September 18 Wednesday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers that they were packed and would leave in the morning for Elmira. The rest of the letter has to do with what he felt was “a mighty cold -blooded piece of rascality” by the R.G. Newbegin Co. in resorting “to forgery” in their pamphlet on his uniform edition. He suggested a lawsuit:
September 19 Thursday – In the morning before leaving Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote a goodbye note to Mr. and Mrs. George V. Duryee, the real estate agent who leased their house over the lake: “Hail and Farewell! / It has been Paradise to us all Summer” [MTP].
Probably this day or Sept. 18 Sam wrote a quick note to H.H. Rogers.
September 26 Thursday – The Clemens family left Elmira and returned to New York, where, at the Grosvenor Hotel, N.Y. at midnight, Sam wrote a postcard to H.H. Rogers.
“Langdon hopes to be able to come. “Yesterday evening I wrote & invited Twichell. / SLC / I’m coming” [MTHHR 474].
October 1 Tuesday – The Clemenses took possession of the Appleton house at Riverdale-on-the-Hudson. Sam wrote sometime after to an unidentified man, heading the letter with this address [MTP].
Sometime between this day and Feb. 22, 1902 Sam also wrote to Frederick A. Duneka [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Charles H. Taylor of the Boston Globe, acknowledging the $100 check and thanking for Taylor’s compliment [MTP].
October 21 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Professor Farnam. / Yale Leave 4.pm. Rev. Anson Phelps Stokes’s Mother. [inserted above:] Sec’y of Yale / 88 Trumbull St.” [NB 44 TS 15]. Note: Henry W. Farnam (1853-1933), professor of economics at Yale.
January – Sam inscribed a copy of Songs of Nature (1901) by John Burroughs (1837-1921): “S.L. Clemens, Riverdale, Jan. 1902” [Gribben 117]. Note: Burroughs was a naturalist and essayist important to the movement of conservation in the U.S. His books were enormously popular in his day. He was voted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1905.
January 20 Monday – The Clemenses left Riverdale, N.Y. and traveled by train to Elmira, where they were met with sleighs by Charles J. and Ida Langdon; and then on to Quarry Farm outside of town. There, Sam began a letter to daughter Clara that Livy added to on Jan. 21.
March 13 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Home. Noon. Leaving for the South. Shall consult Tom Reed & see if an action can be brought against Hearst [for the NY Journal abuses]. Left Jersey City 2.10 / Basket fruit from Mrs. Broughton & violets from Harry’s wife” [NB 45 TS 5]. Note: the Kanawha likely stopped at Jersey City to pick up Laurence Hutton. The party consisted of Laurence Hutton, H.H. Rogers, Clemens, Clarence C. Rice, Colonel Augustus G. Paine, Thomas B.
April 9 Wednesday – The Kanawha sailed at 9 a.m.from Old Point Comfort, Va. to N.Y.C. Sam’s notebook: It arrived at 5 p.m. “a brisk run of 165 miles. Caught 5.45 train for home. Telegram sent at 8 yesterday took all day. / Mrs. Bunce at home” [NB 45 TS 9].
May 27 Tuesday – Sam left N.Y.C. on the N.Y. Central RR at 9:20 p.m. headed for St. Louis [May 23 to
James R. Clemens]. Note: according to his June 10 to James, it was a 30 hour trip from N.Y.C. to St. Louis, putting him in St. Louis at about 7:30 the morning of May 29. His NB entry gives 9.45 p.m. as departure time, with fare of $24.25 and a room $22; paid $46.25 [NB 45 TS 14].
Livy’s diary: “Sue [Crane] came in the evening: Mr Clemens went to Columbia, Missouri to receive a degree
May 28 Wednesday – Sam was on the train en route to St. Louis, sleeping well the second night [May 23 to James R. Clemens].
John B. Briggs wrote from New London, Mo. to Sam. “Dear ‘Mark’:– / I see by the St. Louis Republican where you are to be in Hannibal, Mo., in the course of a few days, and if I am well enough would like to see you…and talk over old boyhood days” [MTP].
May 29 Thursday – Sam arrived in St. Louis around 7:30 a.m. He had planned to meet James Ross Clemens at the Planters House, but James and his cousin Lamotte Cates met him at the station and took him to Planters. (Note: Paine writes Horace Bixby also met him at the station MTB p. 1167).
May 30 Friday – It was a full first day In Hannibal, Mo. Sam gave an autograph to Minnie Dawson. Sometime during his stay in Hannibal (May 30 to June 9) he also gave an autograph on St. Louis Country Club letterhead in Clayton, Mo. to Sophie Sloan. Sam stayed up till after midnite into May 31, when he wrote Livy about the day .
