The Man in the White Suit: Day By Day

January 3, 1906 Wednesday

January 3 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to William D’Alton Mann.

I supposed its intent was malicious, but if Fiske wrote it it wasn’t. I went to the Court for a very definite purpose; but as I have not spoken to any one about it, no one knows what it was but myself.

January 4, 1906 Thursday

January 4 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Today young Mr. [Horace] Ashton came and made 8 photographs of Mr. Clemens in his bed. Not very good.

January 5, 1906 Friday

January 5 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to Herbert Gunnison (1858-1932), publisher of the Brooklyn Eagle, declining an invitation (not extant) [Christie’s auction 24 May 2002, Lot 1, Sale 1083]. Note: Gunnison was an “avid collector who sought to obtain material from a variety of 19 century personalities in the political, military, religious and cultural spectrums. The collection contains approximately 2000 items” [Ibid].

January 6, 1906 Saturday

January 6 Saturday – Clara Clemens continued to suffer a throat affliction. On this day she returned to the Norfolk sanitarium; she would return on Jan. 9, then go to Atlantic City [IVL TS 4; Hill 121]. 

Albert Bigelow Paine called on Sam at 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. about the possibility of writing Mark Twain’s biography. Paine writes of the meeting: 

January 7, 1906 Sunday

January 7 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

January 8, 1906 Monday

January 8 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to Thomas S. Barbour resigning from the Congo Reform Assoc.

I have retired from the Congo.

January 8–February 12, 1906

January 8–February 12 – Sometime during this period, Sam wrote to the Robert Fulton Memorial Association, a letter which ran in the Feb. 18 issue, p. 20 of the NY Times:

January 9, 1906 Tuesday

January 9 Tuesday – Sam began a series of Autobiographical Dictations (hereinafter referred to as A.D.) for Albert Bigelow Paine. Paine brought Miss Josephine Hobby, a part- time stenographer, employed by Century Magazine for many years (she would be fired in Sept. 1908 by Isabel Lyon). Miss Hobby had also worked for Charles Dudley Warner and Mary Mapes Dodge [MTB 1266]. The dictations continued with fair regularity throughout 1906 and 7, thereafter intermittently. The last recorded dictation was on Dec. 29, 1909 [MTHHR 607n1]. Note: MTHHR 607n1 uses Jan.

January 10, 1906 Wednesday

January 10 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to unidentified gentlemen.

January 11, 1906 Thursday

January 11 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam declined an invitation from an unidentified man, giving the reason that “I have made all the engagements for this year that I can keep” [MTP].

Sam also sent a telegram to Thomas Bailey Aldrich and Lilian W. Aldrich in Boston: “A happy voyage and a quick return” [MTP].

Clemens’ A.D. for this day involved a Jan. 3 letter from Laura K. Hudson and his reply of Jan. 12 concerning his Dec. 17, 1877 Whittier birthday “debacle” [AMT 1: 260-267].

January 12, 1906 Friday

January 12 Friday – Fred Nye of the Sunday N.Y. World wrote asking if Sam would write for their “humorous campaign in favor of the most down-trodden and abused person in the United States—Father.” On or just after this was received Sam answered: “I think it unlikely that the Harpers would approve, but even if they did I have no intention of writing a miscellaneous article on any body.”

January 13, 1906 Saturday

January 13 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote instructions to Isabel Lyon for John Larkin: “Ask Larkin to appoint next Saturday for the tax office & make it $5,000. I want to write it up” [MTP]. Note: Larkin characterized Larkin as “my friend and attorney.”

January 14, 1906 Sunday

January 14 Sunday – The New York Times, p.9 “What is Doing in Society”: “Mr. and Mrs. Cleveland H. Dodge have invitations out for a dinner for Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain,) on Friday next,” or Jan. 19. Note: Cleveland Hoadley Dodge (1860-1926), philanthropist active in NY politics, was the grandson of William E. Dodge, Jr. (1832-1903) Clemens’ neighbor in Riverside. See Aug. 13, 1903 entry.

Isabel Lyon’s journal:

January 15, 1906 Monday

January 15 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Today when I asked Mr. Clemens why mens’ voices singing in the street at night sound so heartbreakingly sad? Or away out in the country, when you are wakened by the sound of a man singing a common place song in a common place voice, why does that make you aware of all the misery of the world? Mr. Clemens replied, “The man is probably dead drunk, but that doesn’t lessen your heartache.”

January 16, 1906 Tuesday

January 16 Tuesday – Mark Twain attended a big automobile show at Madison Square Garden, and of course the New York Times of Jan. 16, p. 8 covered the show and his appearance:

MARK TWAIN AT THE SHOW.
———
Laments That He Cannot Dictate as Fast as Motor Salesmen Talk.

