The Man in the White Suit: Day By Day

October 1 Thursday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to John Henniker Heaton (also seen as Henniker-Heaton).

“Dear Mr Henniker-Heaton: / At midnight to-night the Great benefaction to two nations conferred by your labors reaches consummation, & I send my first 2-cent letter to you, along with my cordial congratulations. / Truly Yours” …  [MTP]. Note: Henniker-Heaton’s long campaign for cheap postage between England and the US resulted in his being called “the father of International Penny Postage.” See July 2, 1907 entry, Sam’s A.D.

October 2 Friday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Berlin, Germany (she would have arrived about this day after leaving Sept. 26).   [in left margin: Clara is to send us your address to-day, by telephone or letter.]

Oct. 2’08. Jean dear, it was delightful to hear from you from mid-ocean. Wonderful times we live in!

As I understand it, Clara has completed the arranging of her little flat in Stuyvesant Square, & is moving in, to-day. There is a small extra room for a guest.

October 3 Saturday – At “Stormfield,” Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam to Miss Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942), author of Anne of Green Gables (1908):

Dear Miss Montgomery:

Mr. Clemens directs me to thank you for your charming book & says I may quote to you from his letter to Francis Wilson about it:

In “Anne of Green Gables” you will find the dearest & most moving & delightful child since the immortal Alice.

October 4 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:  “Fanny the pony, Jeannette Cholmely-Jones’s little steed arrived today for me to use and to take care of. The use of her for the care of her. She is very soft; Benares and I just drove around the circle and that is all, before we took her out to the stall made for her in the garage. We shan’t be able to drive her for a fortnight” [MTP: IVL TS 68].

October 5 Monday – In his Oct. 6 to Margaret Blackmer, Sam related activities of this day. See entry.

Edith Virginia Gazella wrote from Rutherford, NJ to Sam. She’d sent him a copy of La Vita Nova, her new magazine and asked if he might look it over and offer how she might improve it. She’d ridden on the streetcar with him a few times but never had the nerve to speak to him. As a girl she would hide in the attic and read HF and TS and wanted so badly to be a boy [MTP].

October 6 Tuesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to daughter Clara at 17 Livington Place, N.Y.C.  

Clärchen dear, your letter sounds ever so good. Your sunny apartment seems to be a rare & fine stroke of luck. I hope you have secured a refusal of it for a year or two; but if you haven’t you can keep it anyway, no doubt, if you behave yourself. Miss Lyon will be able to give me a lot of details concerning the place when she comes back.

October 7 Wednesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam added to his Oct. 6 to Margaret Blackmer. Here is the Oct. 7 segment:

October 8 Thursday – In Redding, Conn. Sam added to his Oct. 6, 7 to Margaret Blackmer. Here is the Oct. 8 segment:

 Oct. 8. You’ve been gone so long, now, that I suppose I wouldn’t know you if I met you. But fortunately there’s the shell! By that I should know you in a minute; for there’s only the one shell.

October 9 Friday – In Redding, Conn. Sam finished his Oct. 6, 7, 8 to Margaret Blackmer at the Misses Tewksbury’s School in Irvington-on-Hudson, NY.  

Friday, Oct. 9. I have a lovely letter from your mother this morning, & I gather from it that one of these days you are going to invite me again to visit the school. That is very pleasant, dear heart, I shall be sure to accept.

October 10 Saturday – Sam wrote an aphorism to an unidentified person: “We ought never to do wrong when people are looking. / Truly yours / Mark Twain” [MTP: Superior Auction Galleries catalog, Oct. 15, 1991, Item 1832].

In Redding, Conn., Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Laura Hawkins Frazer, his childhood sweetheart.

October 11 Sunday – Cunard line Commodore Daniel Dow ended his weekend stay at Stormfield. Sam returned his coat and cap worn in the insert photo, likely taken this very day (see Oct. 12 to Nunnally).

October 12 Monday – In Redding, Conn. Sam finished his Oct. 10 to Frances Nunnally.

Monday, Oct. 12—noon.

