The Man in the White Suit: Day By Day

February 27 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

“Mr. Clemens was very, very interesting for during and after dinner he discussed the famous Beecher trial. Mr. Clemens had said at the time, and he still says that guilty or not, Beecher should have publicly denied the charge the day after it appeared in the press, for the honor of the woman, he should have done it” [MTP: TS 41].

Isabel Lyon’s journal #2: “Telegraphed Mr. Thayer. Wrote to Mr. H.C. Greene about Dublin house mentioned by Mr. Dana” [MTP TS 6]. Note: Henry Copley Greene: Abbott H. Thayer.

February 27 Tuesday – Sam went to Hartford; Katy Leary also went [Feb. 26 to Twichell; IVL below and Feb. 28]. 

Isabel Lyon’s journal: 

Yesterday [Feb. 26] came a telegram from Hartford announcing Patrick’s death & when I told Mr.

February 27 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Drake sale—Tuxedo” [MTP TS 32].

Emil Leopold Boas of the Hamburg-American Line wrote to Sam. “It is too bad. Can you not shirk your duty for once? It would give me great pleasure to have you as one of our guests on one of those trips. / With kind regards…” [MTP]. Note: Sam replied Feb. 28.

Arthur E. Bullard for Friends of Russian Freedom wrote to Sam enclosing a revised copy of the petition Sam had agreed to [MTP].

February 27 Thursday – In Bermuda, the Clemens party was entertained by a baseball game [D. Hoffman 105].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: Ball game today / I turn on the practical faucet & suggest a publisher. This apropos to Miss W’s [Wallace’s] charming ms. reminiscent of her life in France. She’s been reading it to me on the porch & I went off to find the King just arrived from a trip to town with Mr. Rogers. St. Simeon Slylites—or Skylights—[MTP: IVL TS 27-28].

February 27 Saturday — Pieter Bausch wrote from Amsterdam, Holland to thank Sam for his letter and for the $50 sent. A photo of a somber Mr. & Mrs. Bausch is in the file [MTP]. Note: “P. Bausch / Interesting (Photo)”; Sam paid Bausch in order to use his letter in his Autobiography. Bausch kept writing until he became a pest and Sam would not answer. Bausch then wrote to Harpers.

February 27 Sunday - Amelia C. Householder wrote from Maple Glen, Penn. to offer condolences and hoped for a reply [MTP].

February 28 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon replied to Odoardo Luchini‘s Feb. 14.

Dear Senator Luchini: / M . Clemens wishes me to write for him and thank you for your very interesting letter. He is much pleased with it.  He wishes me to tell you that he is still in his bed and hopes to remain there for a few years yet; for, undisturbed, he can read and smoke and write all he wants to, and so he is having a good time.

February 28 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to the Feb. 27 from Emil Leopold Boas. “No, I should not know how to go about it. I once tried to shirk a duty, 25 years ago, & to this day I still suffer agonies of remorse every time I think of it” [MTP].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “AB home. Candace Wheeler – Mrs. Stuart. Drake Sale” [MTP TS 32].

February 28 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: There was a cold & tearing wind all day, so that when the Trinidad finally got in after lying to anchor outside the harbor, her smoke stacks were white with brine, & her few passengers looked wearily shaken. This morning Sorellatua & I went to a quaint little Belgian woman who has brought a quantity of lovely lace here for sale. The King drives out, & he walks out, & he is gay & young & full of a new and splendid life. Mr.

February 28 Sunday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Margery H. Clinton.

Dear Plumber who can’t plumb:

If opportunity offers, you must shake hands with Mr. Taft for me, that able & lovely man. And can’t you also do the like for yourselves—you & your beautiful pal?

I inquire to know.

With love & best wishes to you both [MTP].

February 28 Monday — Lauron Clemens Sears wrote from Ada, Okla. “Dear Sir..I am a little boy 9 years old and am named after you. In some way through the Johnson’s we are related. I would like to exchange pictures with you so you would know what I look like. I know your picture wherever I see it. / I hope you will answer this” [MTP].

