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 16 Friday – The New York Times included a copy of Sam’s letter to the Women’s Municipal League on the upcoming mayoral election within a larger political article on p.1:
MARK TWAIN FOR LOW.
———
Sends His Opinion of a Vote for Tammany to Women’s Municipal League.
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) has written a letter to the Woman’s Municipal League on the subject of the impending election, in which he says:
October 17 Wednesday – Mark Twain wasted no time upon his return to the U.S. to speak in public. In the evening he spoke at a benefit for the Galveston orphans at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (of the Sept. 8 -9 hurricane). From the N.Y. Times of Oct. 18.
BAZAAR FOR GALVESTON ORPHANS
Mark Twain Closes the Benefit—Net Receipts Estimated at $25,000
October 17 Thursday – The New York Sun, Oct. 18, p.3, reported Sam’s anti-Tammany talk for policemen in front of his Riverdale house, followed by a trip downtown for his speech at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for the Order of Acorns, a group of independent voters organized to defeat Tammany candidates and elect Seth Low mayor. The New York Times Oct. 18, p.5 reported only on the hotel speech:
MARK TWAIN MAKES A SPEECH.
———
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 17 Saturday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Muriel M. Pears.
It isn’t that I have forgotten, but that I have been carrying so many fatiguing & annoying (business) perplexities these 4 months that I was not fitted to think, speak or write about anything else. I am not sure that the load is at last unstrapped & will tumble off three days hence or four, but I am confident of it. If I wasn’t, I couldn’t be trying to write a letter.
October 18 Thursday – At the Hotel Earlington in N.Y.C., Sam replied to an unidentified man’s request, perhaps a reporter’s for an interview:
I would have done it with great pleasure on “interviewing day,” but I have been saying no, ever since, & it would not be fair to those others to say otherwise this time. Consistency is seldom a virtue, but you will concede that in a case like this it is [MTP]. Note: “Interviewing day” likely being the evening they arrived in port.
October 18 Friday – William Dean Howells wrote to Sam about accommodations in the upcoming Yale Bi-Centennial Celebration:
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 18 Sunday – Joseph T. Goodman wrote to Sam, wishing him “godspeed” on his “pilgrimage,” and his regret of not still being in NY to share a “schooner…at the Regal.” He sent prayers and hope that Livy would improve in the “balmy air and quiet of your Florentine home.” Joe predicted a “small boom” in JA as many he’d talked to were not aware that Mark Twain wrote such a book, but were now finding out [MTP]. Note: in this particular letter Joe praised JA; he had not always done so.
October 19 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “I go up Hudson by boat from Yonkers at 9.45” [NB 44 TS 15].
In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Rose Hawthorne Lathrop (1851-1926), youngest daughter of the famous author Nathaniel Hawthorne.
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 19 Monday – In Sam’s reply to Joe Twichell of Oct. 9, he agreed on a date for Joe to visit them at the Grosvenor Hotel on this day. Hill notes the visit by the Twichells to say goodbye [70]. The date is also noted in Sam’s following NB entry:
October – Sam inscribed a copy of Memoirs of Samuel Pepys for Susan Crane: “Stolen from / Mrs. Susan L. Crane / by/ her most loving & almost only brother-in-law / SL. Clemens / Riverdale, October, 1901” [MTP].
Sam also inscribed No. 15 of Chatto & Windus’ edition of his works to: John Y. MacAlister: “To J.Y.W. MacAlister with the very best regards of the Author. Riverdale, New York City. Oct. 1901” [MTP: American Art Assoc. catalogs, Jan. 4, 1928, Item 91].
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.
October – Catani Ugo’s portrait of Mark Twain was published in International Studio, p. 291. No additional text was provided [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Second Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1978 p. 172].
Hartford Postmaster.
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 2 Friday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam began a letter to James Barnes that he added a PS of good news to on Oct. 5.
October 20 Saturday – Charles Dudley Warner (1829-1900) died of a sudden heart attack in Hartford. He was cheerful earlier in the day at a luncheon. Sam attended his funeral on Oct. 23 [NY Times, Oct. 21, p.1].
October 20 Sunday – In N.Y.C. Sam wrote on “Order of Acorns” letterhead to Joseph Johnson, Jr.
“Dear Mr. Johnson: / I forgot to say don’t do anything with the article without first giving me a chance to read the proof” [MTP].
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 20 Tuesday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote a short note to William H. Hoyt Co., authorizing them to “look after my Tarrytown property, and any repairs or details regarding the same…” [MTP].
Sam also wrote again to George W. Reeves, real estate agent for Hoyt & Co.
October 21 Sunday – At the Hotel Earlington in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Charles H. Clark upon hearing of the death of Charles Dudley Warner the day before:
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.
Sam went to New Haven, Conn. to take part in the festivities for Yale University’s Bicentennial celebration. He would stay there until Oct. 24 and receive an honorary Doctor of Letters degree; he already had an honorary MA degree from Yale (1888) [Oct. 22 to Livy; MTHL 2: 730n3].
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].