Vol 3 Section 0689

Sam also inscribed an aphorism in a copy of P&P to an unidentified person: “Only he who had seen better days and lives to see better days again knows their full value. Truly Yours, Mark Twai. Feb. 19, 1902”

[MTP:Merwin-Clayton Sales Co. catalog, Apr. 4, 1911, Item 277].

John Y. MacAlister wrote from London to Sam: “We had a very satisfactory Plasmon Meeting the other day, when Bergheim assured us that we ought this year to pay a dividend of 15%.” The rest of the letter dealt with details of the Plasmon venture and expansion into France, with “inquiries from Switzerland, Italy, and elsewhere” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Sales £4000 a month / Average of 1901 was a little over £2,000 a month. / Average of 1900; first four months, nothing ;next 8 months about £200 a month.”

February 20 Thursday

February 21 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Gilder, 13 East 8th—pm” [NB 45 TS 4]. Note: the “pm” suggests Sam had an evening appointment with Richard Watson Gilder. A dinner engagement usually included a time.

Elisabeth Marbury sent a statement and a royalty check to Sam for the PW play, week ending Feb. 8:

$9.84 [MTP].

February 22 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to Hélène Elisabeth Picard’s Feb. 5, and told her of his Juggernaut Club and her election for the “Member for France.”

Dear Miss Hélène:

If you will let me call you so, considering that my head is white & that I have grown-up daughters. Your beautiful letter has given me such deep pleasure! I will make bold claim to you for a friend & lock you up with the rest of my riches; for I am a miser who counts his spoil every day & hoards it secretly & adds to it when he can, & is grateful to see it grow.

Some of that gold comes, like yourself, in a sealed package, & I can’t see it & may never have that happiness; but I know its value without that, & by what sum it increases my wealth.

I have a Club, a private Club, which is all my own.

Sam then described the Club, repeating much of the information he’d sent Muriel Pears, including the bit about daughter Jean being the typist, and asked if he could send her the “Constitution & Laws.” He then answered a question she had asked:

My favorite? It is “Joan of Arc.” My next is “Huckleberry Finn,” but the family’s next is “The Prince &

the Pauper.” (Yes, you are right—I am a moralist in disguise; it gets me into heaps of trouble when I go

thrashing around in political questions.)

. . . .

I wish you every good fortune & happiness & I thank you so much for your letter [MTP].

Sam inscribed a copy of A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom by Andrew D. White (1901), which he’d requested from Frederick A. Duneka on Feb. 16 [MTP]. Note: see Gribben p.760, which

reveals Sam’s marginalia in the book.

Sam inscribed a copy of A Real Queen’s Fairy Tales. By Carmen Sylva (pseud. for Elizabeth, Queen of Rumania (1843-1916): “S.L. Clemens, Riverdale-on-Hudson, Feb. 22, 1902” [Gribben 218].

February 23 Sunday

February 23 ca. – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to an unidentified person [MTP].

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