Back to Riverdale DBD

March 14 Saturday – Sam’s notebook : “Delenda est Chicago—(must be blotted out.) APH / Sailor (?) that used to tell us about his murders & piracies, & do fool sailor-talk & incorrect—from books” [NB 46 TS 12].

March 15 Sunday – Celia B. Whitehead wrote from Denver, Colo. to Sam, asking in melodramatic language where she might send the enclosed MS (not extant, probably returned) for publication. The MS had been rejected by The Outlook—why did he think that was? [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the letter, “Why should she suppose I had time for such drudgery?”

March 16 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “APH / Mrs. J.L. Mott / 7 p.m. / 17 E 47th. 6.16 train / Life consists of thinking. The matters thought of & the manner of treatment determine the character of the resulting life” [NB 46 TS 12]. Note: this entry suggests Sam wrote a subject for a talk at the evening gathering at the Mott residence. See prior Mott entries, esp. Dec. 9, 1900.

March 17 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Helen Keller, who had sent him an inscribed copy of her autobiography The Story of My Life (1903) on Mar. 10.

I must steal half a moment from my work to say how glad I am to have your book, & how highly I value it, both for its own sake & as a remembrancer of an affectionate friendship which has subsisted between us for nine years without a break, & without a single act of violence that I can call to mind.

March 18 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Laurence Hutton, now in Hot Springs, Ariz.

Mr. Rogers has lent me your letter of the 8th, & I am going to try to reach you with a line. You will be gone from Hot Springs, but maybe the P.O. will know your new address. By gracious I am very sorry you & Mrs. Hutton have gone so far to fare so ill, very very sorry. But let it rejoice you to know that we who have remained have not fared better—at least not all the time. …

March 19 Thursday – At Delmonico’s in N.Y.C. Sam attended a 1 p.m. luncheon given by George C. Riggs for Colonel Herbert J. Foster [NB 46 TS 12], where he signed a letter to Laurence Hutton taken down by J.D. Jerrold Kelley veteran of the U.S. Navy and author of The Ship’s Company and Other Sea People (1897) see Gribben 366. The group drank to Hutton’s health and return, and besides Sam and Kelley included: Herbert J.

March and after – Alice Jane Chandler Webster (“Jean”) (1876-1916), daughter of the late Charles Luther Webster, and Sam’s great-niece, wrote When Patty Went to College, which was published in Mar. 1903 (see Gribben p. 753). Sam referred to this book in one of the notes slipped into Livy’s sickroom which dates it somewhat. Here is the note:

There, now, my darling, Clara was here a while ago & says I be’aved ’an’some & was a cherub. Praise from Sir Hubert! [ a popular expression]

March 2 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Charles S. Fairchild, now in N.Y.C.

I have forgotten Dr. Hillier’s number in Wimpole street, but the London Directory will know. If by chance Hillier should be out of the Co., I hope he will give you an introduction to some good friend of his who is still in—or to Samuel Bergheim (Director.)

The news you give me of the Cashier is very splendid. It makes me feel very gay indeed.

March 20 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Lawrence J. Anhalt, theatrical manager and producer who was seeking an interview.

March 21 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Edward Day in Springfield, Mass., clarifying his stance against Christian Science’s founder, Mary Baker Eddy.

March 22 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Brisbin [sic] Walker—dinner. train 2.40 from River[side]” [NB 46 TS 12]. Note: John Brisben Walker.

Addie C. Irish wrote from Marietta, Ohio to Sam, complimenting him on his Christian Science articles in the NAR, and also on his other past works, JA, FE, and had urged her minister to read “Was it Heaven? Or Hell” [MTP].

March 23 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Charles Hopkins Clark, still editor of the Hartford Courant: “Do not trouble about me, I am prepared to go. I have laid in a long supply of heavy clothing. Also a fan” [MTP].

Sam also wrote to an unidentified woman, who had sent him a MS. He thought well enough of it to have carried it to Harpers on Mar. 19.

