March 14 Sunday - In Redding, Conn, Sam finished his Mar. 11 to daughter Clara. Note the change in tone and Sam’s resignation derived from the investigation:
PS.
Sunday, Mch 14.
Nothing is as it was. Everything is changed. Sentiment has been wholly eliminated. All things in this house are now upon a strictly business basis. All duties are strictly defined, under several written contracts, signed before a notary. [bottom third of page torn away to cancel]
March 15 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to an unidentified woman (possibly Lucy J. Taylor, who wrote for the Quarter Club on Feb. 17 asking for signatures on Twain’s books) explaining Sam was not well enough to autograph “so many books,” but he would be glad to “autograph the ten extra volumes if that will do” [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Today Mr. Coburn came and photoed Jean and then he took six more of
March 15 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote an aphorism to Florence Watson- Cadieu, secretary of the Whidden Memorial Hospital Guild, Everett, Mass. “On the whole it is better to deserve honors and not have them, than have them & not deserve them. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain” [MTP].
Sam hosted a dinner for the Rogerses and Dr. Edward Quintard [Hill 124].
March 15 Friday – Sam sat for A.F. Bradley, a New York photographer. Isabel Lyon’s journal recorded the event:
March 15 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: The Yoke—Hubert Wales. / We lunched with Mrs. Peck today and had some wonderful Bermudian Pepperpot. The heart of it was a chicken and it had strange spices and pepper corns. It came on the table in what is called a buck kettle— a big black heavy old kettle, full of the flavor of many pepperpots.
March 15 Monday — In a note in the Ashcroft-Lyon MS, Clemens wrote, “About 15th took A[shcroft] to vault & removed signatures. He a smile.”
Ruth A. Dorms wrote on notepaper from “The Woman’s Club of Ansonia, Derby, and Shelton” (Conn.) to invite Sam to give an afternoon lecture [MTP].
March 16 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
March 16 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam began a siege with a bad cold which would keep him in bed until Mar. 23. He wrote to Gertrude Natkin:
To whom these presents shall come—greetings & salutation. And thereto—this: It’s postponed to April 10 , you little rascal. Unknown Friend” [MTAq 20].
Gertrude Natkin wrote a short reply:
March 16 Saturday – Sam, Isabel Lyon, and the “pretty young girl” Paddy Madden left on the Bermudian. The trip would be a five-day getaway for Sam, who was suffering from gout, but all but one day would be on board the ship. Also on the outward voyage Charles W. Eliot (1834-1926), president of Harvard, and Thomas D. Peck, woolen manufacturer from Pittsfield, Mass., were on board. Sam and Peck conducted a lottery on the ship to benefit the Cottage Hospital in Bermuda, the only civilian one there [D. Hoffman 78-9].
March 16 Monday – At the Princess Hotel in Hamilton, Bermuda Sam finished his Mar. 12 and 13 to Dorothy Quick.
March 16. The Bermudian has arrived, with / 60 bags of mail & 250 passengers. She sails to- morrow.
We don’t sail April 1. We have postponed to April 11. I am sorry, but Mr. Rogers is improving ever so fast, & we want him to stay as long as he will. Bermuda is better than four or five or six million doctors. Don’t you forget that, dear. / With lots of love [MTP].
March 16 Tuesday — Laura Hawkins Frazer wrote from Hannibal, Mo. to Sam that she thought her letter marking their old Hannibal schoolmates and friends had “miscarried.” She offered to send another. She also had heard through Mrs. Paine that Albert and Louisa Paine were enjoying their trip. Would Sam go to Bermuda again this year? She mentioned several clippings enclosed but these are not in the file [MTP].
March 16 Wednesday — Elinor Comstock wrote from NYC, trusting that Clemens wouldn’t mind including his name in her list of references for the formation of a new school in NY [MTP].
March 17 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal #2: “Mr. Vernon called to see Mr. Clemens this morning” [MTP TS 8].
March 17 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to an unidentified person:
“Mr. Clemens not very well wishes me to thank you very much for your letter which greatly interested him—& that far from objecting to his translating the article into French it is a compliment which I accept with pleasure & hold at a high value—” [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
March 17 Sunday – Sam was en route to Bermuda on the Bermudian. It was now a two-day voyage.
March 17 Tuesday – Howells & Stokes sent another typed advisory about the Redding house under construction, specifically the wainscoting in the various bathrooms [MTP].
March 17 Wednesday — Sam recorded the last time he ever saw Ralph W. Ashcroft, and included Horace Hazen’s explanation of his note of “discharge”:
March 17 Thursday — In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam began a letter to Albert B. Paine in Redding, Conn. that he finished Mar, 18,
Dear Paine,
March 18 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Herr Heinick came for dinner tonight. The table talk wasn’t very brilliant for Mr. Clemens was tired (?) or didn’t like the man—(since, I’ve found that he didn’t like the man, for he had expected to find an old and wise professor.)
Life in this way is so vitally interesting. The hours are like pearls in a string and I hope that the cord that holds them is a strong one [MTP: TS 46].
March 18 Monday – Sam, Isabel Lyon, and Paddy Madden reached Bermuda.
March 18 Wednesday – Elisabeth Marbury wrote to Sam, enclosing their readers’ criticism of the JA play produced by John W. Postgate [MTP].
The New York Times, p. 7 “Great Men’s Letters Sold at Auction” reported that three letters from Mark Twain sold for greater amounts than those from Theodore Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, Andrew Carnegie, and others.
March 18 Thursday - Ralph W. Ashcroft and Isabel V. Lyon married [MTHHR 662n1]. The New York Times ran a squib on the marriage on p. 5:
Mark Twain’s Secretary to Wed.
Miss Isabel Van Kleeck Lyon, private secretary to Mark Twain, will be married tonight to Ralph Ashcroft, manager, of 24 Stone Street. They obtained a license at the City Clerk’s office yesterday. Mr. Ashcroft is a widower.
The Times ran a follow up squib on Mar. 19:
Mark Twain’s Secretary a Bride
March 18 Friday — In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam finished his Mar. 17 to Albert B. Paine in Redding, Conn. after receiving Paine’s Mar. 12 (not extant).
Yours of March 12th just received.
It will be best for you to make stable arrangements, horses & so forth according to your own jugdement without consulting with Clara in Germany I desire this.
I have crossed out what I wrote about a monthly allowance for Clara. I didn’t know she took so much money with her[.]
March 19 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: