Vol 3 Section 0622
Sam inscribed a copy of Sarah Pratt Greene’s Flood-tide (1901): “S.L. Clemens, Riverdale Oct. 1901”
[Gribben 275]. Notes: on Apr. 29, 1903 Sam praised the book to William Dean Howells. On May 26, 1903 H.H.
Rogers wrote thanking Sam for the book [MTHHR 529].
October 1 Tuesday – The Clemenses took possession of the Appleton house at Riverdale-on-the-Hudson. Sam wrote sometime after to an unidentified man, heading the letter with this address [MTP].
Sometime between this day and Feb. 22, 1902 Sam also wrote to Frederick A. Duneka [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Charles H. Taylor of the Boston Globe, acknowledging the $100 check and thanking for Taylor’s compliment [MTP].
October 1 after – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to an unidentified man:
No, I wouldn’t break the ink bottle if I had your gift of doing things to rhyme in happy fashion—a gift which was not granted me. You should have come aboard. No one did; and only one person stopped me on the street and gave me a handshake and a welcome—a kindness whichi I still remember gratefully. The fact is, I am so used to being stopped and greeted that I am just spoiled, and expecting it, and discontented and disagreeable when it does not happen [MTP]. Note: this catalogued as “after Aug. 31” but the Clemenses did not take possession of Riverdale house until Oct. 1.
October 2 Wednesday
October 3 Thursday – At 8 a.m. Clemens, Joe Twichell, and possibly others met at the foot of West 35th Street, and boarded the Kanawha. H.H. Rogers may have already been on board. The yacht cruised off of Sandy Hook, N.J. to view the heat of the America’s Cup race, which had been thought to be the third in the best of five, but was the second. The heat this day began at 11 a.m. and finished at 3:16 p.m. [NY Times, Oct. 4, p.1, “Columbia Wins A Decisive Victory.” The third race was the next day, Oct. 4
[MTHHR 474n1]. Note: it is not known whether the men stayed on board overnight to see the third heat, but it is possible.
Sam wrote to Lyman J. Gage, Secretary of the Treasury, Washington, D.C
MARK TWAIN’S JOKE
———
Humorist Asks Secretary Shaw for Old
Bonds and Greenbacks to Use
as Fuel
WASHINGTON, Oct. 21— The following letter was received at the Treasury Department this morning:
New York City, Oct. 3.
The Hon. The Secretary of the Treasury.
Washington, D.C
Sir:
Prices for the customary kinds of winter fuel having reached an altitude which puts them out of reach of literary persons in straitened circumstances, I desire to place with you the following order:
45 tons best old dog Government bonds, suitable for furnace, gold 7 per cents 1864 preferred;
12 tons early greenbacks, range size, suitable for cooking;
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.