February 3 Tuesday – Sam wrote check # 30 to American Plasmon Co. for $10,000 for a total of $25,000 as he had subscribed [NB 46 TS 5]. Note: canceled check survives.
J.C. Woodbury wrote from NY to Sam, enclosing a list (not extant) of Christian Science books.
Woodbury suggested days he was free, should Sam want to confer. His phone was Riverdale 1182 [MTP].
February 3 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Marchesa Alli Macarani / Lung’ Arno del Dempio, 2 / 1 st & 3d Wednesdays” [NB 47 TS 5].
Dr. Laing Gordon wrote two letters to Sam.
February 4 Monday – [pdf box located in February 3 entry]
Sam’s notebook: “Bliss, at 26 Bway, 3 pm. / Publish Adam’s Diary. / Harvey, you don’t advertise. Carry Adam’s Diary along—get it in April No.” [NB 44 TS 5].
At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Channing H. Cook of the Plasmon Co., NYC, asking for “several pounds (in quarter-pound packages)” to be sent to Katharine I. Harrison [MTP].
February 4 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frank Bliss.
“There is a chance for you to buy Newbegin’s contract & sell it to another man at what seems to be a tall figure. When you come here to talk with me about it give me notice by telegraph or telephone (150 Kingsbridge) the day before” [MTP]. Note: R.G. Newbegin Co. had distribution rights for the American Publishing Co.’s version of Mark Twain’s Uniform Edition.
February 4 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote two notes to Livy.
February 4 Thursday – Clara Clemens wrote to her friend Dorothea Gilder (daughter of Richard Watson Gilder), about a screaming confrontation with her father (the letter was postmarked Feb. 5 and refers to the episode as “yesterday.”
I have reached the very lowest stage a human being can drop. I have had an attack of what everyone in the house calls hysteria the one thing of all others I have always despised most.
February 5 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Twichell comes, in evening. Riggs, 7.30. 150 Central Park South” [NB 44 TS 5].
H. Brown of Quincy, Ill. wrote compliments of Twain’s “Sitting in Darkness” article [MTP].
William Augustus Croffut for the Washington (D.C.) Anti-Imperialist League wrote compliments and of the “extreme jubilation” his household was in after reading Twain’s “Sitting in Darkness” article [MTP].
February 5 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam turned down an invitation from Arthur H. Dakin at the University Club in Boston (Incoming not extant).
I should enjoy it ever so much if I were younger & gayer, but I am at that lazy stage of life when one does not leave the chimney corner except under compulsion of the sheriff. And so, I can only return my earnest thanks for the honor done me by the invitation, & stay by the fire & dream dreams & nurse my senilities [MTP].
February 5 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote per Isabel Lyon to Howard E. Wright, enclosing the following cablegram: “Plasmon Co. London / Am greatly alarmed by letters charging criminal concealments upon the directors. What is the explanation[?]” Sam had heard nothing from Samuel Bergheim, the London director, and suggested leaking the cable to the press. He thanked Wright for obtaining Hillier’s name and address [MTP]. Note: Sam had begun to smell a rat in the Plasmon Co.
February 5 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “3. The Cingalese. 3 pm” [NB 47 TS 6]. Note: the Cingalese were natives of Ceylon descended from its primitives, which makes little sense in this Florentine context; the reference is possibly to another play.
February 6 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Introduction 100-year. Gov’t in hands of Xn Sci, or R. Catholics? Whole suffrage introduced to save Protestantism in 1950, but too late; R C & XSC ahead—got the field” [NB 44 TS 5].
At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Andrew Carnegie, Paine offering it was done “in the midst of the tumult” created by his “Sitting in Darkness” article [MTB 1132]:
February 6 Thursday – Frederick A. Duneka of Harpers wrote to Sam.
Your letter of yesterday [not extant] has come to me and I beg to say that the reason why no mention of the 6-vol. set was made in your statement is because these books are being sent out to agents and others under an installment arrangement. This means that because of cancellations of orders and because of returns, these books have not reached the stage yet where they can appear in any account (as sales) as a basis for payment of royalty.
February 6 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Emilie R. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers).
“Yes, dear Mrs. Rogers, Sunday the 15th , that is the date. If you will be good enough to telephone me an hour before you leave home I will roust out the Riverdale ambulance so that you won’t have to walk up from the station” [MTHHR 518].