March 24 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook:

Every man is a slave & a slave-holder; every man is a king & a subject; no man knows any but a fictitious independence. The foreman of a squad of offal-carts possesses all the essentials of those insolent & squalid vanities, nobility & kingship. It is self-conceited man that has placed the reptile at the bottom of animated nature. It is like his presumption.

March 25 Wednesday – Muriel M. Pears wrote from Menton, France to Sam. “Our Golden Dear Magician. Don’t please Don’t let the papers put in that sort of ‘joke’—it isn’t a joke to us, it’s the sort of thing that brings down a sudden feeling on one’s head of being chilly and forlorn…” [MTP]. Note: she didn’t specify.

March 26 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Hutchinson, 114 W. 32d / Ask Julie to go. 4 p.m” [NB 46 TS 13].

Laurence Hutton wrote from Phoenix, Arizona to Sam, replying to Sam’s Mar. 18; it was hard for them to think of Livy as an invalid and wanted to shout out their love for her. “Phoenix is about as cheerful a spot as is the Wailing Wall of the Jews at Jerusalem…” [MTP]. Much of Hutton’s backhand scrawl is illegible.

March 27 Friday – Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Franklin G. Whitmore.

“Mr. Clemens wishes me to say that he is very glad to know you have the wills, and would like to have you send them to him by registered mail.

“Mrs. Clemens continues to improve a little, and sat up today for quite a while” [MTP].

March 28 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Andrew Carnegie’s / 2 E. 91st st. 8 p.m. / to meet Sidney Lee. / [Horiz. Line separator] / John P. Jones / 237 Stuyvesant / Bet. 16 & 17th & 2d & 3d ave” [NB 46 TS 13].

March 29 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Geo. Riggs, lunch—& Jean with me?” [NB 46 TS 13].

March 3 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Dr. & Mrs. Rice here. Dinner. / [Horiz. Line separator] / The morals of a God ought to be minutely perfect. I would not worship a God that made the fly” [NB 46 TS 11].

Mr. and Mrs. J. Doe wrote from Seattle, Wash. to Sam, complimenting him on the “Sitting in Darkness” article [MTP].

Frederick W. Peabody wrote from Boston to Sam. “Mr. John W. Reeder is now the President of the [Christian Science] church here and the head of directors is the same as in 1899” [MTP].

March 30 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to David Rowland Francis, President of the 1904 St. Louis Fair. The letter ran in the New York Times, Mar. 31, 1903 p.9.

RACES ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

Mark Twain’s Suggestions for Repetitions at the

Fair of Old-Time Contests Between Steamboats.

March 31 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to Lawrence J. Anhalt’s Mar. 30.

March 4 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frank Bliss.

“Church Manual of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston.”

I want a copy of this little book—right away, if possible—for 1902. (I have an old copy.)

Can’t you borrow it for a few days from some Hartford member? If not, can’t your friends in Boston manage to buy one? [MTP].

March 5 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Sloane, lunch / 109 E. 69 th” [NB 46 TS 11]. Note: likely Prof. William Milligan Sloane.

Martin Meyer wrote from Detroit, Mich. to Sam, enclosing copies from the Detroit Free Press and the Christian Science Church Manual. Meyer agreed with many of Sam’s criticisms of Mrs. Eddy; he was an ex-member of the church [MTP].

March 6 Friday – Sam’s notebook : “9 p.m. Mrs. Henry Draper’s. 271 Madison ave. / Dr. Rice, luncheon / 12.30 p.m.” [NB 46 TS 11]. Note: Anna Mary Palmer Draper, wealthy socialite; married Henry Draper (1837-1882) in 1867. Henry, a physician and amateur astronomer, best known now as a pioneer of astrophotography. Anna was his assistant when he became the first to photograph the Orion nebula. Henry’s father, John William Draper, prof.

March 7 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Franklin G. Whitmore

Mr. Clemens wishes me to say to you. “Do not forget to sell the property at some price, between now and the first of May. If it is not sold by that time it would be well to tear the house down, and let the ground stand, so reducing expenses—for in the last two months he has lost forty thousand dollars, for the lack of twenty five thousand in cash” [MTP].