The Man in the White Suit: Day By Day

October 8 Sunday – R.H. Wilson wrote from Brooklyn, NY to Sam, asking about JA—was it “true history,” and if so, why was it written under the name Luis DeConte? [MTP].

October 9 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote two letters to Frederick A. Duneka of Harper’s.

The easiest way for me to furnish the details you ask for . . . is handy for you too; for you can at your pleasure talk the details to any journalist that come to you or print my letter on slips & hand them to as many of the boys as will accept . . .

…As to other matters here are the details.

Yes, I have tried a number of summer homes, here & in Europe together.

October 13 Friday – United Cigar Stores Co. in the Flatiron building, N.Y.C. wrote asking for permission to use Sam’s letter endorsing the La Tunita cigars. On or just after this day Isabel V. Lyon responded for Sam: “Mr. Clemens would like to do so—but the request comes so frequently that he has had to decline them all” [MTP].

October 16 Monday – Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Ambrose Lee, acknowledging his letter of Oct. 13. Lyon’s response is not extant but is referred to in Lee’s Oct. 18 to Sam [MTP].

Clemens also wrote to the Congo Reform Assoc. in Boston, the letter not extant but referred to in Tyler’s Oct. 17 reply.

October 17 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister in London about the passing of Henry Irving: “All our people mourn him. He earned their love & esteem at his first coming & never lost it. He was endeared to me by a warm friendship of thirty-three years” [MTP]. Note: Sam also ordered a wreath sent to Irving’s funeral [Clara’s enclosure in Oct. 19 to MacAlister].

October 20 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara.

Clarchen dear, I wish to learn to make the right & just allowance for Jean, & to try to keep constantly in mind that she is heavily afflicted by that unearned, undeserved & hellish disease, & is not strictly responsible for her disposition & her acts when she is under its influence (if there is ever a time when she is really free from its influence—which is doubtful). She has had 2 attacks to-day.

October 21 Saturday – As planned (see Oct. 15 and Oct. 20 to Clara; Oct. 19 to MacAlister), Sam went to stay with the Pearmain’s Back Bay, 388 Bacon St., Boston. He was telegraphed there on Oct. 25 by Miller Reese Hutchinson [MTP]. 

October 22 Sunday – Sometime during Sam’s stay in Boston, he conferred with Dr. Haley; Thomas S. Barbour of the Congo Reform Assoc. (Sam was an “honorary” Vice President) wrote on Nov. 23 that he hoped Sam had a good talk with Dr. Haley, and was sorry he could not join them.

October 23 Monday – During his stay at Pearmain’s Boston home, Sam met a young Liberian, Dihdwo Twe, a sophomore at Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Mass. Twe had been in the Congo before coming to the U.S. He would correspond with Twain into 1906 [Hawkins 170].

Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Sent MS of ‘Eve’s Diary’ to Mr. Clemens in Boston” [MTP TS 32].

October 25 Wednesday – In Boston, Mass. Sam wrote and directed Isabel V. Lyon to answer Miller Reese Hutchison’s Oct. 24 telegram: “Dear Miss Lyon— / Please write him I am not able to undertake it.” [MTP]. 

Sam also wrote Miss Lyon to deposit $200 for daughter Clara, and that he would return to N.Y.C. the next day, expecting to be there “only a few days” [MTP].