The Man in the White Suit: Day By Day

March 3 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: I met her [Jean] today on the 12.19 train when Katie left it. But yesterday was high holiday of the year for me. David and Lou were out at the Whitings to meet me there. I saw dear Mr. Whiting as he lay in his sick bed, a noble wonderful face, 81 years. I went to Hattie’s reception and saw friends and friends and friends. I went to the Moores and saw Jesse there. I stayed the night with Leila and we sat in our wrappers in her room and talked over biscuit and beer until nearly 2 o’clock [MTP: TS 42]. Note: Miss Lyon was in Hartford.

March 3 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to Homer Croy, editor of the Missouri University’s yearbook the Savitar. Croy had sent Sam a copy of the 1905 yearbook which announced a proposal to dedicate the 1906 edition to Mark Twain. See insert 1906 Savitar. 
 

March 3 Sunday – In the evening Sam dined with the Robert J. Collier’s and a “dozen other guests.” He wore his “full evening dress of white broadcloth” and called it “just stunning!” [Mar. 5 to Clara; Jean; IVL TS 32].

March 3 Tuesday – Sometime during the Bermuda stay with H.H. Rogers, Elizabeth Wallace recorded her impression of Rogers and the interaction between Clemens and Rogers during card games:

March 3 Wednesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Helen Kerr Blackmer (Mrs. Henry Myron Blackmer) in N.Y.C.

Dear Mrs. Blackmer:

March 30 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Daniel Carter Beard.

Dear Dan Beard: / You did not stay too long. That is settled.

2. I don’t think the [War] prayer will be published in my time. None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth. (I am offering a very small laugh at the Rockefeller-American-Board comedy. Now, slight as it is, I would not blame Harvey if he should say it isn’t good policy to print it; for he is responsible to his Co & should not permit laughs which could injure its business.)

March 30 Saturday – Isabel Lyon replied to Ferris Greenslet’s Mar. 26 request for letters of Thomas Bailey Aldrich: “We are a homeless family for so many years that not many letters were kept—but such as he has you are welcome to take—when Mr. Paine comes back in about a month” [MTP]. Note: this is catalogued “after Mar. 27,” the day of receipt, but is specifically given to Mar. 30 by Greenslet’s May 21 letter.

March 30 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:  “We had a darling lazy sail this afternoon with Mr. and Mrs. Freeman, and then tea in the billiard room—that to give Zoe Freeman a chance for a cup, for he was tired” [MTP: IVL TS 40].

March 30 Tuesday — Sam described the beginning of a controversy concerning the recently hired servant, Horace Hazen:

March 31 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Tomorrow Mother is coming up.

The pot hooks do not stay in my brain for the brain is deranged.

“Passed Michael Kelly with a load of shlabs.” That’s what the Irishman passed after he took a pill. It must be so for Katie said it [MTP: TS 49].

Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: Lewenhaupt [likely designating an osteopathic treatment for Clemens]

Mr. Clemens received a reply to his letter to Dr. Hale, & he sent the reply with a letter note to Col. Harvey to interest him as a publisher—perhaps—

March 31 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to George O’Connor.

March 31 Sunday – The New York Times, p. SM3 ran a feature article, “Mark Twain’s Wanderings At An End.” Here is the first part of a narration that reviewed Mark Twain’s life and residences:

MARK TWAIN’S WANDERINGS AT AN END

In His Seventy-third Year He Prepares to Build a Home of His Own and Settle Down—

Strange Record of Temporary Sojourn in Many Places and Countries.

March 31 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:  “The King is going boating with Nicholas Murray Butler and Lord Gray [sic Grey] who arrived yesterday on the Bermudian” [MTP: IVL TS 40-41]. Note: Albert Henry George Grey, 4th Earl Grey (1851–1917) served as Canada’s Ninth Governor General (1904-1911). He established the Grey Cup for the Canadian football championship. The Cup was initially for the top amateur rugby team in 1909, but since 1965 it has been the prize for the top professional football team.

March 31 Wednesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam finished the “lost” Mar. 5 postcard to Dorothy Quick.

March 31. Dear me, I wrote that 3 or 4 weeks ago, & I must have been called away, as I did not finish it. I have now found it in my table drawer, with two other unfinished letters, written the same week. I give you my word, dear heart, that I had not been drinking.

I am just leaving, now, for Virginia, with Ashcroft, to be gone a week or ten days. / With lots of love, / SLC [ [MTP].

March 31 Thursday - Albert Bigelow Paine wrote from Redding to Clemens: “Here is the March statement. It is a bit more complicated than the others, as I grouped the disbursements, but I guess you'll be able to work it out. Clara & Ossip write that they are afraid we are not getting enough to eat, from the amount of the food bill, but as I weigh about 193 and Katy is approaching 300 I consider their alarm unjustified”

March 4 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: I saw Dr. John in the morning and he does not say that the eye will ever be much better, and then I met Jean who has had an equally successful trip in Dublin and found a very good house owned by Mr. Henry Copley Greene of Boston. She found a house too owned by a French Canadian. She stayed one night with Mr. and Mrs. Abbott A. Thayer. Today Herr Heinick came [MTP: TS 42].

March 4 Sunday – At about 4 p.m. Sam spoke at the Majestic Theatre for the West Side Branch of the YMCA. Gertrude Natkin and her mother were in the audience. The New York Times, Mar. 5 p. 2, recorded the wild crush at the doors and also Sam’s speech.   

POLICE HUSTLE CROWD AWAITING MARK TWAIN 

Bungle at the Majestic Theatre Angers Y. M. C. A. Men. 

WOULDN’T OPEN THE DOORS

March 4 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Emilie R. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers).

March 4 Wednesday – Dorothy Butes wrote from London to Sam.

Dear Dr. Clemens. / Your crimes follow you! In geography, the other day, the Professor said that at a little inn in Germany, where he stayed, in the guest register he had to put down, his name & profession, & just above his name was that of “S.L. Clemens, Profession, Mark Twain”!!

March 4 Thursday - In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote a memo to Ralph W. Ashcroft.

Memo. for Mr Ashcroft.

Draw up codicil to will, whereby, at age 55, my daughter Clara may have her 1/2 share of estate, Jean’s share to remain in trust during her (Jean’s) lifetime. If Jean dies before Clara, & Clara is her sole or partial legatee, this property to remain in trust until Clara is 55. If Clara dies before Jean, & Jean is Clara’s sole or partial legatee, this property to remain in trust during Jean’s lifetime.

March 4 Friday — In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote to Albert B, Paine in Redding, Conn.

March 5 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Late this afternoon Mr. Clemens slipped away up to the Grosvenor and telephoned to say he was going to dine with the Misses McMahon. Francesca and Rosamond Gilder were here and stayed to supper. Today Mr. Clemens read me some bits of manuscript that he has been working on. He is so wonderful, so ennobling [MTP: TS 43] Hill adds a line not in the TS: “[Jean] hated it and refused to type any of it” [100]. Note: see Trombley p. 63.

March 5 Tuesday – In the morning Sam signed the lease for William Voss’ house in Tuxedo Park, N.Y. (about 30 miles from N.Y.C.) from May to October, 1907 [Mar. 5 to Jean; Hill 164]. The house was near Harry and Mary Rogers. Trombley writes that Sam carried on “an extended negotiation” with Voss reducing the rent from $2,400 to $1,500 [MTOW 133]. Note: the gated community was built in 1886 by Pierre Lorillard IV (1833-1901), the tobacco magnate, as a retreat for his rich New York friends.