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 23 Saturday — In Redding, Conn. Sam sent a postcard (picture of Stormfield) to Elizabeth Hatch (Mrs. John C. Hatch) in Maplewood, N.J.: “All sorts of congratulations & cordial good wishes, from a fellow-pupil (Dawson’s School) of 60 years ago! /SL. Clemens” [MTP]. Note: Betty Owsley.
October 24 Monday – In N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Ralph W. Ashcroft c/o The Koy-lo Co., 11 Broadway, N.Y.C. “These are the original telegrams. / S.L. Clemens” [MTP]. Note: possibly telegrams to and from John Hays Hammond (Sept. 15 and others) regarding dissension over seating Plasmon Co. new board of directors. Sam’s notebook: “All royalties & nobilities are conscious fictions & artificialities. They privately laugh at themselves; knowing that, alive they are no better than their valets; & that, dead, their meat is inferior to pork” [NB 47 TS 17].
October 24 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Emilie R. Rogers.
Dear Mrs. Rogers, it is lovely of you! Yes, Mr. Coe is the very man. He will know the exact size of the Fairhaven table, & can duplicate it. When he examines this room I think he will say it is large enough: it is 15 feet wide by 18 long, & the 18 can be increased to 18.6 if necessary, by removing a bookcase.
October 24 Thursday – Sam returned to 21 Fifth Ave. for the winter. Clara Clemens had been “domiciled in the house several days”; Isabel Lyon and servants would follow on Oct. 26 [Oct. 28 to Nunnally].
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 24 Sunday — Sam’s new guestbook:
October 25 Tuesday – In N.Y.C. Sam inscribed a copy of A Dog’s Tale to an unidentified person: “With the kindest regards of the Author, Oct. 25, 1904” [MTP: Samuel T. Freeman & Co. catalogs, 3 May 1932, Item 105].
October 25 Wednesday – In Boston, Mass. Sam wrote and directed Isabel V. Lyon to answer Miller Reese Hutchison’s Oct. 24 telegram: “Dear Miss Lyon— / Please write him I am not able to undertake it.” [MTP].
Sam also wrote Miss Lyon to deposit $200 for daughter Clara, and that he would return to N.Y.C. the next day, expecting to be there “only a few days” [MTP].
October 25 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mary B. Rogers now in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.
Mariechen dear, it must be a Latin word, as it isn’t in the Unabridged. The U. has only “Accipient (obsolete) a receiver.”
October 25 Friday – The annual Cotillion Ball of the Tuxedo Club was held and the New York Times reported the event, Oct. 26, p.11. If Sam attended, as his letter of Oct. 23 to “Miss Anonyma” shows, he would have had to have returned from 21 Fifth Ave. for the event, since he moved back on Oct. 24. No mention of him was made in the Times article, though H.H. Rogers, Jr. (Harry) and wife Mary were listed, so he likely canceled plans to attend, returning to his N.Y.C. house. Possibly the events at the Knickerbocker Trust Co. led to the changed plans.
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].
October 25 Monday - Lord Northcliffe wrote from Newfoundland to congratulate Sam on Clara’s wedding. “I shall be in New York next month if by any chance you are there I hope you will let me clasp you by the hand” [MTP].
October 26 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich.
It is with mighty pleasure that I record the fact that you will spend Nov. 9 & 10 (& as many days thereafter as you can spare), under this roof. We will gather some more stags together & eat, drink & get drunk, understanding that on some happy to-morrow we die & are likely to be damned. I am very very glad you are coming, old man [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
October 26 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: I don’t know how I got through all of it—doing 9 days’ work in 3 days, but it is over and I am in New York. Arrived at 3 to find the King and AB at billiards. I brought in the pretty little cat and the King was glad to see it. Myron Whitney came in to rehearse his concert program with Clara for the 11th. His voice is superb. They had to have the King come in to hear it, but the King was much annoyed, and hated to leave his billiards, even tho’ he had to concede that Whitney’s voice was wonderful.
October 26 Monday – In Redding, Conn. Sam added a line to his Oct. 24, 26 to Frances Nunnally: “Monday, 26th. Now if you are—however, I am interrupted” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to William Dean Howells.
Oh, I say! Where are you hiding, & why are you hiding? You promised to come here & you didn’t keep your word. (This sounds like astonishment—but don’t be misled by that.)
October 26 Tuesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Thomas Power O’Connor now at the Hoffman House N. Y.C.
October 27 Thursday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to daughter Jean.
Dear Jean: / Let Miss Lyon tell them your registered-letter address “will be as above for the next few weeks while the dwelling at 21 Fifth avenue is undergoing repairs.” Don’t let them return the certificates to Lee. Sign in ink, Jean, wherever I have written your name in pencil. Let the witness sign where the penciled cross is.
This has been an awful secretarial job. My brains are absolutely caked with its perplexities. I haven’t sworn so much in three days.
October 27 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
The King came down while Mrs. Crane & I were at breakfast to say that Mr. Leigh Hunt has invited him to go to Egypt for the winter—to spend his days & weeks on the Nile, & to take with him whomsoever he will. It will mean to take with him a stenographer & a biographer. He couldn’t take me because I’m needed at this base of action, although he says he wishes to take me. I’m so stunned.
October 27 Sunday – The Sunday Magazine of the New York
October 27 Tuesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam added one word to his Oct. 24 to Frances Nunnally, “Interrupted.” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Dorothy Sturgis.
October 27 Wednesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote a note to Beatrice M. Benjamin (H.H. Rogers’ granddaughter) in N.Y.C.: “This isn’t to wish you many happy returns of the occasion, but only of its anniversary. I hope there will be a rich abundance of those, & that each succeeding one will be happier than its predecessor.”’ The note was to be included in a set of Mark Twain books, red-bound, for her wedding on Nov. 7 [MTP].