October 21 Wednesday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka.
Won’t you send Vols. I & II of Poultney Bigelow’s History on board the ship?—“Princess Irene,” North German Lloyd, Hoboken. She sails Saturday, 11 a.m.
My address on board is “Suite 1 (promenade deck.) [”]
And tie this red C on the parcel.
See you to-morrow night. / Mark.
October 22 Monday – At the Hotel Earlington in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich and Lilian W. Aldrich: “It is lovely of you to welcome us. And it would be lovelier still to see you, which we hope to do tomorrow at poor Warner’s funeral” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to John Kendrick Bangs that after Wednesday he expected some free time from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. “Do you think Mr. Nicholson could do me up in one sitting, or two on a squeeze?” [MTP].
October 22 Tuesday – In New Haven, Conn. sometime after noon, Sam wrote to Livy of missing events of the previous day:
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 22 Thursday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to William H. Gillette at the Plaza Hotel in N.Y.C.
Thank you for the verses—fervently. They are lovely. I shall enter heaven singing these hymns. If you believe me, it will Excite Interest. And all parties will clap me on the back—(in private)—& say “Go it!” But not in public, dear sir, not in public; for heaven is not going to change the human being’s nature. …
October 23 Tuesday – Samuel Clemens went to Hartford for the funeral of Charles Dudley Warner. Paine writes that Sam was a pallbearer, and also that while in Hartford the Clemenses “looked into the old home” [MTB 1112]. A. Hoffman writes: “Livy stayed in New York; she could not face her Hartford memories” [433]. Sam intended to stay “but an hour or two,” and then return to N.Y.C. The funeral was held at 2 p.m. at the Asylum Hill Congregational Church.
October 23 Wednesday – The fourth and last day of Yale’s Bicentennial Celebration in New Haven, Conn. saw commemoration exercises and conferring of honorary degrees in the Hyperion Theater to more than sixty eminent men. The Doctors of Literature degrees numbered eight: Thomas Bailey Aldrich, George W. Cable, Mark Twain, Richard Watson Gilder, William Dean Howells, Thomas Nelson Page, Woodrow Wilson, and Brander Matthews.
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 23 Friday – In N.Y.C. Sam and Livy signed the new contracts making Harper & Brothers his exclusive publisher in exchange for a guaranteed $25,000 per year. He then wrote to the American Publishing Co.
“Until further notice in writing from us please send all notices of default, if any there be, under the contract between yourselves, Harpers & Brothers and ourselves executed this day to us, in care of H. H. Rogers, Esq.” [MTP].
October 24 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Funeral of Charles Dudley Warner” [NB 43 TS 27]. Note: the funeral was Oct. 23 at 2 p.m.
Sam also wrote to Charles Hopkins Clark [MTP]. UCCL 12759 letter not available.
October 24 Thursday – The Bicentennial Celebration over, Clemens said farewell to the Chapins and other friends and returned home to Riverdale, N.Y.
Sam’s notebook: “Dodge dinner 7.30. Henry Guy Carleton comes in afternoon” [NB 44 TS 15]. Note: Henry Guy Carleton( 1856-1910), playwright and journalist, but best remembered as a humorist, his last play Colinette (1899) starred Julia Marlowe.
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 24 Saturday – The Clemens family and hired help sailed for Genoa, Italy in the Princess Irene [MTHHR 541n1]. Note: the voyage would take 14 days. Isabel Lyon and her mother would sail on Nov. 7 [NY Times, p.13, Nov. 7, 1903]; Sam thought their arrival would be about Nov. 22 or 23; Hill gives the delay and change of plans for Lyon due to her treatment for an eye infection [70]. Trombley gives it as “an injury” [MT’s Other Woman 28]. The injury may have led to infection.
October 25 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “10.30—11.30. Nichols—portrait” [NB 43 TS 27]. Note: Nicholson; see Oct. 22 entry.
At the Hotel Earlington in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Mary Benjamin (1879-1956), who was about to marry H.H. Rogers, Jr. (Harry Rogers).
October 25 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mr. Benthergsen of the N.Y. World, acknowledging receipt of a check for $288.76, which Sam wrote “squares up everything between the World and me and removes the last obstruction to the proper progress of the twentieth century….” [MTP:Kenneth W. Rendell catalogs, No. 134, Item 25]. Note: cable fees for sending the Nov. 1897 Reichsrath story ate up most of Sam’s fees; this squared the account.
Sam also wrote to Miss Meyer.
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].
October 25 Sunday – The Clemens family was at sea on the Princess Irene en route for Genoa, Italy.
Sam’s notebook: “Heavy storm all night. Only 2 stewardesses. Our served / 60 meals in rooms this morning” [MTB 1209; NB 46 TS 28]
October 26 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Dine with Dunham?” [NB 43 TS 27].
At the Hotel Earlington in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Sylvester Baxter, who had attended Warner’s funeral in Hartford on Oct. 23.
October 26 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to Franklin G. Whitmore’s Oct. 25 request:
“Don’t do it again, Brer. Whenever you receive a book that requires an autograph, paste into it one of those I sent you, & start it along back. Nothing makes me so angry with an admirer as for him to pay me the compliment of putting me to a lot of trouble” [MTP].
October 26 Sunday – Sam left Princeton, N.J.. and returned home to Riverdale, N.Y. [NB 45 TS 32].
Sam’s notebook: “Look out & pay ‘Village of Tarrytown’ c/o John W. Free, Collector, $588.02. (Bill in Livy’s desk)” [NB 45 TS 32]. Note: property taxes on Tarrytown house.
Muriel M. Pears, “the Member for Scotland,” wrote a rather long and rambling “chatty” letter to Sam about her recent travels and thoughts, along with “Notes for the Club” (Sam’s Juggernaut) [MTP].
October 26 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “There being nothing to pass, in mid-ocean a ship going 16 knots seems to stand still—the sea-tale which makes a ship visibly fly, is a misleader./ 1400 Italian steerage at $34 each; 2,000 booked for Dec. 1” [NB 46 TS 28]
October 27 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Carnegie Hall Livy to go. 57th & 7th ave.” [NB 43 TS 27]. Note: see further down in entry for the Woman’s Press Club Tea.
At the Hotel Earlington in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Vernon L. Bean in Chicago.
“And so that pet scheme of mine has succeeded again. It has never once failed—& for a very good reason: no lazy, dull, commonplace, characterless youth is man enough to try it.
October 27 Sunday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frank Bliss, upset at the advertising conflicts between Harpers, the American Publishing Co., and the R.G. Newbegin Co.
October 27 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow.
All success to your formidable venture! My German rights are handled exclusively by Chatto, and he always sells the books to Robt. Lutz of Stuttgart for publication in the German tongue, but I should think he might let you have them first for serial publication if you don’t mind asking the said Chatto. By George! I wonder where you will turn up next! [MTP]. Note: Sam gave a brief note of Livy’s illness.
October 27 Tuesday – The Clemens family was at sea on the Princess Irene en route for Genoa, Italy.
Sam’s notebook: “Livy is enduring the voyage marvelously well. As well as Clara & Jean, I think, & far better than the trained nurse [Margaret Sherry]. / 3 p.m. She has been out on deck an hour [NB 46 TS 28; MTB 1209].