Vol 3 Section 0897

By immemorial habit & training, the King despises the entire nation with the exception of the nobility,— & in return the nation worships him & is proud of him [NB 46 TS 12-13].

March 25 Wednesday – Muriel M. Pears wrote from Menton, France to Sam. “Our Golden Dear Magician. Don’t please Don’t let the papers put in that sort of ‘joke’—it isn’t a joke to us, it’s the sort of thing that brings down a sudden feeling on one’s head of being chilly and forlorn…” [MTP]. Note: she didn’t specify.

March 26 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Hutchinson, 114 W. 32d / Ask Julie to go. 4 p.m” [NB 46 TS 13].

Laurence Hutton wrote from Phoenix, Arizona to Sam, replying to Sam’s Mar. 18; it was hard for them to think of Livy as an invalid and wanted to shout out their love for her. “Phoenix is about as cheerful a spot as is the Wailing Wall of the Jews at Jerusalem…” [MTP]. Much of Hutton’s backhand scrawl is illegible.

March 27 Friday – Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Franklin G. Whitmore.

“Mr. Clemens wishes me to say that he is very glad to know you have the wills, and would like to have you send them to him by registered mail.

“Mrs. Clemens continues to improve a little, and sat up today for quite a while” [MTP].

John Y. MacAlister for the Plasmon Syndicate wrote from London to Sam, enclosing a form letter announcing an “Interim Dividend of 2 ½ per cent” which on Sam’s 5000 shares was £350.0.0. He wrote that Sam was one of those people with whom one could tell “the blunt truth,” and said he was “in a hell of troubles” with his health, having had three serious spells of illness. Plasmon was “going strong” there. He enclosed a check for £35 “being the price I got for your obituaries” [MTP].

March 28 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Andrew Carnegie’s / 2 E. 91st st. 8 p.m. / to meet Sidney Lee. / [Horiz.

Line separator] / John P. Jones / 237 Stuyvesant / Bet. 16 & 17th & 2d & 3d ave” [NB 46 TS 13].

Sam spoke at the Sidney Lee dinner with Andrew Carnegie as host. Sidney Lee (1859 -1926), assistant editor of England’s The Dictionary of National Biography (1883-1890), and chief editor (1891). He was also an Elizabethan scholar, publishing several works on the Bard. In MTE: 331-8, Sam described the extreme shyness of the guest of honor and the hemming and hawing of such practiced speakers as William Dean Howells, Carl Schurz, Richard Watson Gilder, and Melville Stone, all of whom seemed affected by Lee’s timid nature.

Fatout: “Brander Matthews remarks, The Tocsin of Revolt :272, that ‘When Mark’s turn came, he soared aloft in whimsical exaggeration, casually dropping a reference to the time when he had lent Carnegie a million dollars. Our smiling host promptly interjected: “That had slipped my memory!”And Mark looked down on him solemnly, and retorted: “Then the next time, I’ll take a receipt” [MT Speaking 672-3].

The New York Times ran a notice on p.9 of a Mark Twain play in Paris, France:

“The Stolen White Elephant” as a Play

PARIS, March 27.—The French dramatization of Mark Twain’s “The Stolen White Elephant” will be given at the Odéon Theatare to-morrow. The Authors are MM. Alex and Max Fischer. Mr. Clemens has sent to the management the following characteristic telegram, which will be read at the performance: “Best compliments to the dramatists. I hope the detectives will shed glory on a cruelly slandered profession.”

March 29 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Geo. Riggs, lunch—& Jean with me?” [NB 46 TS 13].

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