Vol 3 Section 0458
seen a portrait of a man I place it in my eye and store it away in my memory, and I can tell you now that you look enough like Mark Twain to be his brother. Now,” he said, “I hope you take this as a compliment.”
He said, “Yes, you are a very good imitation; but when I come to look closer, you are probably not that man.” I said: “I will be frank with you. In my desire to look like that excellent character I have dressed for the character; I have been playing a part.” He said: “That is all right, that is all right; you look very well on the outside, but when it comes to the inside you are not in it with the original.”
So when I come to a place like this with nothing valuable to say I always play a part. But I will say before I sit down that when it comes to saying anything here I will express myself in this way: I am heartily in sympathy with you in your efforts to help those who were sufferers in this calamity, and in your desire to heap those who were rendered homeless, and in saying this I wish to impress on you the fact that I am not playing a part [Fatout, MT Speaking, 345-6].
Old Staten Island Dyeing Establishment billed the Clemenses $6 for “dry cleansing” [1900 Financial file MTP].
October 18 Thursday – At the Hotel Earlington in N.Y.C., Sam replied to an unidentified man’s request, perhaps a reporter’s for an interview:
I would have done it with great pleasure on “interviewing day,” but I have been saying no, ever since, & it would not be fair to those others to say otherwise this time. Consistency is seldom a virtue, but you will concede that in a case like this it is [MTP]. Note: “Interviewing day” likely being the evening they arrived in port.
William C. Van Benthuysen for N.Y. World wrote to Sam to clear up an old score Sam had with the paper before Benthuysen’s term there. Sam’s cable sent on Nov. 28, 1897, an account of the scenes in the Austrian parliament, had not been properly reimbursed, due to the high costs of the cable, which Sam paid. An enclosed letter from Tuohy, in which he’d appealed the issue to Joseph Pulitzer, owner of the World, argued for payment to Mark. Pulitzer agreed [MTP].
October 19 Friday
October 20 Saturday – Charles Dudley Warner (1829-1900) died of a sudden heart attack in Hartford. He was cheerful earlier in the day at a luncheon. Sam attended his funeral on Oct. 23 [NY Times, Oct. 21, p.1].
October 21 Sunday – At the Hotel Earlington in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Charles H. Clark upon hearing of the death of Charles Dudley Warner the day before:
“Bunce, Robinson and now Warner. I feel the stroke. He was one of the old, old friends. This is a bereavement, which falls heavily not only upon the family and friends but upon all the country. I wish to be at the funeral. Give me the date” [MTP: Hartford Courant, Oct. 22, 1900, p.13]. Note: the funeral was Tuesday, Oct. 23.
Sam also wrote to the Plasmon Co. asking them to send a doz. ¼ lb packets of Plasmon to the Earlington Hotel [MTP: Swann Galleries catalog, Oct. 14, 1999, No. 1836, Item 349].
The New York World ran Kate Carew’s interview of Sam:“My Impressions of America,” p. E5 [MTCI 364-
67]. Note: Mary Williams, aka Kate Carew (1869-1960) was a caricaturist and interviewer.
The New York Times, p. 11, reported on a possible play by Mark Twain:
MARK TWAIN AS PLAYWRIGHT.
May arrange To-morrow to Collaborate
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.