Sam also wrote to Samuel M. Bergheim, enclosing a copy of the cable shared with Wright on Feb. 5.
February 6 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “3d, 4th, 5th, 6th Miss Lyon very ill. / Cabled Dr. Starr at 11 a.m. / Went to bank with Smith & to Mrs. Ryerson’s. Saw Rev. Mr. Alear there. Billiards with Smith. Mrs. Lyon told Clara the donkey had been chased 2 hours—no notice given any one of the danger” [NB 47 TS 6].
George Gregory Smith wrote to Sam, offering suggestions for Isabel Lyon to sue the Countess Massigila, and for Sam to bring suit for loss of services of Miss Lyon [MTP].
February 7 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Chas Fairchild 10 W. 8th—8 p.m.” [NB 44 TS 5].
At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Oliver O. Howard asking for “good seats” for his wife and daughters for the Feb. 11 Lincoln Celebration night [MTP].
Judson Smith for the American Board of Commissioners wrote to Sam (in part here):
My Dear Mr. Clemens:
February 7 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam added to the Feb. 5 letter to Francis H. Skrine.
February 7 Saturday – Albert Levering’s article “The Man Who Corrupted Eddyville. Being Some Account of the Troubles which Beset Mark Twain During His Quest for Mrs. Eddy’s Book,” ran in Harper’s Weekly, p.215. Tenney: “A cartoon sequence in which several Christian Scientist booksellers and Mary Baker Eddy herself refuse to sell or give a copy of Science and Health to MT, who appears disguised as various characters from his books” [38].
February 7 Sunday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to Prof. Pietro Grocco. Livy was getting worse and the good doctor was not always available. Jean Clemens copied the paragraph over in French [MTP].
February 8 Friday – Sam’s notebook:
Subject: How to make things go, at a dinner. Dusting off list. Something to take place of candle-shade burnings developing into Great Fire of London.
Make talk general. How do you like Chicago? It’s a kindness to people who can’t talk—they can listen. Saharas of silence, with nothing visible from horizon—can’t think of a thing to say.
February 8 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to Frederic Remington’s query of Feb. 7. Sam did not remember the names, but he knew there had been newspapers at St. Joseph and Independence, Mo. some 50 years before. He recommended Remington check the Mercantile Library in St. Louis [MTP].
Sam went into N.Y.C. where he spoke to the Vassar Alumnae [Feb. 10 to Marbury].
February 8 Monday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to to Frederick A. Duneka.
Yes, I prefer that you shall handle the Dog Tale in England. If Chatto inquires, I will explain. I suppose it will be sufficient to say that the Harpers proposed it & that our relations & interests are now so closely united that I naturally want to do anything which in their judgment is best for both.
February 9 Saturday – Harper’s Weekly ran an article to answer the question, “Is the Philippine Policy of the Administration Just?” John Kendrick Bangs answered in the affirmative, while Mark Twain took the opposition. See Bigelow’s Feb. 19 reference to the argument.
Edward Peterson wrote from Stratford, Iowa with compliments of Twain’s “Sitting in Darkness” article, which made him want to shout “Hurrah for Mark Twain” [MTP].
February 9 Sunday – The New York Times, p.8, “Society at Baltimore,” reported:
Miss Lelia Gittings of Baltimore is visiting Mrs. Samuel L. Clemens (the wife of Mark Twain) at her home at Riverdale-on-the-Hudson. [Note: see inscription to Gittings Apr. 29, 1898 entry].
February 9 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote per Isabel Lyon to William Dean Howells. “I don’t hear anything from anybody about the “Tom Sawyer” play. In the meantime has Paul Kester ever looked at the “American Claimant” as the basis for a play? [MTP; Not in MTHL].
Sam’s notebook:
January 1 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Cable address of Leigh Hunt: Pukchin Chemulpo Corea / Joe Jefferson Dundreary’s dogs” [NB 44 TS 2]. Note: Leigh S.J. Hunt (1854-1933), educator and publisher, by this time had become a multi-millionaire through tax-free gold mining concessions in Korea.
Check # Payee Amount [Notes]
56 Consolidated Gas of NY 12.81