January 17, 1905 Wednesday

January 17 Wednesday – Sam attended a meeting to form an association for a 1907 centennial of Robert Fulton’s Claremont. The New York Times, Jan. 18, p. 8, “For a Monument to Fulton” reported the presence of Mark Twain. On Feb. 18, the Times, under the same heading, reported Samuel L. Clemens as an “incorporator”and printed his letter of acceptance to the committee:

Mr. Clemens, in accepting membership on the committee, wrote the following letter:

January 18, 1906 Thursday

January 18 Thursday – Sam was a pallbearer for John Malone, actor, who died on Jan. 15. The funeral took place at the Church of St. Francis Xavier on W. 16 Street. Requiem mass was celebrated by the Rev. Father Van Rensselaer. A large group from The Players attended. Other pall bearers were: Barton Hill, Daniel Frohman, J.H. Benrimo, Jacob Wendell, Jr., T.J. Hallowell, Charles Harvey Genung, and David A. Munro [NY Times, Jan. 19, 1906, p. 11, “Funeral of Actor John Malone”]. See also Nov. 16, 1898 to Malone.

January 19, 1906 Friday

January 19 Friday – Joe Twichell wrote to Sam.

I declare that the deeps penetrated and explored in much research as this of radium more affect me with the sense of sublimity than those discovered by the telescope. Really this would be an admirable sort of an universe if it wasn’t for the Human Race. Yet it’s the Human Race that has captured the knowledge both of the Light Year and of Radio-activity. Perhaps it will amount to something eventually. / Yrs Aff. / Joe [MTP].

January 20, 1906 Saturday

January 20 Saturday – Julia Delafield Longfellow wrote from N.Y.C. inviting Sam to dine with them “informally” and meet “a political friend, Colonel Flood” on Friday, Jan. 26 at 8 p.m. Sam answered on or just after Jan. 20:

“Look upon it as peculiarly uncommon [?] & uncalled for [one or two words illegible] of ill luck that I am obliged to be in Wash on that date” [MTP].

Just about everything Mark Twain did appeared in the New York newspapers. The Times and the Herald of Jan. 21 were among those which reported on his paying a tax for “fun”:

January 21, 1906 Sunday

January 21 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Mr. Clemens got into the big grey mobile with Mr. Clinton at 12 o’clock and away they went for luncheon. The day is very lovely—just the sort for motoring, for we’re having a warm wave, too warm but good for motoring.

January 22, 1906 Monday

January 22 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to the Armstrong Assoc. asking if they would admit his nephew, Samuel E. Moffett at the stage door, as he was “one of the editors of ‘Collier’s Weekly’” [MTP]. Note: admittance to the benefit for the Tuskegee Institute that evening.

During an epileptic attack, Jean Clemens burned her arm on one of the new radiators [Hill 120]. See Lyon’s journal entry below.

In the evening, Mark Twain spoke in behalf of Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute at Carnegie Hall. The NY Times reported the event on the front page:

January 23, 1906 Tuesday

January 23 Tuesday – Virgil Rule wrote as chairman of a committee for the Pike County Colony in St. Louis to invite Sam to their annual dinner on Mar. 3, 1906 [MTP]. Note: Allowing for five days postal service, Sam’s reply to Isabel V. Lyon to “Decline,” would have been approximately Jan. 29

Clemens’ A.D. for this day included: About the meeting at Carnegie Hall, in interest of Booker Washington’s Tuskegee Institute—Leads up to unpleasant political incident which happened to Mr. Twichell—ends with “The Character of Man” [AMT 1: 302-315].

Isabel Lyon’s journal:

January 24, 1906 Wednesday

January 24 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to Mr. and Mrs. William P.Gordon in Bunker Hill, Illinois.

January 25, 1906 Thursday

January 25, before – Sam wrote a line to the Tarboro, N.C. Literary Club, celebrating its eleventh anniversary on Jan. 25 with a “Mark Twain Evening” where quotations from eminent American humorists were read by each member of the club. He wrote: “I wish I could be there. Sincerely…” [MTP: Baltimore Sun, Jan. 29].

January 26, 1906 Friday

January 26 Friday – Sam was in Washington, D.C. David Pae for The People’s Friend / The Popular Home Journal (London) wrote to Sam, relating “a recent competition” where their readers were asked “to name their favorite living writer.” As a result HF and IA were tied for best; would Twain agree with this verdict, and if so, which of these was his favorite? [MTP]. Note: Lyon replied for Sam; allowing for post from London to NY, ten days time, or ca. Feb. 5.

Subscribe to The Man in the White Suit: Day By Day