Vol 3 Section 0837

way you done here. (I am not sure about that grammar, but it’s not important.) If you do not mind, I should prefer to have no music either before my reading or in the middle of it. I cannot tell how long I shall read, for that is determinable only by the disposition of the audience. In a private house one can go by that pulse, and stop when it gives notice. If you will name to me the length of time I can have I promise to stop within that limit. For instance, if you will give me an hour and a quarter I’ll agree to land a cargo within those limits

[MTP].

Sam also wrote to David A. Munro, editor at the North American Review:

Mr. McCracken proposes to correct me in the Review and he would like me to put his article in my book which will be issued the first of March as I understand it. Suppose you drop him a note and tell him to hurry up and get his article into your February number so that if it turns out to be short enough it can go without impropriety into my book. I particularly want him in my book, because granting him this courtesy will put me in a position to ask Mrs. Eddy to add my articles to her Science and Health Bible [MTP]. Note: William D. McCrackan.

Sam also wrote to an unidentified man, declining an unspecified invitation due to Livy’s health [MTP].

Sam’s notebook: “Jean fainted” [NB 45 TS 34].

Hugh F. Fox wrote to Sam offering an “obituary” for his Harper’s Weekly contest [MTP].

George L. Houghton wroten from Marseilles, Illinois to Sam, enclosing pamphlets on his “Patent Slated Globe.” He was seeking help introducing the invention in exchange for half interest in the patent [MTP].

Sarah A. Oren-Hayes wrote from Sault St. Marie, Mich. to Sam offering an “obituary” for his Harper’s Weekly contest [MTP].

Maud Walker wrote from NYC to Sam offering an “obituary” for his contest [MTP].

Sam’s piece, “The Belated Russian Passport,” which he wrote in York Harbor in the summer of 1902, ran in Harper’s Weekly. It was collected in My Debut as a Literary Person (1903) [Wilson 7].

December 7 Sunday – Thomas B. Reed, Ex-Speaker of the House of Representatives, died in Washington. In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam telegraphed condolence to Susan P. Reed (Mrs. Thomas B. Reed).

“There is none who knew him but is stricken with you & mourns with you. He could have achieved the age of the patriarchs if his friends could have been privileged to spare from their lives to lengthen his. I beg to lay the homage of my deepest & sincerest sympathy at your feet” [MTP].

The NY Times, p.1, Dec. 7, reported Reed’s death and closed the article with the words of Sam:

…

The bulletin announcing the death of Mr. Reed was communicated to Samuel L. Clemens, (Mark Twain) at his home at Riverdale-on-Hudson, early this morning. Mr. Clemens had known the dead statesman for many years, and was his close friend and admirer. Mr. Reed was one of the guests at a dinner given a week ago in honor of the sixty-seventh birthday of the author.

Mr. Clemens was much affected by the news. “We had all hoped and thought that Mr. Reed would recover,” he said. “The country has not bred a nobler man. His death is an incalculable loss to the nation” [Note: Sam’s short piece of remembrance on Reed would run in Harper’s Weekly on Dec. 20, 1902.]

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