Vol 3 Section 0714

train; “he was sea-sick every other day during the trip, yet I couldn’t get him to go on a plasmon diet & be comfortable” [Apr. 5 to Livy]. Note: President Theodore Roosevelt would attend the fair on Apr. 9.

Charles Erskine Scott Wood, now in N.Y. wrote to Sam, enclosing his sonnet and asking where he might get it published. He’d been trying to get out to see him ever since he wrote about Carnegie, but he was unable to. “Another friend who knows Carnegie well took the same cheerless view you did and I abandoned the idea” [MTP].

April 5 Saturday – On board the Kanawha off Cape Hatteras, N.C., Sam wrote to Livy.

Livy darling it is too bad, I forgot all about Frau von Versen. I hasten at this late day to send a couple of mottoes for you to choose from. I will mail them at Norfolk this evening, & they will beat me home, whether we get delayed or don’t. We are always subject to delays. …

We are off Hatteras, but it is not stormy.

With tons & tons of love.

Sam’s notebook: “Charleston. At noon met at Hotel & went to the Exposition. Funereal. Pasteboard ‘palaces.’ About 200 people / Moultrie & Sumter / Rice left 5.20 / We sailed at 5. / Publish my Battle Hymn?” [NB 45 TS 9]. Note: though Sam put the Charleston excursion under Apr. 5 in his NB, he wrote Livy on this day that they went to the fair on the previous day, Apr. 4.

Sam’s ship log: “At Charleston. At noon gathered at the hotel & went out to the Exposition; 200 people wandering about the vast vacancies. Engaged some wheel-chairs. I was last, & had to wait a while. The boss said, ‘The gentleman is away that pushes your chair—be back soon.’ It is a good Exposition, but not well attended. / Rice went north by rail at 5 p.m. / Sailed, about 6” [MTP].

Sam enclosed two mottos for Frau von Versen: “ The man who is a pessimist before 48, knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little,”and “On the whole it is better to deserve honors & not have them, than have them & not deserve them” [MTP].

April 6 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Smooth sea, sunny & pleasant. No cards. Reed played solitaire. ‘ignorant of

music’ = Reed / Reached Norfolk midnight” [NB 45 TS 9]. Note: Sam’s ship log gave part of this report.

Livy’s diary: “Miss Forth & Miss Bowman here for tea” [MTP: DV161].

The Charleston (S.C.) Sunday News, p. 16 ran “Mark Twain in Town / The Famous Humorist Spent the Day in Charleston.” Budd: “Extensive summary of SLC’s mostly casual remarks; he declines to comment on ‘Chinese loot question’” [Budd, “Supplement” ALR 16.1 (Spring 1983) 70]. Budd’s no. 173a.

The New York Times, p.8, as well as the New York Tribune , p.5 mis-reported Mr. and Mrs. Samuel L.

Clemens’ attendance at the Apr. 5 Smith College Allumni reception. Sam was still at sea.

April 7 Monday – The Kanawha was at Old Point Comfort, Va. The New York Times ran a special on the progress of the cruise on the first page, April 8 issue.

COMING BACK FROM CUBA.

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The Kanawha with ex-Speaker Reed and Mark Twain at Newport News.

Special to The New York Times.

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