May 31 Saturday – In the wee hours of May 31 in Hannibal, Mo. Sam wrote of the trip and the previous full day to Livy. See May 29 entry.
Later in the day Sam attended a reception for the 1901 Hannibal High School graduating class in the Windsor Hotel and told of his boyhood attempt to get measles. They gave Sam a spoon engraved with an image of his old home on Hill Street [Sorrentino 21]. Note: see MTCI p.447.
Sam’s notebook: “7.30 p.m., hotel. Meet class of 1900, High School. / 8.30 Reception” [NB 45 TS 15].
June 1 Sunday – In Hannibal, Mo. Sam wrote to Dr. Everett Gill of Hannibal.
I find it too formidable! I should not be able to sit in the pulpit on Sunday & feel that I was doing a right & decorous thing; I should be under my own censure all the time. Therefore I shall sit where any sinner may sit without offence, & where all sinners are welcome. I shall be comfortable there, & free of self-reproaches [MTP].
June 2 Monday – In Hannibal, Mo. Sam had breakfast at the home of Colonel and Mrs. Hatch
[Sorrentino 21].
Sam’s notebook: “Miss Lakenan, 10 a.m. will call with a carriage. / Mr. Crookshank’s house—reading. / Wister will call at 5.30 / Supper before at George Clayton’s / The girl was lost in the cave—they only find bones, —sweetheart of Bates” [NB 45 TS 15]. Note: the last a story idea.
June 3 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Guest of E.W. Stephens. / Publish ‘Herald’ / Walter Williams, Editor ./
Columbia, Mo. / James Thayer Girauld, Secy P.B.K. will elect me honorary member” [NB 45 TS 16]. Note: P.B.K. =
Phi Beta Kappa. Paine gives E.W. Stevens [MTB 1172]..
Livy’s diary: “The Misses Dodge here for tea” [MTP: DV161].
June 4 Wednesday – In Columbia, Mo., The University of Missouri conferred an honorary Doctor of
Law degree, LL.D., upon Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Paine writes of the ceremony:
June 5 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “J. Ross Clemens / 110 N. 8th st. St Louis / smoker. / Rochambeau reception./ Mayor Wells. / The stolen watermelon. & skiff” [NB 45 TS 16].
Livy’s diary: “Mrs Orton Bradley & Mildred Holden here for tea, beside Mrs Whitmore” [MTP: DV161].
In Columbia, Mo. Sam wrote to Charles E. Still. “I remember you very well, & I wish I could accept your kind invitation, but my time is filled up & I am obliged to deny myself the pleasure” [MTP].
June 6 Friday – Paine writes of Sam’s appearances in St. Louis:
he was due in St. Louis again to join in the dedication of the grounds, where was to be held a World’s Fair, to celebrate the Louisiana Purchase. Another ceremony he attended was the christening of the St. Louis harbor-boat, or rather the rechristening, for it had been decided to change its name from the St.
Louis—[Originally the Elon G. Smith, built in 1873]—to the Mark Twain. A short trip was made on it for
June 7 Saturday
Sorrentino gives a 6:30 p.m. dinner at the St. Louis Club and an 8:30 p.m. reception at the University Club [21]. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 8, Mark Twain spoke to the University Club:
June 8 Sunday – Clara Clemens’ 28th birthday.
June 9 Monday – Sam arrived home in Riverdale at 6 p.m. after a 30 hour trip from St. Louis [June 10 to James R. Clemens].
T. Shaw Hall, N.Y.C. paper dealer, wrote to Sam, recalling his “Golden Arm” story in Chickering Hall, which made a fat lady shoot “a foot and a half into the air” when he got to the punch-scare line. He enclosed a copy of an advertisement (booklet) and asked if Sam “possibly had some old jokes” he might offer for next year’s advertisement [MTP].
June 24 Tuesday – The Clemens family, sans Clara, who was in Europe, left Riverdale on Rogers’ yacht, the Kanawha, for York Harbor Maine . H.H. Rogers was not along but put his yacht at their disposal in order to make the trip a comfortable one for Livy. Sam sent the Plasmon Co. a postcard with the new address and a request for Plasmon biscuits and cocoa to be sent there [Christie’s London Auction Nov. 12, 2007, Sale 5141, Lot 145].
June 25 Wednesday – The Kanawha and the Clemens family’s first stop on their way to York Harbor, Maine was Fairhaven, Mass. In his June 26 to Rogers Sam wrote of the trip from Riverdale to Fairhaven.