Vol 3 Section 0864

But never mind, let it go. The League had an elegant chance, & has gone to sleep over it. I am going to hunt up something on the outside, for I do not want to go to sleep too. I am going to seek out a purchaser for the Philippines. Steady job, I reckon.

I enclose $25. With it—by your estimate—you can send out 2,500 dunning circulars & pull in twenty-three dollars for the cause.

Happy New Year! / Truly yours, / S.L. Clemens.

P.S. On second thought, I believe I won’t contribute. It will be economickler to economise, like the 5,000 [MTP]. Note: in the parts not shown here, Sam excoriates General Frederick Funston, the “Cuban swindle,” and the “comical Philippine stupidity.”

Sam’s notebook: “The offspring of poverty: Greed, sordidness, envy, hate, malice, cruelty, meanness, lying, shirking, cheating, stealing, murder” [NB 46 TS 4; MTB 1194].

January 5 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote a note on the reverse side of a Christmas card by Henry W. and Nancy Lucy to Livy dated Dec. 24, 1902: “Mr. Lucy of ‘Punch.’ He is referring to ‘Amended Obituaries,’ Livy dear. I thought he & I invented it at Bryce’s (& I’m right about it, & he is wrong” [MTP].

Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Franklin G. Whitmore.

Mr. Clemens wishes me to say—“that if our fortunes reach the high altitude they promise to reach this year, I shall not sell the Hartford house at all, but establish a midnight mission in it—”

Mrs. Clemens is constantly improving, and Jean is doing far far better than could have been believed.

Mr. Clemens encloses the check you ask for [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Howard E. Wright of the N.Y. Plasmon venture. Jean was “out of danger” now and making “fine progress daily.” Livy was “gaining distinctly every day for a week.” So Sam wanted Wright to be reminded that he was to come out along with Mr. Kelsey, but please telephone first [MTP]. Note: See NB entry Jan. 7.

Sam’s notebook entry is a list of items, which mostly seem to do with Am. Plasmon Co. problems:

         Collier consummated

         Consult Fred. Collier.

         Submit ad. to him, asking Howard E. Wright address

         B. must pay W’s note? [Mr. Wheeler; see NB entry July 14]

         Also the $25,000?

         On 15th write London I am bring criminal suit? 6a inform Broad or? with copy of MS.

         I won’t accept stock.

         Compounding felony.

         Go to Broad & get copies of subscrip. calls [NB 46 TS 4].

Joe Twichell replied from Hartford to Sam’s Dec. 31 and Jan. 4 letters:

The marginal P.S. of yours just received, saying that Livy and Jean are better and the latter out of danger—My! How good to read! I felt that your narratives of Holy Sayings, Nos. 1 and 2, dated Dec. 31st were projected on a back-ground of Tragedy from which, by this means, you were averting your thoughts. … But, my dear old fellow, the skies were pretty dark over while you were so deliciously spinning that yarn of Clara’s heroic untruths. ‘Twas merely a brilliant performance,—in strategy and in tactics both—and in the profoundest sense, I agree with you, a pious one, deserving the reward of success. There’s nothing in the Bible against it that I know of [MTP].

January 6 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote a short poem to Livy:

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