Vol 3 Section 0866

In the evening Sam dined with H.H. Rogers [Jan. 9 to Bliss].

January 9 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frank Bliss.

Yes, you can send me an advance, now, of any sum you please; but three or four thousand will answer.

I was at dinner last night at Mr. Rogers’s, & he said you had nothing to fear from the Harpers: “Bliss is a straight man; if they try to make trouble with him, let him call on me & I will prove that they cannot touch him.” He thinks you should go right ahead with the scheme you spoke to me about, & not be afraid [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Leon Hirsh declining an invitation and citing Livy’s health [MTP].

Sam’s notebook entry contains the following to-do list:

Take “Rejected of Men.” [see note:]

Tel for parlor seat.

“ Grosvenor (?) hotel. Carry Butters MS.

Give note & security to A—get receipt. Get names of old Pres. & Direc & officers “ “ new “ “ “

“20 Gramercy Park?

Telephone Ch. Fairchild partner? [NB 46 TS 5]. Note: Rejected of Men; A Story of To-day, by Howard Pyle (1853-1911) [Gribben 564].

January 10 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mr. Dole (the identical language used in Jan. 9 to Hirsch) declining an invitation and citing Livy’s health [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Frederick W. Peabody.

But aren’t you going to lend me those scraps & scribblings of Mrs. Eddy’s which you offered to lend me? I find I can’t buy such things. I have tried; the Bargain Counter will not take my money—imagines it is

spiritual money, but it is not.

Have I your permission to use your name in quoting your visit to the Holy of Holies of the Mother Church? In what year was the visit paid? [MTP]. Note: Robert Hirst of the MTP offered the following to the Gallery of History on Nov. 1, 1983:

Peabody, a devoted opponent of Christian Science, was providing Mark Twain with material for use in articles on the subject that he was contributing to the North American Review (two already had been published…and two were yet forthcoming …). In mid -December he had offered to lend Mark Twain some extracts from the writing of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, an offer Mark Twain reminded him of here. These extracts were of particular importance to Mark Twain since, as he states, he had been rebuffed in his attempt to buy them from the agency he sarcastically calls “the Bargain Counter,” actually the New York offices of the Christian Science Publication Committee [History For Sale document 31405].

Elisabeth Marbury wrote to Sam:

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