August 21 Thursday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
As soon as you had been gone 2 hours & I had sent off an urgent letter to Boston for an air bed, then somebody mentioned that you had air beds on the yacht.
It is just my luck. I believed Mrs. Clemens had lost a whole day by that accident. Up to now she hast lost several. Of all the impossible places for the meeting of emergencies promptly & successfully, this is the impossiblest.
August 22 Thursday – Sam was in bed at Saranac Lake fighting off a head cold . See Aug. 23 to Rogers.
August 22 Friday – Sam also wrote to H.H. Rogers.
“The air bed is on its way from Boston & will arrive tomorrow. And the same is good news.
“Mrs. Clemens is doing so well that at last she was able to partially quit plasmon this morning & take to solid food. She slept well last night & is sleeping a good deal to-day” [MTHHR 499].
August 23 Friday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
August 23 Saturday – The Omaha Daily World Herald sent a telegram to Sam. The Omaha public library had banned HF and the newspaper solicited his reaction.
In York Harbor, Maine Sam replied to Omaha World Herald. His letter was published in the New York Times, Sept. 6, 1902, p.BR5 along with the story:
Mark Twain on “Huck Finn.”
August 24 Monday – Joe Twichell wrote from Blue Ridge, NY to Sam, wondering about Sam’s past “invitation” forthcoming for watching a yacht race on Mr. Rogers’ yacht. A newspaper which had reached him “in the heart of the Adirondacks” told of a yacht race, and if his attendance was counted on he would like to write Rogers an apology for being unable to come. He prayed Livy was improving, whom he expressed love for. “The prospect of your expatriation, except as it means benefit to her, is to us extremely dismal.
August 25 Sunday – Sam wrote a draft of “The United States of Lyncherdom” [Aug. 26 to Bliss].
August 25 Monday – In York Harbor, Maine: Sam’s notebook: “Livy’s illness hangs on, & on, from day to day, & there is never any great improvement; never anything to rouse us & make us jubilant” [NB 45 TS 24].
August 26 Monday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote to C.F. Moberly Bell, editor of the London Times, asking for the title of Dr. Morrison’s book about his walk through China and Burma, as his copy that Bell had given him was “packed up with our stuff in New York.” He remembered the facts he was quoting but not the title of the book [MTP].
August 26 Tuesday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to nephew Samuel E. Moffett.
No, I don’t think I shall ever give up the “Stale News” till I’m obliged to. I’ve had to drop it indefinitely, because I got at the finishment of a long tale here, & was so interested that I couldn’t get away from it. It is far from done, yet.
August 27 Tuesday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam replied to John Y. MacAlister’s Aug. 2 letter.
Drop the mental telegraphy!—your machine isn’t synchronous with mine (which is out of repair) & won’t work.
August 27 Wednesday – In York Harbor Sam wrote to Katharine B. Clemens (Mrs. James Ross Clemens) in St. Louis.
Your kind good letter of day before yesterday has just arrived—we got the former one, too, but we do not tell Livy anything; we only sit by & watch & nurse. She cannot bear excitement—& any talk would produce that.
We are not alarmed about her—it is the best I can say.
I steal a little while per day to answer letters with a line.
August 27 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “A P H / Let him climb his own ears & jump off into space. Lo, we are tired of him” [NB 46 TS 23]. Note: possibly Theodore Roosevelt.
August 28 Wednesday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote to John H. Stevens, older brother of Ed Stevens, one of Sam’s sidekicks in the Marion Rangers, 1861.
August 28 Thursday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to Ida Langdon in Gloucester, Mass.
August 29 Thursday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frank Bliss, rethinking the idea of writing a book on lynchings:
No, upon reflection it won’t do for me to write that book if Mr. Newbegin values his Southern Trade, for I shouldn’t have even half a friend left, down there, after it issued from the press.
August 29 Friday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam finished his Aug. 28 to H.H. Rogers, only certain that Livy would not be able to travel within the next week.
August 29 Saturday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Will Larrymore Smedley, artist in Chatauqua, N.Y., thanking him for the landscape; Sam would send to Riverdale for it [MTP]. Smedley had illustrated a newer two-volume edition of GA and would also illustrate the small volume The Dog’s Tale in 1904.
August 3 Saturday – H.H. Rogers’ yacht Kanawha returned to N.Y.C. at 10 a.m. Sam went ashore to shop. At noon he wrote Livy aboard the yacht, just before they sailed.
August 3 Sunday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, advising him of the letter of Witherbee’s he was sending, and seeking his advice as to the soundness of the deal.
I am mailing you a letter containing a proposition to buy the Hartford house for $50,000 worth of 5% railroad bonds; & I am telegraphing Whitmore to ask for an appointment & go down & get your judgment as to whether the bonds are safe & sound or not. The price ($50,000) is eminently satisfactory.
August 3 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Aug. 3 deposited $500 coupons, in Guaranty [Trust Co.] / [Horiz. Line separator] / The farmer sows, the broker reaps” [NB 46 TS 22]. Also, he rec’d receipt from Charles Fairchild & Co. for $16,000 in American Mechanical Cashier Co. bonds [TS 33].
August 30 Friday – Sam was writing “The Double-Barrelled Detective Story,” averaging eighteen pages per day between Aug. 29 and Sept. 6 [Sept. 6 to Rogers].
August 30 Saturday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore.
I enclose $100.
I am not Brother Joseph—quite the reverse; & I don’t understand Sister Clement. Perhaps her letter was not intended for me.
I am quite willing to pray for her, if she will take all the risks. For this I will charge nothing; but when I insure with [a] fool I must have ecclesiastical rates.
August 30 Sunday – The New York Herald ran a self-interview, “Mark Twain, Able Yachtsman, on Why Lipton Failed to Lift the Cup” [Budd, Collected 2: 1008].
August 31 Saturday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote a typewritten letter (perhaps by Jean) to H.H. Armsworth in Chicago; evidently the letter made its way there and back with a “name not in directory” marking. Sam enclosed a printed postcard for Armsworth’s use, an inquiry to R.G. Newbegin & Co. 68 Read Street, N.Y.C.