May 22 Wednesday – Fatout lists a dinner speech in honor of George B. Harvey, Sam’s publisher. No particulars are given and none were found, neither did Lyon mention it in her journal entry below [676].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Today the King went to Tuxedo and I stayed on because Santa needed a chaperon and I needed to do a lot of extra things.
May 22 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote condolences to George de Forest Brush, after hearing of his loss from daughter Jean.
May 22 Saturday — Clemens inscribed his copy of The Mother and the Father. Dramatic Passages, (1909) by William Dean Howells: “S. L. Clemens / from W.D. Howells. / May 22, 1909” [Gribben 332].
Andrew Carnegie wrote from Stresa, Italy: his sympathies to Sam on learning of the death of H.H. Rogers:
May 23 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Brander Matthews. “You have my deepest sympathy. These are black days. There are now but 13 days between me & the anniversary of anniversaries” [MTP]. Note: Matthews’ loss was not determined.
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
May 23 Thursday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam sent two telegrams to George Thomson Wilson, Secretary of the Pilgrim Club, N.Y. branch that he would be glad to be the guest of the London Pilgrims for lunch any date between June 18 and June 28; his second note asked Wilson to cable the London Pilgrims to pin the luncheon date to either June 21 or 22, and cable Sam their acceptance [MTP].
May 23 Saturday – Harper & Brothers wrote to Sam, advising him not to satisfy the request of Rossiter Johnson, who wanted “permission to include in his forthcoming set of books the synopsis of 2 or 3 of” Sam’s books, and to stick to “that policy which you have followed so consistently in refusing permission for your works & name to be associated with other publications…” [MTP].
Robert W. Breckons wrote on U.S. Attorney’s Office, Honolulu, to ask Sam to put his autograph on enclosed postcard for Breckons’ eight year old daughter [MTP].
May 24 Wednesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam replied to Robert L. Fulton’s May 12 invitation.
May 24 Friday – Tuxedo, N.Y.: Isabel Lyon’s journal: The King was glad to have me come home again, and said he had not been able to fraternize with his food because it isn’t pleasant to eat alone.
May 24 Sunday – Clara Clemens’ cabled from England that she had arrived safely. The cable arrived in the morning at 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. [May 24 to Sturgis] Sam then sent a telegram to daughter Jean, c/o Dr. Harlands: “Clara has arrived safely. Much love to you. Father” [MTP]. Note: Clara Clemens had arrived in England for her singing tour of Paris and London.
Sam also replied to the May 21 from Dorothy Sturgis:
Dear Dorothy—
May 24 Monday — Columbia University sent Sam an engraved invitation to exercises of Commencement Week, May 24 to June 4 [MTP]. Note: likely before this date; included a baseball game Yale v. Columbia on May 29,
May 25 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: The microbe has fixed it—we won’t ever die, but live forever and ever as disintegrated oxygen and hydrogen and gases and acids and things. It’s quite dreadful and very fascinating. The mystery and workings of that brain. I’m reading away back in his first book and just loving that “Innocents Abroad”, with its choice way of looking at places and things and people and events centuries old. Today the music was very beautiful. Like a sweet spirit [MTP TS 60].
May 25 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Frank N. Doubleday.
Y.M. This is too much! I think it is not right to jest about such things.
O.M. I am not jesting, I am merely reflecting a plain & simple truth—& without uncharitableness. The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot. It is my belief that this position is not assailable.
May 25 Saturday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam drafted a telegram to George Thomson Wilson, Secretary of the Pilgrim Club, N.Y. branch: “Please cable Secretary Brittain for me 25 suits me exactly” [MTP].
May 25 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Margaret Blackmer at Miss Tewksbury’s School in Irvington, N.Y.
Dear Margaret—
May 25 Tuesday — Sam recorded going to New York to check with a secretary of the late H.H, Rogers, Miss A. Watson, who had been put in charge of looking into the financial records to see if the Ashcrofts had committed theft.
May 26 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: This afternoon Mr. Thayer called, after he left Mr. Clemens said nice things about him, and then said he had seen him a quarter of a century ago when he went up to Hartford to make a black and white sketch of Mr. Clemens for the Century. Mr. Clemens was fighting the beginning of a cold so he took his whiskey bottle, and he said that in an hour he was very happily and comfortably drunk, but the black and white sketch wasn’t an entire success.
May 26 Sunday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam replied to daughter Jean, whose incoming is not extant.
It saddened me, too, dearest Jean, to go away from you, & it has saddened me since to think about it. But I hope this is the last far journey I shall ever have to take. And indeed I would not take this one if I could avoid it.
May 26 Tuesday – Sam went to Deal Beach, N.J. to spend a week with Col. George Brinton Harvey. During this stay he spent time with Harvey’s daughter Dorothy Harvey (1894-1937), who he added as an Angelfish in his club [June 2 to Allen]. Note: Dorothy was the only child of George and Alma Parker Harvey.
May 26 Wednesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote a postcard to Marjorie Breckenridge.
The summer is clothed in all its splendors, Marjorie dear, & it is beautiful here now. I have to go away & leave it for a while, but shall be back the middle of June, & by that time I hope you will be housed in that shady nook in the glen.
With love & good wishes / SLC [MTAq 258].
May 27 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam replied to Hubert H. Bancroft of San Francisco, who had written on May 21 inviting Sam to visit.
I thank you sincerely for the tempting hospitalities which you offer me, but I have to deny myself, for my wandering days are over, & it is my desire & purpose to sit by the fire the rest of my remnant of life & indulge myself with the pleasure & repose of work—work uninterrupted and unmarred by duties or excursions.
May 27 Monday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Marjorie Bowen (pseud. for Gabrielle Margaret Vere Long) giving his London address, Brown’s Hotel.
“I shall be in England 10 days—June 18–28—& I think you will have to do as the American girls do: waive youth, sex, & the other conventions, & call on me. Yes, & telephone me when you are coming: otherwise we shall fail to collide, for I shall be a very busy person” [MTP: Cyril Clemens, Mark Twain: The Letter Writer, 1932 p.130].