April 6 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Smooth sea, sunny & pleasant. No cards. Reed played solitaire. ‘ignorant of music’ = Reed / Reached Norfolk midnight” [NB 45 TS 9]. Note: Sam’s ship log gave part of this report.
Livy’s diary: “Miss Forth & Miss Bowman here for tea” [MTP: DV161].
April 7 Monday – The Kanawha was at Old Point Comfort, Va. The New York Times ran a special on the progress of the cruise on the first page, April 8 issue.
COMING BACK FROM CUBA.
———
The Kanawha with ex-Speaker Reed and Mark Twain at Newport News.
Special to The New York Times.
April 8 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Before midnight, storm came on. Much rolling. Violent squalls of wind, with downpour of rain, lightning—one boom of thunder, rather mellow. Took shelter in Delaware breakwater before dawn. Several other vessels—coal tugs outside with women & children in the barges. Myriad of ducks / On Knees for Matches. Fine piece of navigating” [NB 45 TS 9].
Sam’s ship log offers a somewhat less cryptic account:
April 9 Wednesday – The Kanawha sailed at 9 a.m.from Old Point Comfort, Va. to N.Y.C. Sam’s notebook: It arrived at 5 p.m. “a brisk run of 165 miles. Caught 5.45 train for home. Telegram sent at 8 yesterday took all day. / Mrs. Bunce at home” [NB 45 TS 9].
Sam’s ship log: “Sailed at 9 a.m. for New York. The yacht was believed to be a good & staunch sea-boat before—she is known to be one now.
Arrived off East 23d at 5 pm—a brisk run of 165 miles.
Caught 5.45 train for Riverdale.
Small & Maynard Scheme – Oesophogus:“It is a joke & you are an ignoramous!” Juggernaut Club – Double Barrelled – Christian Science Humbug – West Indies Cruise - Charleston Fair Resembled a Funeral – Tarrytown Bargain – Defense of Funston Clara’s Escape – Pallbearer for Stockton – Hannibal Revisited – LL.D. - Piloting & Christening – York Harbor & “The Pines” – Huck on Stage – Livy’s Crisis Barred from the Sickroom – Omaha & Denver Ban Huck – Invalid Car to Riverdale Birthday Bash: “I cannot make a good mouth” – Reed’s Last Speech
December 10 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Harper & Brothers. The note is not extant but is referred to in Harper’s Dec. 12 response:
December 11 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote two sentences to Daniel Carter Beard:
“Good—send Mr. Crosby along. I’ll see him any morning between 10.30 & 12, with pleasure” [MTP].
December 12 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote two notes to H.H. Rogers. The first concerned Rockefeller’s Dec. 10 invitation to read or speak on Dec. 27:
I found a note from Mr. Rockefeller when I got back home yesterday, and I answered accepting his invitation and saying I would read or talk, whichever he might prefer—I named “Two Little Tales” as the reading.
December 13 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Go Princeton. See Hutton. Returned in evening” [NB 44 TS 19].
In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam added a note to his second Dec. 12 to Rogers: “Sent no proxy. SLC. Riverdale, Dec. 13/01” [MTHHR 477n1].
December 14 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Dinner, Hutchinson” [NB 44 TS 19].
In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to Harper’s Dec. 14 by writing on it:
“Dec. 14. In talk with the Major, he thought that only the Detective Story should be in the book—thought it could be filled out to $1.50 bulk with marginal drawings” [MTP].
December 15 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Dr. Rice, dinner” [NB 44 TS 19]. Note: Dr. Clarence Rice.
December 16 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Jules Hart of the Hebrew Infant Asylum. Hart’s address: 173 St. Nicholas Ave., N.Y.C. “When politics enter into municipal government, nothing resulting therefrom in the way of crimes and infamies is then incredible. It actually enables one to accept and believe the impossible.” This is often quoted.
December 17 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Ralph David Blumenfeld.
December 19 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Debating Club, 8.15. Pipes & tobacco” [NB 44 TS 19]. Fatout lists this appearance and talk by Sam at a Debating Club, N.Y.C. but offers no particulars [MT Speaking 669].
