May 2 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Franklin G. Whitmore.
Mr. Clemens wishes me to write you at once that he will accept Mr.Bissell’s offer and will pay the tax. Regarding the furniture, Mr Clemens will have to write you later as that must be left with Mrs. Clemens, and she cannot talk the matter over at present.
Mr. Clemens does not think that Mr. Reeves will ever put in a claim [MTP].
May 3 Sunday – Sam also wrote to Millard Sewell.
Friend Sewall: —
I am not conscious of any hostility toward Christian Science, nor Mohammedanism, nor Hinduism, nor Judaism, nor Presbyterianism, nor Mormanism, nor Dowieism, nor any other religion. Sincerity of belief makes any religion respect worthy, and certainly the Christian Scientists are sincere. My hostility is all for Mrs. Eddy. I know she never wrote a line of Science and Health, therefore I have no respect for her; her claim is a falsehood, and she is a criminal.
May 4 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam, still laid up, wrote to Brander Matthews.
I haven’t been out of my bed for 4 weeks, but—well, I have been reading, a good deal, & it occurs to me to ask you to sit down, some time or other when you have 8 or 9 months to spare, & jot me down a certain few literary particulars for my help & elevation. Your time need not be thrown away, for at your further leisure you can make Columbian lectures out of the results & do your students a good turn.
May 5 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Susan Crane.
God is very good to us, when He can’t think up anything fresh. Jean is so much better this morning that Katy calls her almost well; I am so much better that I have suspended the tiresome poultices till afternoon; Livy is so much better that she bombards me right along with urgent notes about business; Clara is so much better that there is nothing the matter with her, & hasn’t been. For these mercies, &c., &c., &c.
May 6 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote a note to Franklin G. Whitmore.
“Mrs. Clemens left the enclosed out, thinking they would not sell for anything, but I think they will help pay the taxes. / Make no report to Reeves. Take the whole commission. If he complains I will settle with him myself” [MTP]. Note: See May 2.
May 7 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote on the top of a May 6 letter regarding a poet-humorist convention, to William Dean Howells.
May 8 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam added to his Apr. 7 to John Y. MacAlister that he discovered this day he’d forgotten to post.
May 8. Great Scott! I never mailed this letter! I addressed it, stamped it, put “Registered” on it—then left it lying unsealed on the arm of my chair, & rushed up to my bed quaking with a chill. I’ve never been out of the bed since—oh, bronchitis, rheumatism, two sets of teeth aching, land, I’ve had a randy time for 4 weeks. And to-day—great guns, one of the very worst!
May 9 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore concerning items in the Hartford house that should be sold loose: “3 or 4 sets of billiard balls,” worth about $50 per set; the old safe in the cellar Sam had purchased for $200, “painted windows…made in England after the house was finished.” Sam noted that the seller of the Tarrytown house had ripped out built in bookshelves “when our back was turned” [MTP].
May 10 Sunday – In N.Y.C. William Dean Howells wrote to Sam.
May 11 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frank E. Bliss, suggesting if he came now Sam would discuss “the details of some very important talks” he’d been having, things which Bliss would want to know about [MTP].
Hill gives this as the date Sam signed the deed on the Hartford house, purchased by Richard M. Bissell [60].
Sam also wrote to H.H. Rogers.
May 12 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “If God invented the fly, that is enough. It gives us the measure of His character. If a man had invented the fly, we should curse his name forever. And he would deserve it” [NB 46 TS 16].
Henry C. Griffin, attorney, wrote again about details and how to mail tax payments for the Tarrytown house [MTP].
May 13 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore asking what delayed sending the mantel-piece design; if it couldn’t be sent the day of this letter’s receipt, to telegraph [MTP]. Note: see May 11 to Whitmore.
Sam’s notebook: “APH / It is bad enough for a Christian to lose his temper, it is worse for a razor to do it” [NB 46 TS 16].
May 14 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Charles S. Fairchild, now in London.
Day before yesterday I quitted my bed after 5 weeks in it. I am ever so much obliged to you for yours of Apl. 22 [not extant]. I at once cabled the Plasmon Co acknowledging receipt of dividend.
I am very glad you got acquainted with Hillier. He is fine.
I don’t suppose you will get this letter, still I’m going to send it, any way [MTP].
May 15 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Acorns, Cooper Inst? / Dr. Rice, 7.30” [NB 46 TS 16].
May 16 Saturday – Sam went to Fairhaven, Mass. to visit H.H. Rogers, who was recovering from an appendectomy. The men played billiards, went on a ride, then after dinner Rogers took to his bed; Sam and William E. Benjamin (Rogers’ son-in-law) played more billiards till 11:30 p.m. [May 17 to Livy].
May 17 Sunday – In Fairhaven, Mass. Sam wrote to Livy.
May 18 Monday – In Fairhaven, Mass. Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore: “P.S. You know you want to take a N.Y. draft, Brer—a Hartford check isn’t worth so much” [MTP].
May 19 Tuesday – Sam returned to Riverdale, N.Y. either the night before or this day. He returned at least part way on Rogers’ yacht Kanawha [MTHHR 528n1].
May 20 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
May 21 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Livy a follow up letter to Franklin G. Whitmore about personal property at the Hartford house. Livy was concerned about “some embroideries and handkerchiefs left in the Hartford house” which might be ruined from long storage and wanted to know if laces kept in the Hartford bank needed to be examined. Livy also wanted Ellen O’Neil to have some furniture [MTP].
May 23 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Franklin G. Whitmore.
Mr. Clemens wishes me to write for him answering the various points of your letter.
The stained glass can be put in an art store as you suggest.
The mirror can be sold at auction.
The mahogony [sic] bureau and bedstead can be sold at auction.
The sale of the safe at $15 is all right.
Mrs. Clemens does not think it will be necessary for the laces at the Bank to be examined.
May 24 Sunday – The New York Tribune, p. 16 reported on the Clemens family illnesses:
ILLNESS AT TWAIN HOME.
——
Members of Family Have Been Sick—All
Except One Now Well.
The statements published in yesterday’s papers that Mark Twain and his family were still ill at his home, at Riverdale-on-the-Hudson, were declared by Dr. Henry Moffat, of Yonkers, one of the physicians in attendance, to be wofully [sic] exaggerated.
May 25 Monday – The New York Times ran a squib under “General Notes,” p.8:
At Mr. Henry H. Rogers’s request, Samuel L. Clemens, “Mark Twain,” is to preside and make an address at the opening exercises of the Old Home Week in Fair Haven, Mass., Mr. Rogers’s native town. Mr. Rogers is President of the Old Home Week Association. [Note: July 26-31, 1903; Sam was in Elmira the entire week, so plans were changed.]
May 26 Tuesday – In Fairhaven, Mass. H.H. Rogers wrote to Sam, responding to his of May 20.
I received your letter of the 20th and since that time have seen in the papers accounts of the condition of your patients [NY Tribune of May 24]. I hope they are still improving.
….
We have had lovely weather and I am leading a simple Christian life, trying to get strong and fit. I wish you were young enough to be influenced religiously. It would I am sure be the making of you [MTP].
May 27 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “APH / Noon—Collier / 416 W. 13th / Man was made at the end of the week’s work when God was tired. / Patriot & humbug are usually synonymous terms” [NB 46 TS 16].