Vol 3 Section 0393
From the London Times.
The following letter from “Mark Twain,” is acknowledgment of his election as honorary member of the London Anti-Vivisection Society, has been received by the Secretary: “Dear Sir: I am glad of the honor, since I have no friendly feeling toward either ‘sport’ or vivisection. Sincerely yours, S.G. Clemens [sic]. [Note: date of Sam’s letter not given; MTP puts as Mar. 1-15.]
March 19 Monday
March 20 Tuesday
March 21 Wednesday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam replied to Frank Bliss.
All right—I perceive that I did tell Whitmore to get the asphalt-money from you. I had forgotten it. If he needs more money I will give him an order on Elmira, so that he will not have to go to you until a time when it will not inconvenience you. …
The Harpers say (by cable) that they melted the plates (except illustrations) of the Library of Humor a year ago, in accordance with orders from Mrs. Clemens. I have asked for a copy of those orders. If they can show that either she or I sent such orders, is it all right & satisfactory—otherwise it isn’t.
Sam would not agree to a Chicago firm’s idea of issuing cheap editions of HF and TS [MTP].
Note: See Feb. 22 when Sam asked Bliss if his memory had been at fault about the asphalt matter—it was.
Sam was using his account receivable from Bliss to pay a paving lien by Hartford on the Farmington Ave.
house. Or, alternatively, he could have Charles Langdon in Elmira pay additional funds by draft.
At midnight, after a gathering at James Bryce’s Sam wrote to Bryce with a confession:
“Presently some gentleman will be asking who it was that carried off his overcoat tonight. It was I. But I did not do it intentionally, it was only habit” [MTP]. See June 20, 1899.
Sam also wrote to Charles Erskine Scott Wood, likely still in Portland, Ore., asking for “a couple of copies of” 1601; Sam had been “out of that humble classic for many years” [MTP]. Note: Wood was the man who secretly printed 50 copies of 1601 on a West Point press; see Feb. 21, 1882 entry.
Henry William Lucy (1845-1924) of Punch wrote to invite Sam and Livy to a luncheon next Tuesday the
27th at 1:30 [MTP]. Note: Lucy had been on the staff of the Pall Mall Gazette (1870) then as a parliamentary reporter for the London Daily News (1873) and in 1881 joined Punch, which until 1916 he contributed a weekly synopsis, “Essence of Parliament,” signed “Toby, M.P.” that made him well known. He was knighted in 1909.
March 22 Thursday
March 23 Friday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote two postcards and a letter to John Y. MacAlister.
Postcard #1: “I do not hear from Tatlock. But no matter; if they take the Butters offer, I shall do my best to
have him & the other friends over there help Butters in every way they can” [MTP]. Note: Henry A. Butters (d. 1908), capitalist and millionaire who made his money in mining and electrical trains in S. Africa and Europe, would later be the target of Sam’s indictments for alleged theft in the American Plasmon Co. John Tatlock, an investor in Plasmon.
Sam’s letter to MacAlister was a review of contracts concerning copyright and “protection against British cheap editions.” Sam saw the need for the words, “Excepting Canada” to be inserted after “British Empire,” and explained the problem of cheap editions coming over the Canadian border [MTP].
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.