Elisabeth Marbury wrote to Sam:
December – Sam inscribed his photograph to William Winter: “Willie Winter, with the affectionate regard of Mark Twain. Riverdale, Dec., ’01” [MTP: Walpole Galleried catalogs, Nov. 11, 1923, Item 60].
Sam’s story, “The Death-Disk” (aka “The Death Wafer”) ran in Harper’s Monthly Magazine.
W. Ramsay’s article, “Mark Twain: A Biographical Sketch” ran in Great Thoughts. Twainian, II (February, 1940), 7 [35].
December 2 Monday – Elisabeth Marbury wrote from N.Y.C. to Sam about whom she should select to make a libretto of CY. She had conferred with George W. Broadhurst, whom she thought “especially qualified” for the job, and also thought Mr. Englander could write the music. If Francis Wilson (Sam’s preference) would not do business on terms acceptable, did Sam have another preference or would he “leave the thing wholly in” Marbury’s hands? [MTP]. Note: Sam answered the next day, Dec. 3.
December 20 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Must be at home–Clara” [NB 44 TS 19].
In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to Elisabeth Marbury’s Dec. 19, his letter not extant but noted on hers:
“Dec. 20/01. / Wrote her to give them 80% & me 20%” [MTP].
Sam inscribed a copy of FE to Robert B. Cone: “To / Mr. Robert B. Cone / with the compliments of / The Author. / Riverdale, Dec. 20, 1901. / S.L. Clemens / [cross-signed:] Mark Twain” [MTP].
December 21 Saturday – Sam’s old friend and enemy, Edward H. House, died in Tokyo, Japan, where he had been living and writing since 1892. Days before his death the Japanese emperor bestowed upon House the Second Order of Merit of the Sacred Treasure. At his memorial service he was called “the most brilliant writer ever connected with journalism in the Far East” [Huffman 18]. Note: see entries on Edward (Ned) House in Volumes I & II.
December 23 Monday – Elisabeth Marbury wrote to Sam that she had his letter and that he was “more than generous to the Mayos. I conveyed to them this proof of your kindness” [MTP].
December 24 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote on a postcard, the verso containg a printed: “A Bright and Happy Christmas,” to niece Ida Langdon.
—‘sh! Ida dear, do not let these sweet maids beguile you of the shivery shuddery secret, known to none but you & me, of the fate of the Tale, the Tear & the Joke That Went Out Seeking the Truth and Met Up With a Bryn Mawr Girl.
Remember the Great Oath of our Order:
“Silence should be seen, not heard.”
December 25 before – The New York Sun, p.8, January 25, 1901 ran a squib about Mark Twain, which appeared on Christmas Day in Vienna’s Neues Wiener Tagblatt:
Prosperity and happiness to my friend in the Emnira. The same to my enemies—on Christmas Day, but not after that date. Mark Twain.
December 26 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Jules Hart, responding to a letter not extant.
“I realize that you are perfectly right: to publish the letter would do harm, not good. If I could spare the time I would gladly write another, but I am away behind with my work, & must try to keep my mind from getting side-tracked from it” [MTP]. Note: See Dec. 16 and Dec. 17 to Hart.
December 27 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Leave 7.27 arr. 7.55, Mr. Rockefeller will meet me. Read 2 stories Mrs. Clemens has an engagement” [NB 44 TS 19]. Note: Sam’s reading at Mr. Rockefeller’s monthly Bible class was postponed until Jan. 28. See entry.
In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
December 28 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Write Wm. E. Dodge—or call at his house if I should go to town” [NB 44 TS 19]. Note: William E. Dodge, Jr. was a Riverdale neighbor.
Theodore Roosevelt wrote to Sam:
Praise from Sir Hubert, my dear Doctor! (Loomis Nelson tells me you resent, since our Yale experience, the failure to give you your proper title). [Doctor]
December 3 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to Elisabeth Marbury’s Dec. 2 question. He had no preferences after Francis Wilson, and so left the matter in her hands [MTP].
Frank Fuller wrote from N.Y. on his Health Food Co. stationery to Sam.