The Man in the White Suit: Day By Day

October — Clemens signed his copy of Trix and Over-the-Moon (1909) by Princess Amélie (Rives) Chanler Troubetzkoy (pseud. Amélie Rives) (1863-1945): “SL. Clemens / 1909 / Stormfield, October’’ [Gribben 714].

October 2 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam began a letter to daughter Clara that he finished Oct. 3.

Clara dear, perhaps you thought I couldn’t leave my niece, Mary Rogers, but I did it. I came away from Fairhaven yesterday. Everything is going well here, except that Miss Lyon is still feeble & has to go carefully & not over-exert herself. But she is up & around, comes to meals, chats, laughs, plays the orchestrelle a little, & signs checks. I believe she will soon be quite well.

October 2 Wednesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam on Edward Anthony’s Sept. 29: “Mr. C[lemens asks me to] write for him and say that he has given all the cigar bands from his imported cigars to a little friend who asked for them; and he regrets that he has none” [MTP].

Sam also began a letter to Dorothy Quick that he finished on Oct.3.

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 2 Saturday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Mrs. Helen Garth.

Dear Mrs. Garth: / Your letter left New York at noon Wednesday, & arrived here at breakfast this morning.
It probably went around by Louisville because it couldn’t get through the crowds of people you speak of.

I am very very sorry to lose your visit, but you will be coming east again by & by—you & Mrs. Annie—& then you must come.
With love to you both from the girls & me, / ... [MTP].

October 20 Thursday – About this day Sam replied to Cécile Freese’s Oct. 18. Sam wrote on the bottom of Freese’s letter: “Here is Madame Freese’s address. Miss Lyon can now return the photo to her” [MTP].

October 20 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara.

Clarchen dear, I wish to learn to make the right & just allowance for Jean, & to try to keep constantly in mind that she is heavily afflicted by that unearned, undeserved & hellish disease, & is not strictly responsible for her disposition & her acts when she is under its influence (if there is ever a time when she is really free from its influence—which is doubtful). She has had 2 attacks to-day.

October 20 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam inscribed a photo of himself in a rocking chair to Josephine S. Hobby: “Let us save to-morrows for work. / For / Miss Hobby— / Oct. 20, 06.” [MTP].  

October 20 Sunday – Alice Minnie Herts wrote for the Children’s Theatre to Miss Lyon, correcting a prior invitation [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Answd. Oct. 23”

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 20 Wednesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Irene Gerken [MTP]. Note: beyond, “You dear little scamp,” text not available.

October 21 Saturday – As planned (see Oct. 15 and Oct. 20 to Clara; Oct. 19 to MacAlister), Sam went to stay with the Pearmain’s Back Bay, 388 Bacon St., Boston. He was telegraphed there on Oct. 25 by Miller Reese Hutchinson [MTP]. 

October 21 Sunday – In N.Y.C. Sam went “Sabbath-breaking” to Urban H. Broughton’s, and beat him five out of seven games at billiards [Oct. 22 to Mary Rogers].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “All day it has rained hard & Mr. Clemens went out to the Broughtons to play billiards. He is restless & finds a great emptiness in life. He doesn’t like this house & finds no comfort outside of his own room. My own little six sided room is the only place I care for—that & the King’s room” [MTP TS 137-138].

October 21 Monday – A run on the Knickerbocker Trust Co. bank in N.Y.C. caused panic elsewhere, and the bank was forced to close its doors the next day. Sam had deposits of about $51,000 at the bank. J.P. Morgan would gain the help of fellow bankers, including John D. Rockefeller, to raise funds and import $100,000,000 in gold from Europe to restore confidence. See Oct. 22. H.H. Rogers and Katharine Harrison had originally recommended the Knickerbocker Trust Co. to Sam. A business slowdown from the resulting spreading panic lasted for months.

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 21 Thursday —In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Mrs. John Paul Jones.

October 22 Sunday – Sometime during Sam’s stay in Boston, he conferred with Dr. Haley; Thomas S. Barbour of the Congo Reform Assoc. (Sam was an “honorary” Vice President) wrote on Nov. 23 that he hoped Sam had a good talk with Dr. Haley, and was sorry he could not join them.

October 22 Monday – In the a.m. at 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.).

October 22 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Oh, it’s too dreadful. Every penny the King has, fifty one thousand dollars, is in the Knickerbocker Trust Co. and it has suspended payment. It has gone crashing into a terrible state. I was in town and read of the panic in the Times, and Ashcroft and I went to the bank, at 30th st and Fifth Avenue to see crowds of people there, with bank books in their quivering hands. And then I came back to Tuxedo to find the King in bed and so cheerful and beautiful and brave, and trying not to show his anxiety.

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 Sunday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Susan Crane. I have been telephoning the Hoffman, dearest Susy dear (as’su), & the Stanchfields are there— so I am going up, right after dinner, to see them. Clara Stanchfield says she has made the journey from Elmira especially to see our Clara, & it is too bad, for the doctor put her under the strictest seclusion & captivity yesterday evening, & now I, with all others, am shut out for the coming months. It is best so. She will not get well on any less stringent terms.

October 23 Monday – During his stay at Pearmain’s Boston home, Sam met a young Liberian, Dihdwo Twe, a sophomore at Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Mass. Twe had been in the Congo before coming to the U.S. He would correspond with Twain into 1906 [Hawkins 170].

Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Sent MS of ‘Eve’s Diary’ to Mr. Clemens in Boston” [MTP TS 32].

October 23 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dihdwo Twe, a Liberian who visited Sam several times and was deeply interested in the Congo reform movement. Sam dictated the letter for Twe to use as an introduction to a pamphet calling on the world to help the Congo. Basically, Sam wrote, the human race is made up of humbugs; he felt Twe should deal with the human race as it is, not as he wished it to be—it had “no desire for uncomfortable truths, no appetite for them…” etc. [MTP].

October 23 Wednesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to “Miss Anonyma.”

Dear Miss Anonyma: / This is to express my joy in the fact that you are able to go fishing, & to thank you very heartily for letting me share in the result. It is my purpose to call & say these things orally this afternoon, & so I am merely uttering them with the pen as a precaution, since it often happens—as you will have noticed—that the things we propose to do get interfered with & do not occur.