October, early – Isabel Van Kleek Lyon began her employment with the Clemens family early in the month. Initially, Lyon was to serve as Livy’s secretary, but very soon took on many other duties for Clara and Sam, including dictation, as well as chaperone for Jean and Clara at social functions. Lyon had worked as governess for the Franklin G. Whitmore family until late 1890, when she took a job with the Charles Edmund Dana family of Philadelphia.
To The Person Sitting in Darkness: Day By Day
October 1 Wednesday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to Theodore Weld Stanton in N.Y.C.
“Welcome home! / Mrs. Clemens is slowly recovering from a long & wasting illness, but we believe that a fortnight hence we shall be able to move her to Riverdale, where I shall hope to see you when you can run up” [MTP].
October 2 Thursday – In York Harbor, Maine: Sam’s notebook : “Tax-bill, dated July 24, sent from Tarrytown collector’s office Oct. 1. Payable Oct. 31 or 12% added. …$588.02 / No word from Griffin these 2 months more” [NB 45 TS 29]. Note: Henry C. Griffin was the attorney hired to get the taxes on the Tarrytown house lowered to be more in line with the purchase price.
October 3 Friday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to William Dean Howells.
It is a charming book, & perfectly true. It ought to reproach me, for I am making Huck Finn tell things that are perfectly true, this last week or two. They are true, but with that qualification: he exaggerates; you don’t. Still, I have to keep him as he was, & he was an exaggeration from the beginning.
October 4 Saturday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore asking for a “supply of lecture-declinations”; he advised they wouldn’t be able to “get away for two or three weeks—the improvement [in Livy] is very slow” [MTP].
October 5 Sunday – In York Harbor, Maine: Sam’s notebook: “Sent winter-fuel letter (Secy Treasury) to Duneka for Weekly” [NB 45 TS 29]. Note: see the letter in Oct. 3, 1901 entry—there is some doubt about when it was actually written.
October 6 Monday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka.
“Oh, come, now, it is irreligious, the way you accept articles & postpone the payment. When you come to keep four doctors & two trained nurses all summer, with a war-price specialist from Boston now & then as an additional strain on your bank balance you will reform & follow custom” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore.
October 7 Tuesday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to Jennie Starkey that it was Bill Nye who said it, though she had “his idea but not his phrasing” [MTP: Seven Gables Bookshop, Item 69]. Note: the famous line attributed most often to Mark Twain but which he laid at Nye’s feet was: “Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.” See MTA 1: 338.
Gertrude Swain wrote from Greeley, Neb. to Sam:
Dear Mr. Twain:
October 8 Wednesday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to Frank Bliss.
If there is no Harper obstruction, or other thing in the way, I am willing that you shall newly issue the “Library of Humor” and pay me 4% as proposed Provided, that you will not object to my issuing a low-priced book when I want to. I have two books half finished, which I may wish to publish at a dollar each—I have had that thought in my head [MTP].
October 9 Thursday – In York Harbor, Maine: Sam’s notebook: “10 weeks to-day since Jean had an attack. Longest previous interval since July 12 (end of bromides) 1899 was 6 weeks & 4 days./ [Horiz. Line separator] / Am giving Bliss privilege to issue low-priced Library of Humor, provided he shan’t object to my publishing low-priced books, too” [NB 45 TS 30].
Sam wrote a line to an unidentified local man: “All the letters have arrived. If possible I shall call upon you to-morrow, toward 1 p.m.” [MTP].
October 10 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “THE DUEL. Next month tell it at the East Side House Settlement, for the purpose of drawing an instructive moral from it—& then forget what the moral was. ‘Now I come to the moral’ Reflect long (& embarrassingly for the audience). Give it up & sit down” [NB 45 TS 30].
October 11 Saturday – In from Boston with him the
York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to William Dean Howells after returning day before: “Say—stay where you are till you die. I’ve written 28 letters to-day connected with moving” [MTHL 2: 747].
Sam also wrote to update H.H. Rogers on the impending move to Riverdale:
October 13 Monday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to Muriel M. Pears, his “Member for Scotland” in the Juggernaut Club. Had he sent her the Constitution and Laws for the Club? He wasn’t sure he had. Sam related the “disastrous two months & freighted with fears & anxieties” about Livy; he related plans to move her to Riverdale on an invalid car in two days; and noted he had leased the Riverdale house for another year. He was sorry he didn’t have more cheerful things to say [MTP].
