Vol 3 Section 0489

Won’t you please see Mr. Cleveland & ask him this question for me: Would it be possible to get the Spanish Treaty of Paris before the Supreme Court for examination & decision as to its constitutionality & legality? And if so: What steps must be taken in order to bring the matter before the court? [MTP]. Note: the court has never held a treaty to be unconstitutional, but does have the discretion to do so.

Sam also wrote a line to James B. Pond: “Dear Pond—/ I find your book well written & distinctly interesting”

[MTP]. Note: Pond’s 1900 Eccentricities of Genius, etc Pond had inscribed a copy to Livy on Nov. 17, 1900 [Gribben 553].

Sam also wrote to General Wilson.

“I return the enclosures, with many thanks to you for the privilege of reading Mrs. Aker’s pleasant letter” [MTP: eBay Apr. 23, 2002]. Note: this may have been to Gen. James H. Wilson (1837-1925); Gribben lists one book in Sam’s library by Wilson [777]. Mrs. Akers may be Elizabeth (Ann Chase) Akers Allen, whom Sam replied to on July 17 and July 30. She wrote under the name Elizabeth Akers.

Sam also wrote to Helen Maria Winslow (1851-1938), honored by her invitation but declined: “…I mustn’t even dream of it. What I’m sighing for is a holiday!” [MTP].

Note: Winslow was dramatic editor of The Boston Beacon (1891-1897), and later women’s editor of The Boston Transcript and the Delineator Magazine; the author of Concerning Cats (1900), which first ran in St. Nicholas in Aug. 1900; she also was the publisher and editor of The Club Woman, a society newspaper (1897-1904). Her request likely had to do with a Boston gathering.

Sam also wrote to Eduard Pötzl. “Health & prosperity” [MTP]. UCCL 13251 letter is currently unavailable.

Augustus T. Gurlitz, N.Y. attorney representing Kipling in a suit against Fenno, wrote to Sam, sending him a set of Kipling’s Outward Bound and a five-volume box of the Fenno Library Edition, “so that you may conveniently compare the books.” He was familiar with Sam’s work on copyright legislation. He also thought Kipling could find “substantial relief” beyond what Sam had in Clemens v. Belford using trade-mark and unfair competition. That suit went against Sam.

In thinking over the conversation we had a few days ago, it occurs to me that you might like to take up the subject of intellectual property on the side of fair dealing and trade-mark, and I know of no instance which brings up the matter so free from technical complications as the effort of Mr. Kipling to protect his edition. The subject is worth some investigation [MTP].

December 4 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Plasmon to Hutton. / Aldine

Club—evening—no reporters. W.W. Ellsworth. / Traveling with a corpse” [NB 43

TS 30]. Note: indeed there were reporters at the Aldine Club this evening. The NY

Times reported on the dinner and Sam’s speech on Dec. 15:

Mark Twain at the Aldine Club

The reception and dinner which the Aldine Association gave to Mark Twain on Dec. 4 was the most notable event of the kind that has ever taken place at that club. Although one of the stormiest nights of the season, the rooms of the club were thronged at an early hour, and the large dining room became so inadequate that some forty persons had to be seated in an adjoining apartment, whence they emerged with their chairs when the speaking began.

The occasion was also notable for the men who were present. Among these were Bishop Potter, Joseph Jefferson. F. Hopkinson Smith, James W.

Alexander, John Fox, Jr., Winston Churchill, Brander Matthews, Richard Watson Gilder, John Kendrick

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