To The Person Sitting in Darkness: Day By Day

April 20 Saturday – [date in a PDF box]

Sam’s notebook: “Dr. Emmett. No—19th (above) Heptagon Dining Club, 7.30 at Metropolitan Club. Informal— only 20. James W. Alexander 4 E. 64th” [NB 44 TS 9]. Note: see Apr. 21.

April 20 Sunday – Sam returned from Princeton, N.J. to Riverdale. In the evening he substituted for someone who was to introduce the actress Clara Morris (Mrs. Frederick C. Harriott) (1848-1925) at Wallack’s Theatre. Morris was called a genius and a great “emotional actress.” Her career was brief but she was a memorable star. The New York Times reported the event on Apr. 21, p.2, “Clara Morris Tells of Stage Life Trials”:

April 20 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y., Sam, still in bed with bronchitis, wrote to Susan Crane.

April 20 Wednesday – Livy took a turn for the worse and Sam excluded himself and Clara from entering her room; neither were letters nor papers allowed inside. Only Katy Leary, who slept in Livy’s room at night, and the doctors were allowed entrance [Apr. 25 to MacAlister]. Note: Livy would survive but six weeks more.

Sam’s notebook: “Gelli—10 a.m.” [NB 47 TS 10]. Note: sitting for his portrait.

April 21 Sunday – At the Riverside Inn, Saranac Lake, N.Y., Sam wrote to John White Alexander, apologizing for a missed dinner date. They had been trying to “hunt up a summer-place on high ground for the ailing member of the family”

“And now, on top of it all, there is a possibility that after this harassed & fatiguing three-days’ railroad-race, our errand to these remote regions has failed & we return home tomorrow defeated. But that is nothing—I am only poignantly sorry about the other failure” [MTP].

April 21 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote a postcard replying to William Dean Howells’ Apr.

“I forgot to say I made immediate note of that luncheon, & shall be at your house & ready to go with you at 1 p.m on the said date” [MTP]. Note: the lunch date was for Apr. 26.

Sam also wrote a chastening letter to Nathaniel S. Olds, of the Rochester Post-Express.

April 21 Tuesday – The New York Times, p.9:

Elizabeth W. Lampton.

ST. LOUIS, Apr 21.—Miss Elizabeth W. Lampton, who for twenty-eight years had been a teacher in St. Louis schools, is dead of pneumonia. She was a cousin of Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) and of Col. Henry Watterson, and a niece of the Rev. Dr. Frederick Pentecost. Her stories for children were widely known.

April 21 Thursday – Dr. William Wilberforce Baldwin sent a telegram from Rome to Dr. Kirch:

“BILLIOUS ATTACK OVER WILL TRY TO COME TOMORROW WILL TELEGRAPH AGAIN=BALDWIN” [MTP].

Marguerite Flower wrote to Sam from Salem, Ore. School of the Blind. She was 13 and liked P&P, and asked “won’t you write another book like it?” [MTP].

Francesco D. Grandi wrote a nearly illegible letter in Italian? to Sam [MTP].

April 22 Monday – Sam and Livy left Saranac Lake, N.Y. and returned to N.Y.C. [Apr. 21 to Alexander].

Sam’s notebook: “Mrs. Pike 136 E. 61st Mr. Borden” [NB 44 TS 9]

April 22 Tuesday – In the morning Clara Clemens left for Paris with a chaperone on the German liner Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. It had been arranged for her to take some singing lessons there, and also to meet Ossip Gabrilowitsch . Though fraught with foreboding about leaving her mother, her future husband had assured her in a letter of Apr. 6 that such “single haunting ideas” were childish and that nothing would happen. Clara would reach Paris about May 1 [My Husband Gabrilowitsch 24-25; NY Times, Apr.

April 22 Wednesday – Charles S. Fairchild wrote to Sam, the letter not extant but referred to in Sam’s May 14 reply [MTP].

Sam’s notebook: “Mrs. John P. Jones / Dinner, 7.30. Clara / 237 East 17th / Tel: 2817—18th” [NB 46 TS 14].

