Vol 3 Section 0716
A most delightful month, & everybody in the gang physically & mentally the better for it. Morally— / Mark Twain / Official Logger” [MTP].
Livy’s diary: “Mrs Edward Bunce spent the night with us” [MTP: DV161].
The New York Times (p.1) wasted no time reporting the purchase of the Clemens’ new home:
MARK TWAIN’S NEW HOME.
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He Purchases an Estate at Tarrytown for $47,500.
TARRYTOWN, N.Y., Apr. 8.—Mark Twain has purchased the Capt. Casey place and will shortly take possession and make it his home. The estate comprises something like nineteen acres. It is high and beautifully situated, commanding some of the best views along the Hudson. There is a stone mansion, which has been remodeled and modernized, on the property and ample barns and outbuildings.
The announced price of the property is $47,500. This is believed to be the price paid, as it was known the offering price for some time has been $50,000. [Note: Sam wrote on Apr. 14 to Rogers that Livy bought the Casey’s Tarrytown house while he was away, and paid $45,000 for it.]
The ledger books of Chatto & Windus show that 2,000 additional copies of a 6s.0d edition of Joan of Arc, were printed , totaling 8,000 [Welland 238; 1904 Financials file MTP].
April 9 after – Sometime after his return from the cruise, in Riverdale, N.Y., Sam wrote to David Alexander Munro (1844-1910), asst. editor of The North American Review under George B. Harvey. “Do get the Review placed at Denver & on sale there a day or two before May 1. On that date there’s a banquet to Funston there” [MTP]. Note: Sam’s article, “A Defence of General Funston,” ran in the May 1902 issue.
April 10 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to The American Plasmon Co., 361 Broadway, N.Y.: “Has Mr. Butters returned? Any news? What is your telephone address?” [MTP]. Note: Henry A. Butters.
Sam also wrote to the editor of the Springfield (Mass.) Republican. The letter ran in the Apr. 12 issue of the newspaper [MTP].
To the Editor of the Republican:
One of your citizens has asked me a question about the “œsophagus,” & I wish to answer him through you. This in the hope that the answer will get around, & save me some penmanship, for I have already replied to the same question more than several times, & am not getting as much holiday as I ought to have.
I published a short story lately, & it was in that that I put the œsophagus. I will say privately that I expected it to bother some people—in fact, that was the intention,—but the harvest has been larger than I was calculating upon. The œsophagus has gathered in the guilty & the innocent alike, whereas I was only fishing for the innocent—the innocent & confiding. I knew a few of these would write & ask me; that would give me but little trouble; but I was not expecting that the wise & the learned would call upon me for succor. However, that has happened, & it is time for me to speak up & stop the inquiries if I can, for letter-writing is not restful to me, & I am not having so much fun out of this thing as I counted on. That you may understand the situation, I will insert a couple of sample inquiries. The first is from a public instructor in the Philippines:
Santa Cruz, Ilocos Sur, P. I.
February 13, 1902.
My Dear Sir: I have just been reading the first part of your latest story, entitled “A Double-Barrelled Detective Story,” and am very much delighted with it. In Part IV, page 264, Harper’s Magazine for January, occurs this passage: “far in the empty sky a solitary ‘œsophagus’ slept, upon motionless wing; everywhere brooded stillness, serenity, and the peace of God.” Now, there is one word I do not understand, namely, “œsophagus.”
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.