Vol 3 Section 0711
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they were “homeward bound,” though he was unsure when they might reach home, |
1902 653
Then to the prosperous quarters & examined the outside of a church where Columbus rested his bones for a while—a one night stand, I think.
The Queen’s Garden. Pretty, & full of well dressed women & children.
Finally to the imitation-Prado by the beach, & saw fashion do its possible. Mostly blacks, & modifications of that color.
NO SMOKING.
There was no such sign up, but 6 cigars would cover the output visible.
Returned to the yacht. Cool & pleasant there.
San Juan Hill in view. Rice & the Colonel [Paine] visited it.
The surrounding hills seem bare, all the visible country aspects melancholy & unseductive [MTP].
Livy’s diary: “Mrs Ruth McEnery Stuart & her son came for luncheon & dinner & spent the night. Jervis
came for the night” [MTP: DV161]. Note: Ruth McEnery Stuart (1856-1917), poet and author.
March 31 Monday – The Kanawha sailed from Santiago, Cuba, to Nassau, Bahamas.
Sam’s notebook: “Sailed at 8 a.m. on a 2-day stretch due north” [NB 45 TS 8]. Note: Sam’s ship log essentially the same notation.
James F. Strang of Invercargill, N. Zealand wrote to Sam asking him to “send over a message, anything, a few lines,” which he could read in response to a toast to Mark Twain at a meeting of the First Church Literary Society. Sam wrote on Strang’s letter “You send him a line,” and sent it to H.H. Rogers, who, on May 5, sent Strang a humorous reply as “P. Huttleston” [MTHHR 486n1]. Note: see May 5 entry.
April – The North American Review published Sam’s essay, “Does the Race of Man Love a Lord?” It was collected in The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories (1906) [Budd, Collected 2: 1007]. Paine calls this piece “a most interesting treatise on snobbery as a universal weakness” [MTB 1164].
Sam also wrote one of his aphorisms to an unidentified person: “On the whole it is better to deserve honors & not have them, than have them & not deserve them.” [MTP].
April 1 Tuesday – At sea on board the Kanawha en route to Nassau, Bahamas, stopped at Rum Cay. Sam wrote to Livy that
possibly Apr. 12 or 14.
All our prophecies go to grass. We go to places we never intended to visit, & don’t go to others that were on our list. We did not return to Havana, so I have never received any letters but those which you & Jean wrote me on the 19th [not extant]. …
We are now approaching Nassau, & I am writing this in the night, so as to catch the mail there to-morrow if there is one.
We go next to Charleston, then to points higher up—stopping & coaling here & there; & whenever the weather is rough we shall seek shelter & wait for the seas to go down. But for these delays we should be home in a very little while.
I am dreadful home-sick to see you, & glad I shall get back a good liberal time before Clara sails. …
[written sideways in the left margin:] If I find we are sure to go to Charleston, S. C., I will cable you to write me there [MTP].
In his Apr. 2 to Livy he mentioned a stop along the way:
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.