Vol 3 Section 0064

[Livy:] page 1095. Perhaps you don’t care, but whoever told you that the Prince’s green stones were rubies told an untruth. They were superb emeralds. Those strings of pearls and emeralds were famous all over Bombay.

[Sam:] All right, I’ll make them emeralds, but it loses force. Green rubies is a fresh thing. And besides it was one of the Prince’s own staff liars that told me [MTB 1040-41].

Note: Name brackets added. Most items Livy objects to might come under the heading of Victorian female sensibilities. Lest anyone accuse Livy of weakening Sam’s writing, and of how easily he gives in on each item, it should be observed here how few items in nearly 100 pages Livy objected to.

Orion Clemens began a letter to Sam that he finished on Mar. 27, thanking for $50 rec’d the day before.

He expressed sorrow for Susy. “She was so bright and lovely.” Mollie was ailing [MTP].

March 27 Saturday – Orion Clemens finished his Mar. 26 to Sam. He discussed a City “Platform” about water and meter rates, and included a clipping from the Keokuk paper of the Platform [MTP].

This is the day that Sam suggested James Ross Clemens visit [Mar. 25 to J.R. Clemens].

March 28 Sunday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Pamela Moffett. Evidently Pam had written and sent a book, Belief of Unitarians for Sam and Livy to read. He wrote that he’d directed Harpers to send her a copy of JA, something he “supposed” he’d “attended to long ago,” which infers she might have asked for it. She also must have complained about Sally Moffett leaving too much money to her daughter (unnamed) for Sam replied:

The world is all alike! Sally Moffett’s daughter did not need all that money, but Sally could spare none of it for you. When Livy was well off she made a will in which she left money to every person of her own kinship & mine, & in generous measure, too. The Sally Moffetts are very plenty, & shabby, & the world is richer without them than with them [MTP].

Note: Sally Moffett (born Sally Coxe) was the wife of Erasmus Mason Moffett, brother of Pamela’s husband, William A. Moffett. Samuel Webster writes that Erasmus “ended up a millionaire and caused a family feud when he died. The feud evidently was over money left to Sally’s daughter The widowed Sally Moffett had two daughters; Sam wrote of seeing and admiring them in Chicago, in his July 15, 1886 letter to Sister Pamela: “they are lovely, & the purity & probity in those girls’ faces is as clear-cut as the mint-stamp on gold coin; & their character in all ways is easily recognizable as twenty-two carats fine…” [MTBus 19, 26, 291, 363]. Also see a Jan. 12, 1885 picture of Sam, George Washington Cable, the widow Sally Moffett and her daughters, Lizzie and Ella Moffett, in Mark Twain Himself: A pictorial biography, p. 188.

Sam may have felt it a good day to catch up with his siblings, as he also wrote to Orion Clemens. This letter is also a response to one not extant.

I was greatly touched by Mr. Hubinger’s generous offer. I beg that you will give him my most cordial thanks.

Other unknown friends have made like offers to me—some from Great Britain—some from America—& have made me proud. But I cherish the feeling that all in good time I shall work out of debt by my own exertions. I have had this feeling from the first, & have never seen any reason to change it.

We are all in pretty fair condition, as to health, & none of us in fear that the debts will not be paid [MTP].

Note: Offers and suggestions were coming in to raise money in Sam’s

SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.