April 22 Friday – In New York H.H. Rogers wrote to Sam, “confused” as to whether he’d written or not. He complained about the “great cotillion over the Boston case,” with a lot of men “turning state’s evidence” against him, the same men who had made money by following him. His mother in law was in a low state of health. He was getting his yacht ready for June races.

April 23 Wednesday – Sam wrote to E.E. Olcott of the Hudson River Day Line, accepting dinner on board the new steamer Albany, date sometime in late May to be arranged. Sam’s is not extant but referred to in Olcott’s Apr. 26 acceptance.

April 23 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dr. Wilson L. Hawkes in York, Maine, upset by being overcharged per visit.

April 23 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Cs [Countess] Montjoie / tea” [NB 47 TS 10]. Note: Alice Ann Lymer Monck. See Mar. 26 entry.

April 23 Tuesday – In N.Y.C., Sam wrote a short note to George S. Seymour, enclosing a 1899 photo of himself: “Here you have it, & on Shakespeare’s birth-day at that” [MTP]. Note: Seymour is not identified.

Sam received a letter and check from John Y. MacAlister [Apr. 24 to MacAlister]. Note: incoming not extant.

Sam’s notebook: “Read in Princeton Heptagon — 7.30” [NB 44 TS 9].

Check # Payee Amount [Notes]

April 24 Wednesday – At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam replied to Rudolf Lindau, in care of the German Embassy, Constantinople, Turkey. Lindau’s incoming is not extant.

April 24 Thursday – Sam traveled to Philadelphia, to attend the funeral for Frank R. Stockton the following day. Sam’s notebook gives evidence: “Stockton’s funeral. Phila. Gilder goes at 10 a.m., the others at 11. I the latter” [NB 45 TS 11].

April 24 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Franklin G. Whitmore.

Mr. Clemens wishes me to send the enclosed from the Jewell Pin Co. to you, saying that “as they are now paying dividends, perhaps you can sell the stock—”

The enclosed notice from the Hartford P.O. came this morning, and Mr. Clemens wishes me to send that also‘ to you, saying that you will know what to do with it, and also he says that the Hartford P.O. people ought to know that they must send registered mail to you.

April 25 Thursday – Sam had been asked to preside at the dinner of the Get Together Club in Arlington Hall, but sent a letter pleading poor health. The gathering and the letter was reported by the New York Times, Apr. 25, p.9:

MARK TWAIN TO THE CLUB

———

Why He Did Not Attend the Dinner of the Get Together Organization No. 3.

April 25 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote a postcard to The American Plasmon Co. giving them the times he was due to be in three places in N.Y.C. on the following day: Hoyt & Co., 15 W. 42nd at 10:45 a.m.; the Plasmon Co. at 11:15 a.m., and William Dean Howells’ at noon [MTP]. Note: The William H. Hoyt Co. at that address had advertised “Mark Twain’s Home for Sale” on Apr. 19 in the Hartford Courant [Meltzer 243].

April 25 Saturday – The New York Times, p. 11:

Mark Twain Leases His House.

The property of Samuel Clemens, (“Mark Twain,”) on Benedict Avenue, Tarrytown, consisting of a dwelling, stables, and about eighteen acres of land, has been leased to Charles A. Gardiner, attorney for the Manhattan Railway Company. Although Mr. Clemens bought the property about a year ago, he has never lived there, but has continued to make the Appleton place, at Riverdale, his home.

Frank Bliss wrote to Sam.

April 25 Monday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister at the Sanitarium Grand Hotel in Leysin, Switzerland.

We had an awful fright 5 nights ago, & at once I put on the rigid rules of a year ago & clinched them tight, in spite of Mrs. Clemens’s pleadings & protestations. We kissed her Aufwiedersehen, & since then Jean

April 26 Friday – Sam wrote to Hiram Stevens Maxim, the letter not extant but referred to in Maxim’s May 8 reply [MTP].

Sam’s notebook: “Dinner” [NB 44 TS 9].

April 26 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Katharine I. Harrison asking her to put $5,000 to his credit in the Guaranty Trust Co. on Monday as he wanted to draw it out on Tuesday, Apr. 29 [MTP].