. (Clara will give me the address.) Dinner—7.30. / [Horiz. Line separator] / I ate that dinner to-night. By mistake I went down to eat it last night. Stayed all night at Mr. Rogers’s; meantime Jean was hit (with a chill, Clara was completing her watch in her mother’s room & there was no one able to force Jean to go to bed. [)] / As a result, she is pretty ill to-day. Fever & high temperature” [NB 45 TS 35].

December 23 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook : “a perfect stranger called & I responded, thinking it was another Wade of 25 years ago. Knocked 2 hours out of my day’s work, for I could not resume. This is paying $250 cash for a tiresome stranger’s society. Too high” [NB 46 TS 31].

December 24 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Lake wood? / With Harvey?” [NB 43 TS 32].

Sam’s note of Christmas wishes (catalogued: written sometime before Dec. 25) to an unidentified person appeared in the N.Y. Tribune on Jan. 25, 1901, p.8 [MTP].

At 10 a.m. the Clemenses left N.Y.C. for Elmira for Christmas. The trip occupied most of the day. They planned to stay until Dec. 29 [Dec. 22 to Gurlitz; Dec 23 to Whitmore].

December 24 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote on a postcard, the verso containg a printed: “A Bright and Happy Christmas,” to niece Ida Langdon.

—‘sh! Ida dear, do not let these sweet maids beguile you of the shivery shuddery secret, known to none but you & me, of the fate of the Tale, the Tear & the Joke That Went Out Seeking the Truth and Met Up With a Bryn Mawr Girl.

Remember the Great Oath of our Order:

“Silence should be seen, not heard.”

December 24 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to William Dean Howells’ Dec. 23 invitation for lunch at Moretti’s.

I’ll be there. Tell me who he is. [Henry Harland]

December 24 Thursday – Mr. & Mrs. George Gregory Smith visited the Clemens family [Orth 31].

December 25 Tuesday – Christmas in Elmira.

Sam inscribed a copy of Tom Sawyer to Warren Leary: “To / Warren Leary / with the kindest regards of / The Author. / We ought never to do wrong when people are looking. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain / Xmas, 1900” [MTP]. Note: Warren Leary (1891-1959) was Katy Leary’s nephew from Elmira [“The Fenton Leary Family” MS in Elmira College]. Thanks to Mark Woodhouse of Elmira College.

December 25 before – The New York Sun, p.8, January 25, 1901 ran a squib about Mark Twain, which appeared on Christmas Day in Vienna’s Neues Wiener Tagblatt:

Prosperity and happiness to my friend in the Emnira. The same to my enemies—on Christmas Day, but not after that date. Mark Twain.

December 25 Thursday, Christmas – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frank Bliss.

You needn’t hurry, beyond the usual—I’m not asking that—but in a week or so when your check is ready, send it. Clara & I are still on deck, but otherwise the house is a hospital, & the expenses phenomonal. There is plenty of money, but it is in sound investments, & I do not wish to disturb it unless I must.

Merry Christmas to you! [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Emilie R. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers).

December 25 Friday, Christmas – Sam went to the George Gregory Smith’s for a quiet lunch, and stayed most of the afternoon. “He is to meet Dr. Grazzini here” [Orth 31-2; Smith to sister].

Miss U. Fischer wrote from Milan, Italy to Sam. Only the envelope survives [MTP].

Livy gave Sam a copy of Charles Godfrey Leland’s Legends of Florence; Collected from the People and Re-Told by … (Hans Breitmann). Sam inscribed the book:

December 26 Wednesday – In Owensville, Indiana, D.B. Montgomery wrote to Sam seeking genealogical information on the Montgomery clan in Kentucky. He enclosed a printed informational family history on the Montgomery’s [MTP]. Note: On Dec. 30 Sam forwarded the letter to his sister Pamela Moffett, as he was “not interested” in the subject.

December 26 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Jules Hart, responding to a letter not extant.

“I realize that you are perfectly right: to publish the letter would do harm, not good. If I could spare the time I would gladly write another, but I am away behind with my work, & must try to keep my mind from getting side-tracked from it” [MTP]. Note: See Dec. 16 and Dec. 17 to Hart.

December 26 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Susan Crane.

Susy dear, I thank you ever so much for those cunning little conveniences. They will be ever so handy & useful.

December 27 Thursday – The New York Times ran this story on the front page:

INVITED HERE BY MARK TWAIN.

The Author Wants Friend in Colorado to Visit Him—How the Two Missed a fortune in 1863.

Special to the New York Times.

DENVER, Col., Dec. 26—Judge Adair Wilson of the State Court of Appeals has received an invitation [not extant] from his old friend Mark Twain to visit him in New York City.

December 27 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Leave 7.27 arr. 7.55, Mr. Rockefeller will meet me. Read 2 stories Mrs. Clemens has an engagement” [NB 44 TS 19]. Note: Sam’s reading at Mr. Rockefeller’s monthly Bible class was postponed until Jan. 28. See entry.

In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

December 27 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam began a letter to William Dean Howells that he finished Dec. 28.

December 28 Friday – Justus S. North wrote from Welaka, Fla. to Sam, unhappy that he’d purchased a volume entitled Library of Wit and Humor by Mark Twain (and others), and blaming Sam. North had discovered: