December 14 Thursday – Sam sent another Dec. 6 form letter for the occasion of Sam’s 70 to Thomas Bailey Aldrich and Lilian W. Aldrich, now at their summer home, “Redfarm,” in Ponkapog, Mass. Sam added: “Apparently I am never going to get a chance to add a line, so I will just give it up till a later day &—God Almighty bless you both! / SLC / Dec. 14.” [MTP].
In N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon finished her Dec. 11 to Raffaello Stiattesi.
The Man in the White Suit: Day By Day
December 14 Friday – C.B. Fleet, druggist, Lynchburg, Va. wrote a humorous anecdote prefaced by the tale that Sam once told of a chairman of a lecture committee, complimenting him on “Heathen Chinee,” one of Bret Harte’s poems. It seems just after a play of Col. Sellers there, a man thought to be intelligent said about the play, “if you’ve seen one Shakespeare play, you’ve seen them all” [MTP].
December 14 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to the Dec. 12 telegram from Frank Cavendish Lascelles, by sending one of his own to: Pageant office, Savoy, London: “Best wishes for the greast London pageant it will be the event of the year” [MTP].
Eustace D. Conway finished his Dec. 7 letter to Sam [MTP].
December 14 Monday – William Ireland Starr, photographer from West Redding, Conn. came and took photographs of Stormfield and it’s occupants, including one of Ralph W.
December 14 Tuesday — In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote to Frances Nunnally in Atlanta.
Francesca dear, I received your last just before I left home, & was glad to see you were carrying on as joyously & as turbulently as ever I hope there has been no abatement, & that there won’t be any while you are young.
December 15 Thursday – In Keokuk, Iowa Edward F. Brownell wrote to Isabel Lyon to clarify if the Dec. allowance for Tabitha “Puss” Quarles (Greening) was to be increased to $25 or if the $15 was to be added to her allowance [MTP].
December 15 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote a short note to Robert Bacon. “Dear Mr. Bacon: / I am expecting to send you the full report (in French) & an elaborate digest of it (English). By mail or by the hand of a delegation of our Association” [MTP].
Sam also sent a Dec. 6 form letter for the occasion of his 70 birthday to John D. Rhodes, US Court of Claims, Washington, D.C. Sam added: “Alas, they have shut Huck & Tom out from the youth’s department of the Brooklyn Blind Asylum library!” [MTP]. Note: postmarked this
December 15 Saturday – Harper’s Weekly published Mark Twain’s letter to Henry Mills Alden to observe Alden’s 70 birthday. The letter was written sometime between Oct. 22 and Nov. 10, 1906.
December 15 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Prof. Sloane and his daughter Margaret (debutante) came in today for tea. The talk ran onto Washington and the political rottenness of the place. “No man can be himself there.” Mr. S. said. “Mr. Cleveland alone shook his fist in the faces of the corrupt politicians and made himself hated.
December 15 Tuesday – Clara Apfel, who was about to prepare a paper for the Chicago Women’s Club wrote to ask “something new”—“Possibly what you personally think of ‘Women’s’ clubs” or some little incident” in his life [MTP]. Note: “Ans Dec 23 MLH”
December 16 Friday – Sam wrote to Andrew M. Clute, NY attorney, requesting that the canceled contracts for the sale of the Tarrytown house be returned to William Evarts Benjamin, Sam’s friend and attorney who had handled the sale. This letter is not extant but referred to in the following from Clute:
December 16 Saturday – Sam conferred sometime this day with actress Sarah Bernhardt, who was scheduled to appear at the Casino Theatre on Dec. 18 in a benefit for Jewish victims in Russia (see Dec. 14 insert advertisement) [Dec. 17 inscription in JA]. Sam showed initial interest in offering a few words for the event in his Dec. 13 response to the Shuberts. His meeting with Bernhardt likely involved his attendance and address for the following afternoon’s benefit. It was a cause that found Clemens’ sympathies.
December 16 Sunday – Mr. and Mrs. Edwin R. Ray wrote, from Tacoma,Wash. to express thanks for HF—their two “fine boys” are always “instantly delighted” by having it read to them [MTP].
December 16 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “And this day?” [MTP TS 120].
Hélène Elisabeth Picard wrote a long letter in a tiny hand.
My dear Chief Servant, / A hearty wish for a blessed Christmas to you and your family, and for many happy returns of the day is leaving my desk to start westward in the direction of your home. May those terrific tempests and angry winds allow my wishes to find your door in time, that you might know your French Member has also thought of you.
December 16 Wednesday – William Dean Howells wrote to Sam.
Dear Clemens:
December 17 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote an autograph for Avery (not further identified): “To Avery—with kind remembrances of / Mark Twain / Dec. 1904” [MTP: Smith, Perline & Co. catalogs, Apr. 7, 1995, Item 782].
Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote to Sam [MTP]. UCCL 39141 letter is not currently available.
George W. Reeves wrote to Sam. “The copies of contract enclosed I will ask you not to sign until Mr. Benjamin has approved of them…If satisfactory, I will call with duplicates with Mr. Gardiner’s signature” [MTP].
December 17 Sunday – Sam wrote a longish inscription in JA to Sarah Bernhardt:
Ah, Madame the illustrious, I made a mistake yesterday; When you spoke of the “play,” I thought you meant the book—I have no play, I was never able to write a play. But this is the book; & it has one large merit: it puts no words into Jeanne’s mouth which she did not say.
With the homage of Yours very truly the Author, To Madame Sarah Bernhardt. Dec. 17/05 [MTP: Anderson Galleries catalog, Dec. 17, 1934, Item 61].
Ah, Madame the illustrious, I made a mistake yesterday; When you spoke of the “play,” I thought you meant the book—I have no play, I was never able to write a play. But this is the book; & it has one large merit: it puts no words into Jeanne’s mouth which she did not say.
With the homage of Yours very truly the Author, To Madame Sarah Bernhardt. Dec. 17/05 [MTP: Anderson Galleries catalog, Dec. 17, 1934, Item 61].
December 17 Monday – In N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam and declined an invitation to lecture from Mrs. Caverly [MTP].
Clemens’ A.D. of this day included: The coincidence of the Kaiser’s and the portier’s appreciation of “Old Times on the Mississippi,” expressed almost in the same moment—The coincidence of Clemens reflecting on the definition of the word civilization, and then picking up the morning paper and finding his very ideas set forth by a writer who attributed the marrow of his remarks to Clemens [MTP Autodict3].
December 17 Tuesday – Charles R. Morris wrote from Washington DC to ask Sam if he would include his July 4 oration deliverd at Aurora, Nev. When he was a miner there [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “He has quoted the only sentence of the speech that I remember, & I don’t’ know anything about the rest of it.” See Dec. 18 for Sam’s reply.
George Grantham Bain wrote to Miss Lyon to ask which photos Sam wanted copies of and enclosing a ms. for her to return [MTP].
December 17 Thursday – In Redding, Conn. Sam sent a telegram to daughter Jean in Berlin, Germany.
[typed on form of Western Union Telegraph Company:]
December 17 Friday — In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote a Bermuda postcard to Elizabeth Wallace. “Merry Christmas / & affectionate greeting / to Betsy / SLC / Blanche has been close-clipped & looks elegant—even spiritual” [MTP). Note: Maude was the donkey used in the earlier visit; Blanche may have been another.
December 18 Monday – At the Casino Theatre in the afternoon (Lyon’s journal #2 gives it as 2 p.m) following a performance by Sarah Bernhardt, Sam offered a few words for the benefit of Jewish sufferers in Russia. The New York Times, Dec. 19, p. 9 reported the event:
MARK TWAIN SPEAKS
AFTER BERNHARDT ACTS
Jewish Benefit Audience Enjoys an Unusual Double Bill.
$3,000 FOR THE RELIEF FUND
——— ——— ———
Humorist Says He and the Actress Are Two of the Youngest Persons Alive.
December 18 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to Frederic Whyte’s Dec. 7, which included an excerpt from Alfred Russel Wallace’s book The Wonderful Century containing advocacy of phrenology. Whyte asked if Sam had studied phrenology (reading of bumps on the scalp).
December 18 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to George L. Beam of the Denver & Rio Grande R.R. Co, Denver, Colo. “Mr. Clemens asks me to write for him & thank you for sending him the photograph & pamphlet. And to use his own words, he said, ‘Tell him I think it is a good strong clean-cut face & I hope it looks like me as that is the way I should like to look’”[MTP]. Note: Beam’s photo and pamphlet are not extant.
December 18 Friday – In N.Y.C. H.H. Rogers wrote to Sam.
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