October 14 Tuesday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to Bliss Perry (1860-1954), editor of Atlantic Monthly (1899-1909). “It is quite true & not yet two days old. If it is worth hiding away in the curtained Contributors’ Club, do it. I can’t sign it, as I am a Harper exclusive” [MTP]. Note: Atlantic Monthly had a “Contributors’ Club” section where pieces were published anonymously. The feature was fun for contributors and readers alike, who would guess at who wrote the articles.
October 15 Wednesday – The Clemens family and Sue Crane left York Harbor, Maine about 9 a.m. utilizing an “invalid car.” They rode to a point south of Boston, then on to N.Y.C., arriving at 5:40 p.m. 20 minutes more brought them by special engine to Riverdale, N.Y. at about 7 p.m. [Oct. 16 to Hutton; Oct. 16 Jean Clemens to Sewell; Oct. 19 to Crane]. Sam thought Livy arrived in “pretty good physical condition” [Oct 18 to MacAlister].
October 16 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam’s notebook: “Yesterday [Oct. 15] we left York in a special invalid car at 8.45 & came through to Riverdale without delay or change in 9 ½ hours. Special locomotive at both ends. Cost, $339 ” [NB 45 TS 31].
Sam replied to an invitation by Laurence Hutton, in Princeton, N.J.
Yes, if you are sure you can provide cap, gown & hood for me, I will leave mine at home & save baggage-space. But mind, I shall depend on you.
October 17 Friday – Sam’s notebook : “Signed for 250 shares ($25,000) in the American Plasmon Co at 110-122 Broad st. I had previously paid in $5,000, which was the first call. Mr. Wright was there & Mr. Butters came pretty soon” [NB 45 TS 31]. Note: Howard E. Wright then President of the American branch, would later resign under a cloud of fraud. Henry A. Butters, an officer in the co.
October 18 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Edward W. Bok. “I wish I could, but I can’t, as I am barred by existing contracts” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to John Y. MacAlister.
October 19 Sunday – On this day (or the same date in 1901; see entry) Sam wrote a letter to an unidentified publisher: “…your printers need watching; they take some very large liberties with my spelling and punctuation,” etc. [MTP: Anderson Auction Co. catalogs Feb. 5, Item 90].
Sam also wrote to Susan Crane who had traveled with the family when Livy was returned to Riverdale on Oct. 15.
October 20 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam sent a telegram to Richard H. Jesse, President of the University of Mo. “I go to Princeton if you have any message authorize me & I will deliver it. S.L. Clemens” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore. “You may sell that Jewell Pin Co. stock. It is in the Safety Deposit, I suppose. It isn’t here. Mrs. Clemens is getting along about as usual. It will be a long siege, the doctor says” [MTP].
October 21 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote a postcard to Franklin G. Whitmore, who had replied the Capt. Stormfield MS was not in the safe:
If it is gone from the safe, where can it be? In the drawers under the pigeon-holes in the billiard-room? I read it aloud in the billiard room to two friends in 1891 a few days before we sailed. I have not had it in my hands since.
However, it must be in the safe if still in existence. That is where I kept it so many years [MTP].
October 22 Wednesday – Michael P. O’Kelley replied from NY to Sam’s “joke letter” which asked for old bonds and bills from the US Treasury for fuel:
October 23 Thursday – At 10 a.m. in Riverdale, N.Y. Sam fired the second nurse, Margaret Garrety, and installed a new nurse at 11 a.m. [NB 45 TS 32]. Note: See NB entry Oct. 31 about Garrety.
Sam wrote of the nurses and Livy’s condition to James R. Clemens in St. Louis.
October 24 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to John White Alexander to decline the same dinner that he declined to Chauncey Depew on Oct. 23 [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Samuel E. Moffett in Mt. Vernon, N.Y. “I am just leaving for Princeton, but stop to say she is getting along pretty well, but will be bedridden some months” [MTP].
Sam’s notebook: “Go to Princeton this afternoon. The inaugural is tomorrow in the morning at 11. Take boat leaving W. 23d at 3.55 / Must carry or express my cap, gown & hood. (See Oct. 14)” [NB 45 TS 32].
October 25 Saturday – In Princeton, N.J.: Sam’s notebook: “Guest over Sunday of Hutton—Princeton.
Inauguration of Pres. Woodrow Wilson. / Speeches by him, ex-Pres. Patton, Grover Cleveland & President Roosevelt.
No other speeches. / Stedman & Tyler (?) guests, too / [Horiz. Line separator] / Be in Murray Hall in full academic costume at 10.15 a.m.” [NB 45 TS 32].