Vol 3 Section 0412

great masters & remained within the limitations proper to the degree of teaching which he has had, he would make a success, I am sure. He did that here, in our house, (with the exception of one number), & he stirred me. …

If I may speak plainly without offence—& certainly I mean none—she [Florizel’s mother] is a most unwise friend for the boy. He started in life with a fine nature: with the poet’s delicacy of feeling, the courteous instincts of the gentleman, the artist’s devotion to his art as his chiefest earthy god… [the remainder of the letter is missing, so we don’t have Sam’s explanation about the boy’s mother].

Note: Gage was an American financier, and Secretary of Treasury under McKinley/Theodore Roosevelt (1897-1902).

May – In London, England Sam wrote to Samuel S. McClure. “We shall spend from June 1 till Oct 1 in England. Won’t you please divert the magazine to /Care Chatto & Windus” [MTP].

B.F. Hawley M.D.’s article, “A Further Glimpse of Mark Twain’s Hero,” ran in Century Magazine p.157-

     Tenney: “A letter to the editor, occasioned by MT’s ‘My Debut as a Literary Person’ in the November Century; describes an 1876 sea-trip on which Captain Josiah Mitchell was Hawley’s fellow-passenger, with a cabin across the corridor. Although Mitchell was weakened by the ordeal MT described, and now terminally ill, by will-power he remained alive long enough to reach New York and see his wife a day before he died” [33].

Gale gives this month for Mark Twain meeting Henry James in London [A Henry James Encyclopedia].

May 1 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Noon. Plasmon 11 Cornhill. Go down with Mac & Bergheim. / Vote Mac a right to assume the doctor’s stake himself” [NB 43 TS 9].

May 2 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Sent to McClure May 2 Postal-check contains 5,614 words. $825 or $850.

    7. for 7.30 sharp. / Royal Library Fund Hotel Cecil, (Entrance east wing.) Lord Chief Justice of England. (Earl of Crewe is Lord Houghton’s son)” [NB 43 TS 9].

At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote to T. Douglas Murray. “I think I will wait until you come, for then I can have the copy which I corrected. I shall not need it until four or five days before the 30th. Even three days before would answer.” Sam praised the weather in London, which he wouldn’t trade “for Italy” [MTP].

In the evening at the Royal Literary Fund dinner, Hotel Cecil, Sam offered his response to a standard toast to literature. It was perhaps the first public gathering he had made since the family’s return to London from Sanna. The New York Times, May 3, p.2 reported the event:

MARK TWAIN AT A DINNER.

Tells London Literary Men He is Going to Run for the Presidency.

LONDON, May 2.—Baron Russell of Killowen, Lord Chief Justice of England, presided at the annual dinner of the Royal Literary Fund this evening. More than a hundred persons prominent in the literary and kindred professions were present. Baron Kelvin, Baron Davey of Fernhurst, Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, the Canadian High Commissioner; Anthony Hope Hawkins, and Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) were among the guests.

Mark Twain, in responding to the toast to literature, in a humorous speech, said now that he was on the way to his own home he intended to run for the Presidency, because there were not enough candidates yet in the field. {Laughter.} Referring to the copyright discussion now before the House of Lords, he said he hoped that if the bill giving copyright thirty years after the death of the author, which was disguised perpetual copyright, was passed, its example would be followed in the United States.

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