February 20 Wednesday – At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to William Carey of Century Magazine. Sam wrote to him at the University Club: “Carey says he knows I would rather write than be President. This has all the ear-marks of one of Carey’s ordinary every-day lies” [MTP]. Note: See June 14, 1897 entry; Carey died later in 1901 in his forties.
Sam also wrote to Henry R. Chamberlain, head of Laffan’s news service in China.
February 21 Thursday – At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote thanks to Brander Matthews “for that dedication… / The Supreme Court didn’t need to worry: I was going to assume all the responsibilities any way, just because of the confidence I have always had in you” [MTP]. Note: see Matthews’ dedication in his new book, Feb. 20 entry.
February 22 Friday – Rev. Washington Gladden of the First Congregational Church, Columbus, Ohio to Sam; a friend of Rev. Ament’s, Gladden wrote “To any one who knows Mr. Ament these charges have not for one moment been credible” [MTP].
Thomas Hunt wrote compliments of Twain’s “Sitting in Darkness” article: “O that there were more men in this world like you and Henry George and that you might always be with us!” [MTP].
February 23 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “(See Mar 2) University Club—dinner—7.30 o’clock. Stone’s at 9. Corey & Judge Howland” [NB 44 TS 6]. Note: Henry Elias Howland, (1835-1913), former Supreme Court Justice, president of the University Club, popular and witty speaker; William Ellis Corey. Stone’s is not identified. Sam initially misdated the dinner, which took place on Mar. 2
February 24 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Hapgood dinner 49 W. 57” [NB 44 TS 6].
Nathan Kite family and the William L. Price family wrote to Sam that his picture was on their wall and they’d “adopted” him as a saint: “A long and useful like to thee in the cause of brother man” [MTP].
William Dean Howells wrote his sister, Miss Aurelia Howells, and included a paragraph about Mark Twain which is rather instructive of their activities during this time:
February 25 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Millard, at Waldorf, lec. on China War. Shall I go?” [NB 44 TS 6]. Note: Thomas Franklin Fairfax Millard (1868-1942), journalist, editor, founder of China Weekly Review. He was also a war corresondent for the N.Y. Herald and had articles printed in several N.Y. papers. He supported Sam in the Ament indemnity controversy.
February 26 Tuesday – George Lynch gave a lecture on China that Sam had promised on Feb. 19. to attend. Sam’s notebook: “Lynch’s lecture with pictures—Waldorf 8.15 / Read the story again at Dr. Rice’s—in evening” [NB 44 TS 6].The New York Times, Feb. 24, p.20 ran a short squib announcing:
A Lecture on Peking.
February 27 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Osteopathy—Albany Grand Central Depot—leave 8.30 a.m.” [NB 44 TS 6].
The New York Times, p. 6, “Osteopaths to Have a Hearing,” announced in a special item from Albany, N.Y. that Mark Twain would be the principal speaker to an Assembly Committee on Public Health on Feb. 28 dealing with the prohibition of osteopathy and Christian Science
February 28 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Players—dinner—Riggs & Hutton. 7.30” [NB 44 TS 6].
Life Feb. 28, 1901 p. 166 ran this political cartoon (insert) titled, “The American Lion of St. Mark’s.”
Miss Gertrude Bloede of Brooklyn wrote compliments of Twain’s “Sitting in Darkness” article [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Add a line thanks for fine poetry”
February 3 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Write Introduction to 100-Year Book. Mrs. Schieffelin, 242 E. 15th” [NB 44 TS 5].
At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Edward W. Ordway, secretary of the Anti-Imperialist League. “I myself have no objections; for the other necessary permission I will refer you to Colonel Harvey of the North American Review…” [MTP]. Note: the League requested to reprint in pamphlet form, “To The Person Sitting in Darkness.”
February 4 Monday – [pdf box located in February 3 entry]
Sam’s notebook: “Bliss, at 26 Bway, 3 pm. / Publish Adam’s Diary. / Harvey, you don’t advertise. Carry Adam’s Diary along—get it in April No.” [NB 44 TS 5].
At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Channing H. Cook of the Plasmon Co., NYC, asking for “several pounds (in quarter-pound packages)” to be sent to Katharine I. Harrison [MTP].
February 5 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Twichell comes, in evening. Riggs, 7.30. 150 Central Park South” [NB 44 TS 5].
H. Brown of Quincy, Ill. wrote compliments of Twain’s “Sitting in Darkness” article [MTP].
William Augustus Croffut for the Washington (D.C.) Anti-Imperialist League wrote compliments and of the “extreme jubilation” his household was in after reading Twain’s “Sitting in Darkness” article [MTP].