October 13 Tuesday – Sam’s new guestbook:

Name Address Date Remarks

Mrs. Laura Hawkins Frazer Hannibal, Missouri October 15 ——— >  My first sweetheart (65 years ago when she was 6 or 7 years old.)

Her granddaughter Clara    “                  “     “          “

October 14 Wednesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Margaret Blackmer.

October 15 Thursday – Sam’s original guestbook contains the following names for this date, which do not appear in the new guestbook, transcribed after Dec. 28: Kate V. Saint Maur, The Maples, Redding; Vida C – – ly Sidney, Siasconset Mass.; Fanny Sanford Shaw, Redbank, N.J. [Mac Donnell TS 5, 7]. Note: p. 6 is left blank.

October 16 Friday – The New York Times, p. 9, “Says Arnold Daly Will Try Vaudeville,” reported that Percy Williams, vaudeville manager and proprietor of the Orpheum circuit announced that Arnold Daly and company would produce a new one-act farce by Mark Twain entitled “Becoming An Editor,” which would open at the Colonial Theatre in Brooklyn on Oct. 26.

Sam’s new guestbook:

Name Address Date Remarks

October 17 Saturday – Sam’s new guestbook:  

Name Address Date Remarks

Geo. Neilgruen  )

Gustave Kobbé  ) From Harper & Bros, N.Y.  October 17 To discuss my new copyright law

Mr. Phayre )

 Note: Gustav Kobbé (1856-1918) was an author in his own right, with at least two books on opera. At the time of his accidental death from a hydroplane, Kobbe was the music and art critic of the NY Herald. John F. Phayne of Harpers.

October 18 Sunday – Sam’s new guestbook:

Name Address Date Remarks

Miss Ethel Newcomb Interior N.Y. (& Vienna) October 18-21 

October 19 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:  “This servant question is an anxiety. The running of the house is a big business. It almost commercializes one—first now the little house maid who has come and leans over me to say that she cannot stay unless she is able to go home nights to sleep with her mother. The quaint wee soul! I’m letting her go home to her mother’s bed tonight; but also she goes to talk to her mother and to try to make herself and her mother believe that she will get over her homesickness. Poor wee soul!

October 20 Tuesday – Sam was at Col. Harvey’s “country house” in Deal Beach, N.J. [IVL Oct. 19].

Isabel Lyon’s journal:  A good part of the burglar alarm system was installed yesterday. The gong is just outside my door, the indicator is just in my bath room, and last night I slept as I have not slept for nearly 5 weeks, for there has been no night since Sept. 18th without a terrified mental shriek in it. It is not fear, it is a pathological condition.

Such deeps of loneliness with the King away!

October 21 Wednesday – Sam went to New York City and attended a banquet for Lord Northcliffe at the Union Club, given by Leigh Hunt. He wrote of the evening in his Oct. 23. That excerpt:

I stopped over in New York, night before last, for a banquet to Lord Northcliff, given at the Union club by Leigh Hunt. I didn’t go until 10 P.M. & so it didn’t tire me.

October 22 Thursday – Sam went to Deal, N.J. to “talk business” with George B. Harvey, and planned to stay “2 or 3 days,” but left at noon, Friday, Oct. 23 [Oct. 23 to Jean] .

In Deal, N.J., probably on this evening, Sam wrote to daughter Clara.  

Deal, N.J.

Saturday eve.

October 23 Friday – In Deal, N.J. Sam wrote to daughter Jean, giving some account of his activities for the last few days.  

Dear Jean: / I came down here yesterday to stay 2 or 3 days, & talk business with Col. Harvey.

It has suddenly turned cold. Yesterday it was fine weather, today is like November.

I stopped over in New York, night before […see this excerpt in Oct. 21 entry]

October 24 Saturday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Emilie R. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers).

Thank you very much, & I hope to take advantage of the invitation.

October 25 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:  We all had tea with Mother this afternoon, and after we got back the King read the copyright problem he has been working on. He was lying in wait for Benar and me, and Benar flew upstairs with his white legs, not waiting for me to say that the King was waiting in the library. These impulsive creatures are so much the best in the world, and the best example of it is the King, the beautiful King [MTP: IVL TS 72].