Vol 3 Section 0421
I made some excuse and left the table. I wrote a hurried line to Mr. Whistler, saying that Mr. Clemens had wandered in, looking for him. Would he please come round at once, as I did not know what the consequences might be if he didn’t; but he must say nothing about my note. I then sent the note by the footman. Fortunately Whistler was at home, and presently he wandered in as Mark Twain had done, saying:
“Have you seen Mark Twain? … etc. Then he discovered him and they rushed dramatically into each other’s arms, and again continued to talk until late into the night [185-6].
June 4 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Chapin 8. If coming send no telegram. / Send congratulations to Miss Mai Rogers 26 E 57th—cable about noon. / CHAPIN—Dinner 8 pm” [NB 43 TS 14]. Note: Robert and Adele Chapin; Robert was US Consul in Johannesburg during Sam’s 1896 tour there.
In London, England Sam wrote a postcard to Franklin G. Whitmore.
“Have written Bliss to stake you for taxes. We leave for Sweden July 5—for the summer—for J’s health. Sail for home October 6” [MTP]. Note: Bliss to pay Whitmore the property taxes on the Clemens’ Hartford home. The family did not return to Sweden as planned here but remained in England until Oct. They decided between this day and June 7, when Sam wrote of it on June 7 to Baldwin.
Mai Huttleston Rogers, Rogers’ youngest daughter, married William Robertson Coe, a N.Y. insurance
broker [MTHHR 426n2]. Note: Sam sent a congratulatory cable (his NB entry above) but it is not extant.
June 5 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Exhibition (medical) Queen’s Hall, top of Regent St—3 p.m./ Jim Clemens—dinner 7.30. 22 Queensberry Place, Cromwell Road / Jap show. Nottinghill Gate Coronet Theatre 2.30 p.m.” [NB 43 TS 15].
At 30 Wellington Court in London, Sam replied to an invitation by James Mark Baldwin to dine at one of the Oxford colleges.
Dear Professor Baldwin:—
I shall like it. It is so long since I was last in Oxford that all its features are grown dim to me; even Guy Faux’s lantern.
But you are mixed and unscientific in your dates. Do you mean Sunday or do you mean Monday? Do you mean the 10th or do you mean the 11th? It is all one to me.
Thank you very much for the book. So far—up to the middle—I find no attempts to deceive, and am gaining confidence. / Sincerely yours… [James M. Baldwin, Between Two Wars, 1926 p.111]. Note: see June 6 postcard to Baldwin and June 7 note. Sam would finally visit Oxford on June 10.
June 6 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “? Article Club Lord Suffield, Pr. Laurence Cowen, Sec. 6.30 for 7.
Trocadero Restaurant. / Andrew Lang? / 36 Theobald’s Row with Spal—3 pm” [NB 43 TS 15].
Note: The Article Club was founded in connection with a paper called Commerce by Cowen, a Jew, for the purpose of availing leading businesses a way of meeting and discussing mutual interests; a condition of membership was that an article about each firm would appear in Commerce after 300 pounds was paid for the first year’s subscription. A lawsuit was brought during 1900 by Lord Suffield (Charles Harbord; 1830-1914) after another publication Truth, called the Club a scam. Suffield was a close friend of the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII.
At 30 Wellington Court in London, Sam wrote a postcard to Prof. James Mark Baldwin at Oxford, announcing he would take the 11:45 a.m. train as he did not like to travel before daylight [James M. Baldwin,
Between Two Wars, 1926 p.111].
Sam also replied to Dora C. Bowen (Mrs. Will Bowen), her letter not extant.
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.