The Man in the White Suit: Day By Day

August 6 Thursday – Paine writes of Sam’s reaction to Samuel Moffett’s death:

Clemens was fond and proud of his nephew. Returning from the funeral, he was much depressed, and a day or two later became really ill. He was in bed for a few days, resting, he said, after the intense heat of the journey. Then he was about again and proposed billiards as a diversion. We were all alone one very still, warm August afternoon playing, when he suddenly said:

      “I feel a little dizzy; I will sit down a moment.”

August 7 Friday – George B. Harvey and David A. Munro ended their 2 day visit [new guestbook].

H.C. Fish for N. Dakota State Historical Soc. wrote from Bismark, N.D. to ask if under date of May 26, 1874 Clemens had checked into the Capitol House in Bismark [MTP]. Note: IVL: “Mr. Clemens was not West at all in 1874.”

August 8 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:  The King wandered out from dinner tonight to look at a wonderful sunset and he called Benares and me to look at the mighty show. But we were compelled to stop in the great room to look at the slim beautiful white figure of the King standing in an archway of the loggia, with the hills and gorgeous glow of the sunset as a background.

August 9 Sunday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Gloucester, Mass.  

Jean dear, don’t trouble about those financial matters; there will be no occasion for that; the expenses were fair & reasonable, & in any case Miss Lyon will take care of my interests. I knew all about the arrangement when it was made, & not only approved it but helped to make it.

August 10 Monday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to George B. Harvey.

To-day I have written as follows

To Clara Clemens in Europe:

1. “By the original understanding with Paine I was to edit the Biography, with power to approve & disapprove with finality. But I have turned that editing over to Col. Harvey, & he has accepted the job.

August 11 Tuesday – In Redding, Conn., Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to an unidentified person.

“Mr.Tallman should keep in touch with Mr Robert Collier in order that he may keep what Mr. Collier & Mr Clemens have done in the Accident Insurance matter from going astray.

August 12 Wednesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Susan L. Crane.

August 13 Thursday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Helen S. Allen in Bermuda.

To   Helen Allen, M. A. (Member of the Aquarium).

August 14 Friday – Sam’s guestbook:

Name Address Date Remarks

John B. Stanchfield ) )    

Mrs. Stanchfield )   New York City )“ [August] 14-15 [Clara Spaulding Stanchfield]

Alice their daughter ) )

      Note: none of the above names were in the original guestbook.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The Stanchfields arrived by motor hours late. / Ashcroft started for Canada” [MTP: IVL TS 59].

August 15 Saturday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Dorothy Sturgis.

Dear Dorothy:

Good! You will be very welcome.

August 16 Sunday – Sam wrote a tribute to his late nephew, “Samuel Erasmus Moffett” and quoted from an obituary in Collier’s Weekly [Gribben 154]. Note: Moffett died on Aug. 1, 1908.

Isabel Lyon’s journal:  “Stanchfields left, creeping down the long hill through the field” [MTP: IVL TS 59].

Clemens A.D. for this day is listed by MTP.    

August 17 Monday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.).

August 18 Tuesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote an aphorism to Margery H. Clinton.

It is a poor old maxim, & nothing in it: anybody can do it, you don’t have to employ a dog.

“Let a sleeping dog lie.”

Truly yours / Mark Twain

To Miss Margery Clinton

(August 18, 1908, at Redding, Conn. ) [MTP].

August 19 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:  “Mr. Lounsbury is ill, a fistula caused by a strain in moving Santa’s piano. AB and his nice old father came up for billiards. I entertained his nice old father and gave him tea on the loggia. He called the dear little cedar trees ‘volunteers’” [MTP: IVL TS 60]. Note: Paine’s father is shown as Samuel E. Paine in the Aug. 24 original guestbook entry.

August 20 Thursday – In Redding, Conn., Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam to Katharine B. Clemens.

“Mr. Clemens asks me to thank you for the photograph which he is very glad to have, & also for your note containing the very pleasant news that you will probably be able to spend a Sunday here.

“Mr. Clemens is better, & asks me to convey his love to you” [MTP].

Sam’s new guestbook:

Name Address Date Remarks

Jervis Langdon Elmira, N.Y. August 20 (My nephew).

August 21 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The day was a placid one. We played Hearts, and then more Hearts” [MTP: IVL TS 61].

Charles W. Birge wrote from the Fitch Home for Soldiers in Noroton Heights, Conn. to ask Sam if he’d be some help to him in securing a cheap pair of spectacles to help him read; he could get a pair for $2 in Stamford. At age 72, Birge had a shaky hand [MTP]. Note: IVL: “No ans.”

Joe Goodman wrote from Alameda, Calif. about locating old letters from Clemens.

August 22 Saturday – Sam’s new guestbook:  

Name Address Date Remarks

Z. S. Freeman New York City       “ [August] 22-24 [Zoheth S. Freeman]

      Note: not in the original guestbook.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “I went to N.Y. on the 8:15. Back on the 1:27 and Zoe Freeman came too. It was torrenting when I went to the station, and the flood gates [sentence unfinished] [MTP: IVL TS 61].

August 23 Sunday – Zoheth S. Freeman was visiting Sam in Redding [new guestbook].

August 24 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:  Zoe and Margery left today. The King seems to improve with every day. Paine who came up for billiards remarked that the King doesn’t play as good a game as he did. But that is clearly understandable, for the King has been teaching the game to young strong men, who now are playing as well as he does, and better, for many of them have had instruction from experts in “draw shots” and “English” etc. and have no more wit than to come here and to tell the King how to make his shots.

August 25 Tuesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam replied to H.J. Learoyd, Managing Editor of the N.Y. Evening Post, heading the note “Private.”

August 26 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The King watches Tammany’s kittens by the enchanted half hour. We get them into the library after dinner. They carry on like beautiful wild monkeys” [MTP: IVL TS 62].  

Jeannette Cholmeley-Jones wrote from Redding Ridge to Sam. “I hardly know how to express to you how much I enjoyed our all too short visit at ‘Stormfield.’” She thought it a “great privilege” and “one of the greatest treats” she’d ever had, and she was still reflecting on what he talked about [MTP].

August 27 Thursday – Anna Goldschmidt wrote from Hamburg, Germany to Sam about “A Dog’s Tale,” and the great pleasure she had translating it. Since this was the first translation she’d attempted she sent a copy for his review, hoping he would give permission for her to publish [MTP].

August 28 Friday – In Redding, Conn. Sam replied to the Aug. 25 of  Fred V. Christ: 

Dear Sir: / You say: “I often owe my best sermons to a suggestion received in reading” . . . and let us add, “or from other exterior sources.”

Your remark is not quite in accordance with the facts. We must change it to “I owe all my thoughts, sermons & ideas to suggestions received from sources outside of myself.”

The simplified English of this proposition is—

August 29 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Benares [Ashcroft] came back from Canada today and arrived when Paine was playing billiards with the King and I was unpacking books” [MTP: IVL TS 62].

August 30 Sunday – In his Sept. 3 to Dorothy Quick, Sam related, “We had a kind of house- warming three or four days ago, & the people of the countryside came, about 300, young & old, & boys & girls, & we had a very pleasant afternoon.” The gathering was likely this day, and included the guestbook entries below; these guests were residents of the surrounding area, which Sam gave no addresses for.

Sam’s New guestbook:  

Name Address Date Remarks