February 29 Saturday – At the Princess Hotel in Hamilton, Bermuda Sam began a letter to daughter  Clara that he added a PS to on Mar. 2.  

February 3 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Today we have the news that Santissima can sit up a little and she is beginning to read a little too. She sends down for Plato and Byon and the Iliad and dry essays. All the morning Mr. Clemens has been revising the Russian article and this afternoon he read me the revision. I was glad to hear that Col. Harvey said it was the strongest thing he had ever written. It is wonderful [MTP: TS 39]. Notes: The Czar’s Soliloquy ran in the Mar. issue of the NAR. Gribben (549) mistakes this journal entry for Feb. 2.

February 3 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to Dennis J. Mahoney. 

Dear M . Mahoney: / If you go on trying to make better Americans of the people whom you meet you cannot be better employed. You will be doing your best, you will be doing your full share, & nothing more can be required of any man. / May you prosper— … [MTP]. Note: Mahoney not further identified.     

Sam also wrote to Gertrude Natkin, 138 W. 98 in N.Y.C. 

February 3 Sunday – The New York Times, p. SM7 ran “Mark Twain Pays His Respects to Mrs. Eddy and Christian Science,” which announced the publication this week of Christian Science.  

February 3 Monday – Sam left Bermuda on the S.S. Bermudian [D. Hoffman 100].

Isabel Lyon’s journal:  “Homer Saint-Gaudens has written to ask if the King has any of his father’s letters, & there are some” [MTP: IVL TS 17].

Gertrude W. Arnold wrote to Sam (not found at MTP).

February 3 Wednesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Mai H. Coe and William Robertson Coe.

Dear Coes:

It has arrived, & Miss Lyon, who is ill in bed & under contract with the doctor to keep perfectly quiet for ten days, has gone into raptures & frenzies & convulsions of admiration & delight over it. But a happy earthquake doesn’t hurt a patient, it sets the drowsy circulation going at lightning-express gait, & does good. And that is what has resulted in this instance.

February 3 Thursday — At the Bay House in Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote to Albert B. Paine in Redding, Conn. Written to Paine just two months before Twain’s death, this note, in its black-bordered envelope (in mourning for Twain's daughter) concludes, as if in fun, with the words, I’ve got some more to say, but my secretary is busy & I am lazy” [MTP; Paraphrase: Dawson’s Bookshop catalogs, No. 150, Dec. 1940, Item 138].

February 4 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Isabel Lyon Sam replied for to Elizabeth (Ann Chase) Akers Allen (Elizabeth C. Akers), whose incoming question about the source of the verse on Susy’s headstone is not extant.

February 4 Sunday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Richard R. Bowker asking when “a copyright meeting of importance in Washington or elsewhere” would take place [MTP]. 

Isabel Lyon’s journal: 

Yesterday Mr. Paine gave to Mr. Clemens and me copies of the first Tammany Tiger designed by

February 4 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: All day in Katonah. Jean was very sweet & I had a lovely time with the dear bruised child for last Friday she fell.

This morning I had a good hour with the King who read with delight a letter from a Scotchman who told a story of the disinterment of a Chinese corpse in Amoy. The King will use it as an autobiographic note covering the mail of the day [MTP TS 26-27]. Note: John C.G. Cumming wrote from Falkirk, Scotland on Jan. 23.

February 4 Tuesday – William Dean Howells, in Rome, replied to Sam’s Jan. 22:

February 4 Thursday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote a postcard (with a picture of Stormfield) to Ruth Woods in Philippi, W. Va.: “Thank you ever so much, dear Ruth, for suggesting it, but the truth is I am much too old & indolent to take up writing again. / Sincerely your friend / SL. Clemens” [MTP].

February 4 Friday — At the Bay House in Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote to Andrew Carnegie.

Dear St. Andrew:

This will introduce & endorse to you Mr. Morgan; & as this is the first time I have ever given anyone a letter of introduction to you out of 150 applications, “dying I salute you!” and urgently beg you to let him talk to you on a matter which is not trivial but is of very high importance to our country & to its loftiest interests.