Vol 3 Section 0505

Another Lawsuit – Anti -Imperialist, Anti-Doughnut – Sitting in Darkness “Women Should Vote”– Clara’s Washington Debut – Speeching & Feeding Demonizing Missionaries – Albany for Osteopaths – Witness for Kipling

“The Lair” Repose at Saranac Lake – Old Debts Never Die – Pallbearer for J.D.F. Slee Kanawha Cruise to St. Johns – Lyncherdom & Double-Barrelled – America’s Cup Acorns & Fusionists – Yale Gives Litt. D. – Suing Newbegin Co.

1901 – Sam recorded he was paid $24,136.15 this year by the American Publishing Co. and noted “Newb. O.S.” by the entry, likely referring to the R.G. Newbegin Co. He estimated the Co. cleared $16,000 [NB 46 TS 17].

At an unknown place Sam wrote to William P. Harrison in N.Y.C.: “All right, it’s a Contract” [MTP]. Note:

Harrison or the “contract” have not been identified.

Sam also wrote on a Sunday to Brander Matthews.

You tempt me powerfully. But I must deny myself the good time you offer me, for I have ended my holiday at last & put on my overalls & devoted myself to a long & steady siege of work. My work-day stretches from 11.30 a.m. till 7 p.m. …

Conway is delightful—that I know. I have never climbed a mountain, but if I were going to try it I would rather go up on his back than on Howells’s, nine to one, although I have known Howells for 30 years. On level ground I consider Howells as good company as anybody; but above the snow-line give me Conway!

[MTP]. Note: likely Moncure D. Conway.

Sam also wrote a postcard to Florence H. Winterburn on a Thursday:

“In my case it was not a story, but a sketch; & not a ‘Philanthropist’ but a ‘Reformer.’ I published it in the ‘Cosmopolitan’ in ’93 or ’94. I have not written anything of the sort of ‘Harper’s’” [MTP]. Note: Sam’s piece, “Traveling with a Reformer” first appeared in Cosmopolitan for Dec. 1893.

Sam also wrote to Bertrand Shadwell. “I thank you for the poem” [MTP].

Sam also wrote three letters to unidentified persons. The first was a letter laid in a pamphlet by the Anti-Imperialist League, containing Mark Twain’s “To the Person Sitting in Darkness” reprinted by permission from the North American Review, Feb. 1901. The first letter:

“The proof slips are very interesting. Once more poor Mr. Ament gives himself away. Without intending it he has at last confessed that he was the utterer of the ‘Christmas Eve.’ I wish this interview had arrived before the N.A. Review went to press” [MTP: Am. Art Assoc Galleries Catalogs, 5 Dec. 1934, Item 74].

Note: William Scott Ament (1851-1909), missionary to China, known as the “Father of Christian endeavor in China,” became famous after his reported heroism during the Boxer Rebellion and infamous (to a degree) after attacks by Mark Twain. See Zwick’s article in MTJ (Spring 1989) p. 34-9 concerning the textual variants and the added couplet on the Anti-Imperialist League’s printed card of “To the Person Sitting in Darkness.”

The second letter, laid in a copy of HF “offering to ‘come down & get up some other arrangement,’ rather than having to come before a notary” [Am. Book Auction catalogs, 23 May 1958, Item 263]

The third letter, a one-pager: “I remember Rameses II & Moses very well, for I knew them personally when I was

doing time on my fourth incarnation …” [Sotheby & Co., London catalogs, 28 July 1930, Item 137].

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