February 6 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Introduction 100-year. Gov’t in hands of Xn Sci, or R. Catholics? Whole suffrage introduced to save Protestantism in 1950, but too late; R C & XSC ahead—got the field” [NB 44 TS 5].
At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Andrew Carnegie, Paine offering it was done “in the midst of the tumult” created by his “Sitting in Darkness” article [MTB 1132]:
February 7 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Chas Fairchild 10 W. 8th—8 p.m.” [NB 44 TS 5].
At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Oliver O. Howard asking for “good seats” for his wife and daughters for the Feb. 11 Lincoln Celebration night [MTP].
Judson Smith for the American Board of Commissioners wrote to Sam (in part here):
My Dear Mr. Clemens:
February 8 Friday – Sam’s notebook:
Subject: How to make things go, at a dinner. Dusting off list. Something to take place of candle-shade burnings developing into Great Fire of London.
Make talk general. How do you like Chicago? It’s a kindness to people who can’t talk—they can listen. Saharas of silence, with nothing visible from horizon—can’t think of a thing to say.
February 9 Saturday – Harper’s Weekly ran an article to answer the question, “Is the Philippine Policy of the Administration Just?” John Kendrick Bangs answered in the affirmative, while Mark Twain took the opposition. See Bigelow’s Feb. 19 reference to the argument.
Edward Peterson wrote from Stratford, Iowa with compliments of Twain’s “Sitting in Darkness” article, which made him want to shout “Hurrah for Mark Twain” [MTP].
January 1 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Cable address of Leigh Hunt: Pukchin Chemulpo Corea / Joe Jefferson Dundreary’s dogs” [NB 44 TS 2]. Note: Leigh S.J. Hunt (1854-1933), educator and publisher, by this time had become a multi-millionaire through tax-free gold mining concessions in Korea.
Check # Payee Amount [Notes]
56 Consolidated Gas of NY 12.81
January 10 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Mrs. Rogers, reading See preceding page for result. / Filipine article, 5,000 words. Paid for, Feb. 8,—$1120” [NB 44 TS 3]. Note: the paid-for item likely added later, but may have been the projected date.
At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to an unidentified man. “I may have visited the Lake, but I think not. In any case I did no writing there” [MTP].
January 11 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Boudinat Keith 3 or 4 Carnegie Hall” [NB 44 TS 3].
January 12 Saturday – Sam met with William Dean Howells as mentioned in his Jan. 13 to Harriet E. Whitmore. See entry.
January 13 Sunday – At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Mary Nash Hubbard in Hannibal, Mo.
“I remember the wedding very well, although it was 50 years ago; & I wish you & your husband joy of this anniversary of it” [MTP]. Note: Mary was the sister to William H.C. Nash of Hannibal (b. 1829), a childhood friend of Sam’s [MTL 1: 246n4].
January 14 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Boston, Aldrich ‘Murray Hull [sic Hall]’ has gradually 6 bastards put upon him by the courts—some on no good evidence but his lecherous character” [NB 44 TS 3]. Note: Murray Hall was a woman who masqueraded as a man for over 25 years, married two women, worked tirelessly for Tammany Hall, and generally fooled everyone until her death (at an estimated 70 years of age) on Jan. 16 [NY Times, Jan. 19, 1901, p3. “Murray Hall Fooled Many Shrewd Men.”
January 15 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Why’dn’t you go to hell? There’s no Irish there. / Corey & portraits of Lincoln & Washington. / Won’t you for Christ’s sake pass the butter / Hit him for pie” [NB 44 TS 3]. Note: William Ellis Corey (1866-1934), capitalist and steel executive, who began his career at age sixteen and in 1903 succeeded Charles M. Schwab as president of U.S. Steel 1903-1911.
January 16 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Rogers’s man who had slept in fertilizer & stunk the car. / Junkman, Waterbury, & dial. / Boston Tavern Club / Corpse & guns. / Howells. Time, 7—will go at 9.15” [NB 44 TS 3].
Fatout lists a dinner speech by Sam at Tavern Club in Boston. He does not furnish the text or the subject, however the above NB entry suggests some and gives the standard late time for Sam to arrive [MT Speaking 668]. Note: see entries Vol. I for the Club.
January 17 Thursday – The planned date of return from Boston to New York. Sam, however, traveled either this day or Jan. 18 to Washington, D.C., the purpose of his trip not known. Sam’s notebook does not have an entry for either this day or the next.