Vol 3 Section 0773
August 8 Friday
August 9 Saturday – Brand Whitlock (1869-1934), municipal reformer, “novelist, politician, diplomat and a devoted younger friend of Howells,” visited Sam. Mrs. Whitlock accompanied her husband. Whitlock wrote a friend on Aug. 11:
Saturday, armed with a letter from Mr. Howells, we went up to Sewall’s Bridge, and there for an hour we sat on the veranda of his summer home and drank tea and smoked a cigar—at least I smoked a cigar—with Mark Twain. We had a characteristic experience of him. He sat there in a blue coat and white trousers, with that beautiful plume of white hair, and the heavy eyebrows shading his twinkling eyes, while he convulsed us with story after story [MTHL 2 : 744n1]. Note: Sam mentioned the visit in his Aug. 11 postcard to Howells. Born Joseph Brand Whitlock, he was four times elected mayor of Toledo, Ohio. In a letter dated Apr. 8, 1907, Whitlock wrote to William Dean Howells, remarking how Sam’s A.D. appearing in the N.A.R. reminded him of the time at Sewall’s Bridge—see April 11, 1907, when Howells forwarded Whitlock’s letter to Sam (Vol. IV, forthcoming).
August 10 Sunday
August 11 Monday – In York Harbor, Maine, Sam’s notebook: “The Queen of Roumania’s friend was here;
also Howells’s two friends” [NB 45 TS 23]. Note: Mrs. E. Hartwig, and Mr. & Mrs. Brand Whitlock.
Sam also wrote a postcard to William Dean Howells.
I tried to visit you yesterday, but the trolley-cars were so crammed that the motormen had to walk. I was very glad you sent me the Whitlocks; I enjoyed it. Shall the madam write John [Howells] (New York?) or will he be back here in a few days? (N.B. you to answer this by return mail—for by losing the trolley I lost 2 days.) Clara reaches New York to-morrow [MTHL 2: 743-4]. Note: Brand Whitlock and wife visited the Clemenses on Aug. 9 [n1].
Sam wrote to nephew Samuel E. Moffett. “Your aunt Livy is not well enough to write, & I am doing her work in that line. / She instructs me to tell you that I advise against the business connection you ask my judgment about. I should avoid it” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to William Dean Howells, addressing him as “Theodore Roosevelt”: “There above, you have it; & if the package is a kangaroo I don’t know how I am going to tame it here—but never mind, it may be something else” [MTP]. Note: this is a continuation of prior joke letters where Sam called Howells Roosevelt.
Charles S. Fairchild wrote to Sam, “just back from Newport” and replying to Sam’s “kind note of Thursday.” The cash register machine company that Sam had invested in “is as yet one of promise rather than performance…. A dozen machine made machines …have been finished and subjected to weeks of
severe testing.” They worked without wear and 200 were now being built. After the signature and the typed letter, Fairchild wrote, “how did you like your 10th Street house?” [MTP].
August 11 after – On a Thursday in York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to Frank Bliss.
Don’t send me any proofs. Follow copy strictly & go ahead.
I am a sick-nurse. Mrs. Clemens has been dangerously ill, & will need care & watching for an indefinite time to come.
In any case I shouldn’t alter a line in your volume, therefore I don’t need to take a proofreader’s function on myself [MTP]. Note: Livy suffered an attack on Aug. 11-12.
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.