The Man in the White Suit: Day By Day

December 10 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Robert Underwood Johnson, thanking him for being elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters on Dec. 2. Johnson was the Secretary of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, which founded the Academy in emulation of the French Academy, and formed to “foster, assist, and sustain excellence” in American literature, music, and art [MTP].

December 10 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Home again—& the King is still in Washington. The papers are full of him, for he went down there with plenty of white clothes & people love to see him in them” [MTP TS 149].

David A. Munro for the North American Review wrote to Sam:

I am in distress over one of the first four pages of the new instalment of the autobiography, and the printer expects me to send them to the press tomorrow. That is why I pursue you to Washington.

December 10 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick about his amazement at touring the Jewish Technical School for girls.

I am very sorry you didn’t see Peter Pan, you dear child, but you will see it yet. Meantime we can hunt up something else when you come.

Saturday after next? Can’t you come then—& stay over till Monday? We hope you can; & that is why I am writing now, at sleep-time, instead of waiting till tomorrow, when I am going to be busy & could be prevented.

December 10 Thursday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick.

December 10 Friday - The New York Times, p. 11, “Bazaar For Sick Nurses,” announced that Samuel L. Clemens would be in charge of “the raffling of an automobile.” Sam, however, was in Bermuda and would not return for the event.

December 11 Sunday – William B. Throop wrote from Aurora, Ill. to Sam, asking where he might find the old story of a man who went to Washington to collect money due on a beef contract [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote “ ‘Roughing It,’ I think,” at the top.

December 11 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to Marjorie V.d.W. Brooke. “I am quite sure, Miss Brooke, that if I had seen that photograph in a shop window I should have supposed it was a picture of myself, so marked is the resemblance” [MTP: eBay item #30366463].

Sam sent another Dec. 6 form letter for the occasion of his 70th to Will Larrymore Smedley. Sam added no comment [MTP].

In N.Y.C. Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam to Dihdwo Twe.

December 11 Tuesday – Sam sat for photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952) in her Washington, D.C. studio. He wore his white suit [Madsen 53]. Note: Johnston was a well-established professional who had photographed some of America’s prominent figures, including Theodore Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony, Booker T. Washington, Andrew Carnegie, John Philip Sousa and others; She was the first official White House photographer. See p. 54 or print LC-J601-1305 or 1305A on Library of Congress website.

December 11 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon wrote to John A. Kirlicks: “Mr Clemens asks me to write for him & thank you very much for your pleasant letter & the poem & the little pamphlet. He wishes me also to say that such messages as yours are always welcome” [Gribben 384]. Note: Gribben cites from a letter of 7 June 1977 from Kevin B. Mac Donnell, who he says “speculates” that the publication referred to was I’ve Got the Blues Tonight & Other Troubles (1896) by Kirlicks. See other entries on Kirlicks.

December 11 Friday – Sam took a quick trip into NYC, using taxis to visit H.H. Rogers, Julia Langdon Loomis, daughter Clara, and Mary B. Rogers [Dec. 12 to Langdon].

December 11 Saturday — Hill records the final folding of the American Plasmon Co.

Ashcroft, who retained his position in the company, told [Charles T.] Lark that the foundering organization would sink unless Clemens provided additional funds, a suggestion that was sensibly declined. Finally, by December 11, 1909, while Clemens was in Bermuda.

December 11-24 Tuesday – Sometime during this period at 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y., Sam wrote to Ignace J. Paderewski (Ignacy Jan Paderewski; 1860-1941), Polish pianist and composer, later Prime Minister of Poland.

December 12 Monday – Hal W. Greer, attorney in Beaumont, Texas, wrote to Sam, thanking him for “The $30,000 Bequest” in Harper’s Weekly, Christmas edition [MTP].

I.M. Horsfall wrote from London to Sam, having just read his article Joan of Arc in the Dec.Harper’s. He enclosed a sonnet on Joan by his blind daughter [MTP].

December 12 Wednesday – Sam returned to New York, and 21 Fifth Ave. [NY Times – above].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “This afternoon I went out to do an errand & on my return I found the King had arrived. He seemed sweeter & mellower than ever before. He can go away from me, but I shall not go away from him again unless he sends me” [MTP TS 149].

December 12 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to the Plasmon Co..of America to tender his resignation as Vice-President and Director of the Plasmon Co. of America [MTP].

Clemens’ A.D. for this day included: Andrew Carnegie continued — he gives two additional millions to Carnegie Institute—Everybody likes attentions—Prince of Wales once showed Mr. Clemens a match-box and told him it was presented to him by King of Spain [MTP: Autdict. 4].  

December 12 Saturday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Charles J. Langdon.

Dear Charley:

December 12 Sunday — D. Hoffman writes, “Nearly every Sunday [in Bermuda] he went to Prospect for the military band concerts. Once he had become a friend of the bandmaster, the entire program might consist of pieces Clemens suggested” [139].

Miss Angela Morgan wrote from Woodstock, NY to Sam, enclosing a page from the December number of Collier’s and which bore her poem, “God’s Man,” which Sam had given “interest and assistance” to her. She thanked him and considered herself “forever indebted” [MTP].

December 13 Tuesday – Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote “Due back Jan. 6th S.S. Lucania” on a postcard picturing Trafalgar Square, London [MTP].

R. Howard Krause and Mrs., in Kidderminster, England, sent a Christmas card to Sam [MTP].

December 13 Thursday – Clemens’ A.D. of this day included: As regards the coming American Monarchy [MTP Autodict3].

Isabel Lyon’s journal:

This morning when I told the King apropos of AB’s friends that there was one of them that he didn’t like & that it was Stedman, he said, “Oh, no, I only despise him, I don’t dislike him.”

AB is going to live here in the house to be the King’s billiard player.

Strength is flowing back into my veins & I am glad to be alive.

December 13 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Champ Clark (James Beauchamp Clark):

I thank you ever so much for your kind offer, but I want to get an extension on it until some later day—indefinitely later—so that I may finish a dialogue which I began last September, & which I may not take up again for a good while.

December 13 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:  “Mr. Starr & Mr. Watson came for luncheon today, & Mrs. Starr made some colored photographs of the King & Margaret” [MTP: IVL TS 83]. Note: see Starr’s account of this trip Nov. 29 entry.

December 13 Monday — In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam inscribed an aphorism in a copy of PW to Bernand Walker. “Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker may be sorry.—Page 77. Truly Yours, Mark Twain. With kindest regards to Mr. Bermand Walker. Bermuda, Dec. 13, 1909” [MTP: Parke- Bernet catalog, 4 May 1938, No. 38, Item 90].