April 20 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Mr. John Howells sent result of the estimates the furnace men made—$2000.00 for the lowest price. / Sent check to Miss Watson for Miss Harrison for $43,125.00 to pay for 1000 shares Utah” [MTP TS 14-15].
Jean Clemens wrote to the Editor of Harper’s Weekly; her letter was published on May 6, 1905 as “The Passing of the Egret,” available online via Google Books.
April 20 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam began a letter to Charlotte Teller Johnson that he finished on Apr. 21.
April 20 Saturday – Sam was in Hartford and met with the ladies who were first members of his Saturday Morning Club 30 years before. He wrote of the good time in a letter to Jean on Apr. 22.
Athenaeum printed an anonymous review of CS, p.466-8. Tenney: “Mostly summary; favorable, calls MT ‘one of the sanest, least prejudiced of men’ [43].
Clemens A.D. for this day is listed by MTP as “Imaginary Interview with the President.”
April 20 Monday – If Sam’s estimate was correct, Dorothy Quick, Angelfish, would arrive for a vist at about 2 p.m. this day. See his letter to Dorothy of Apr. 16.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Went to look at Cremone bolts” [MTP: IVL TS 47]. Note: Cremone bolts are used for door and window casement locks; sliding bolts.
April 20 Tuesday — Sam recorded an incident for this date:
April 20 Wednesday — The New York Times, Apr. 21, datelined Apr. 20 Danbury, announced:
MARK TWAIN SINKING.
Author’s Condition is Critical, but He Is Expected to Live Through the Night.
Special to The New York Times.
April 21 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
Dear H. H. / I was going to wait, that day, but the sky, up the river, began to loom so black that I rushed away to escape the storm. It wasn’t much of a success. I got 40% of it.
April 21 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “We left Hartford this morning, came to the station in Billy Whitmore’s mobile, and then as we couldn’t get a parlor car, we sat in the ordinary coach and the King talked every moment” [MTP TS 53].
Lillie d’Angelo Bergh wrote for Woman’s Press Club of NYC to ask Sam “some opinions” in a letter she enclosed (not in file) [MTP].
April 21 Tuesday – Sam, feeling “in the humor to dance” at midnight, “went round the corner,” but not finding Nancy Langhorne Astor there, decided not to dance [Apr. 28 to Astor].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Went to hunt for wall paperings. Santa and her troupe are planning to go to England [MTP: IVL TS 47].
Alice Moran wrote from Oil City, Penn. to Sam.
April 21 Wednesday — Sam’s new guestbook:
| Name | Address | Date | Remarks |
| F. A. Duneka | New York | April 21, 1909 |
In his copy of Letters of James Russell Lowell, Ed. by Charles Eliot Norton (2 vols.; 1893), Sam wrote a note about his own suicidal impulse in 1866 and dated it this date, 3 a.m.: In part:
April 21 Thursday — Sam began a note to daughter Clara which he evidently didn’t finish: “Dear / You didn’t tell me, but I have found out that you—well, I [rest illegible].”
At 7:30 a.m. Sam wrote a note to Albert B. Paine asking for his spectacles and for a glass pitcher. It was the last piece of writing he would ever do [MTP].
During the day, Albert B. Paine wrote for Sam to Dorothy Quick.
Dear Dorothy:
April 22 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: The darling days go flying by and do no proper chronicling. Mr. Howells is down stairs—he dined here tonight and I had the pleasure of sitting opposite him and of hearing him and Mr. Clemens talk. How fine the appreciation of those two men—the one for the other—and the best of it is that they lay their homage at each others’ feet —a noble gift—and are the more lovely for the giving. They look into each others eyes and their speech is, “Oh noble you”—and it is enough.
Miss Nesmith sailed today in the Vaderland.
April 22 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam inscribed a copy of JA to Dorothy Butes: “To Dorothy—/ with the affectionate regards of / The Author. On the whole it is better to deserve honors & not have them, thatn have them & not deserve them. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain/ April 22/07 [MTP].
Sam also wrote to daughter Jean in Katonah, N.Y.
April 22 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: The King, Dorothy, Ashcroft and I went down to the Aquarium today for a little frolic, but the King was very limp, and didn’t stay there very long, for there weren’t the wonderful fish that you see in Bermuda waters. The angel fish cannot live here at all it would seem. The King cosied-up in the corner of the elevated train, and come home to rest for Zoeth and Grace Freeman came to dine and to meet ABP. AB wasn’t very well, and so not very bright, but Grace was scintillating [MTP: IVL TS 447-48].
April 22 Thursday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Elizabeth Wallace.
Dear Betsy: / It is not conveyable in words. I mean my vanity—rotten joy in the dear and pleasant things you say of me, and in my enviable standing in your class, as revealed by the class’s answer to your challenge. So I shall not try to do the conveying, but only say I am grateful—a truth which you would easily divine, even if I said nothing at all.
April 22 Friday — William Dean Howells wrote to Clara Clemens Gabrilowitsch after learning the sad news:
I found Mr. Paine’s telegram when I came in late last night; and suddenly your father was set apart from all other men in a strange majesty. Death had touched his familiar image into historic grandeur.
You have lost a father. Shall I dare tell you of the desolation of an old man who has lost a friend, and finds himself alone in the great world which has now wholly perished around?
April 23 Sunday – Easter – Midnight at 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Joe Twichell.
Dear Joe— / I have just finished reading the history of Joe Hawley—a noble man, truly. I see that he was not the man to allow votes to be bought for him, & I do not believe he ever knew it. I thank you for sending me that paper.
I suppose the “Henry E. Burton” is the one who married Alice Day’s sister. I did not know he was dead [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
April 23 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The King has new and gaudy maxim: “Prostitution is the thief of time” [MTP TS 53].
Edith Elsie Baker for the Actors’ Fund of America wrote to “gratefully acknowledge Sam’s $10 donation and 3 volumes of HF for their fair [MTP].
April 23 Thursday – The New York Times, p. 13, “Business Troubles” ran a paragraph on the Plasmon Co. of America’s bankruptcy:
April 23 Friday - On a page of notes in the Lyon-Ashcroft MS, Sam wrote under the heading “Eavesdropping,” “Apl. 23 Clara went to Mr. Rogers. (His letter)” [L-A MS XIV]. Note: the letter from H.H. Rogers in the source as follows:
My dear Clemens:
I had a call this morning from Clara, when she told me of her troubles, and after she had said you knew of her coming to me, I ventured to say that I would be very glad to take up the matter, if you desired it, and see if I could straighten it out to your entire satisfaction.
April 23 Saturday — Jervis Langdon II diary entry: