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You have shown, on many + occasions, that your mission is not simply to antidote the + melancholy of a world, but includes a real and intelligent concern + for the general welfare of your fellowman." + + The Universal Kinship was the kind of a book that Mark Twain + appreciated, as his acknowledgment clearly shows. + + + To Mr. J. Howard Moore: + + Feb. 2, '07. +DEAR MR. MOORE, The book has furnished me several days of deep pleasure +and satisfaction; it has compelled my gratitude at the same time, since +it saves me the labor of stating my own long-cherished opinions and +reflections and resentments by doing it lucidly and fervently and +irascibly for me. + +There is one thing that always puzzles me: as inheritors of the mentality +of our reptile ancestors we have improved the inheritance by a thousand +grades; but in the matter of the morals which they left us we have gone +backward as many grades. That evolution is strange, and to me +unaccountable and unnatural. Necessarily we started equipped with their +perfect and blemishless morals; now we are wholly destitute; we have no +real, morals, but only artificial ones--morals created and preserved by +the forced suppression of natural and hellish instincts. Yet we are dull +enough to be vain of them. Certainly we are a sufficiently comical +invention, we humans. + Sincerely Yours, + S. L. CLEMENS. + + + Mark Twain's own books were always being excommunicated by some + librarian, and the matter never failed to invite the attention and + amusement of the press, and the indignation of many correspondents. + Usually the books were Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, the morals of which + were not regarded as wholly exemplary. But in 1907 a small library, + in a very small town, attained a day's national notoriety by putting + the ban on Eve's Diary, not so much on account of its text as for + the chaste and exquisite illustrations by Lester Ralph. When the + reporters came in a troop to learn about it, the author said: "I + believe this time the trouble is mainly with the pictures. I did + not draw them. I wish I had--they are so beautiful." + + Just at this time, Dr. William Lyon Phelps, of Yale, was giving a + literary talk to the Teachers' Club, of Hartford, dwelling on the + superlative value of Mark Twain's writings for readers old and + young. Mrs. F. G. Whitmore, an old Hartford friend, wrote Clemens + of the things that Phelps had said, as consolation for Eve's latest + banishment. This gave him a chance to add something to what he had + said to the reporters. + + + To Mrs. Whitmore, in Hartford: + + Feb. 7, 1907. +DEAR MRS. WHITMORE,--But the truth is, that when a Library expels a book +of mine and leaves an unexpurgated Bible lying around where unprotected +youth and age can get hold of it, the deep unconscious irony of it +delights me and doesn't anger me. But even if it angered me such words +as those of Professor Phelps would take the sting all out. Nobody +attaches weight to the freaks of the Charlton Library, but when a man +like Phelps speaks, the world gives attention. Some day I hope to meet +him and thank him for his courage for saying those things out in public. +Custom is, to think a handsome thing in private but tame it down in the +utterance. + +I hope you are all well and happy; and thereto I add my love. + Sincerely yours, + S. L. CLEMENS. + + + In May, 1907, Mark Twain was invited to England to receive from + Oxford the degree of Literary Doctor. It was an honor that came to + him as a sort of laurel crown at the end of a great career, and + gratified him exceedingly. To Moberly Bell, of the London Times, + he expressed his appreciation. Bell had been over in April and + Clemens believed him concerned in the matter. + + + To Moberly Bell, in London: + + 21 FIFTH AVENUE, May 3, '07 +DEAR MR. BELL,--Your hand is in it! and you have my best thanks. +Although I wouldn't cross an ocean again for the price of the ship that +carried me, I am glad to do it for an Oxford degree. I shall plan to +sail for England a shade before the middle of June, so that I can have a +few days in London before the 26th. + Sincerely, + S. L. CLEMENS. + + + He had taken a house at Tuxedo for the summer, desiring to be near + New York City, and in the next letter he writes Mr. Rogers + concerning his London plans. We discover, also, in this letter that + he has begun work on the Redding home and the cost is to come + entirely out of the autobiographical chapters then running in the + North American Review. It may be of passing interest to note here + that he had the usual house-builder's fortune. He received thirty + thousand dollars for the chapters; the house cost him nearly double + that amount. + + + To H. H. Rogers, in New York: + + TUXEDO PARK, + May 29, '07. +DEAR ADMIRAL,--Why hang it, I am not going to see you and Mrs. Rogers at +all in England! It is a great disappointment. I leave there a month +from now--June 29. No, I shall see you; for by your itinerary you are +most likely to come to London June 21st or along there. So that is very +good and satisfactory. I have declined all engagements but two--Whitelaw +Reid (dinner) June 21, and the Pilgrims (lunch), June 25. The Oxford +ceremony is June 26. I have paid my return passage in the Minne- +something, but it is just possible that I may want to stay in England a +week or two longer--I can't tell, yet. I do very much want to meet up +with the boys for the last time. + +I have signed the contract for the building of the house on my +Connecticut farm and specified the cost limit, and work has been begun. +The cost has to all come out of a year's instalments of Autobiography in +the N. A. Review. + +Clara, is winning her way to success and distinction with sure and steady +strides. By all accounts she is singing like a bird, and is not afraid +on the concert stage any more. + +Tuxedo is a charming place; I think it hasn't its equal anywhere. + +Very best wishes to you both. + S. L. C. + + + The story of Mark Twain's extraordinary reception and triumph in + England has been told.--[Mark Twain; A Biography, chaps. cclvi- + cclix]--It was, in fact, the crowning glory of his career. Perhaps + one of the most satisfactory incidents of his sojourn was a dinner + given to him by the staff of Punch, in the historic offices at 10 + Bouverie Street where no other foreign visitor had been thus + honored--a notable distinction. When the dinner ended, little joy + Agnew, daughter of the chief editor, entered and presented to the + chief guest the original drawing of a cartoon by Bernard Partridge, + which had appeared on the front page of Punch. In this picture the + presiding genius of the paper is offering to Mark Twain health, long + life, and happiness from "The Punch Bowl." + + A short time after his return to America he received a pretty + childish letter from little Miss Agnew acknowledging a photograph he + had sent her, and giving a list of her pets and occupations. Such a + letter always delighted Mark Twain, and his pleasure in this one is + reflected in his reply. + + + To Miss Joy Agnew, in London: + + TUXEDO PARK, NEW YORK. +Unto you greetings and salutation and worship, you dear, sweet little +rightly-named Joy! I can see you now almost as vividly as I saw you that +night when you sat flashing and beaming upon those sombre swallow-tails. + + "Fair as a star when only one + Is shining in the sky." + +Oh, you were indeed the only one--there wasn't even the remotest chance +of competition with you, dear! Ah, you are a decoration, you little +witch! + +The idea of your house going to the wanton expense of a flower garden!-- +aren't you enough? And what do you want to go and discourage the other +flowers for? Is that the right spirit? is it considerate? is it kind? +How do you suppose they feel when you come around--looking the way you +look? And you so pink and sweet and dainty and lovely and supernatural? +Why, it makes them feel embarrassed and artificial, of course; and in my +opinion it is just as pathetic as it can be. Now then you want to +reform--dear--and do right. + +Well certainly you are well off, Joy: + +3 bantams; +3 goldfish; +3 doves; +6 canaries; +2 dogs; +1 cat; + +All you need, now, to be permanently beyond the reach of want, is one +more dog--just one more good, gentle, high principled, affectionate, +loyal dog who wouldn't want any nobler service than the golden privilege +of lying at your door, nights, and biting everything that came along--and +I am that very one, and ready to come at the dropping of a hat. + +Do you think you could convey my love and thanks to your "daddy" and Owen +Seaman and those other oppressed and down-trodden subjects of yours, you +darling small tyrant? + +On my knees! These--with the kiss of fealty from your other subject-- + + MARK TWAIN + + + Elinor Glyn, author of Three Weeks and other erotic tales, was in + America that winter and asked permission to call on Mark Twain. An + appointment was made and Clemens discussed with her, for an hour or + more, those crucial phases of life which have made living a complex + problem since the days of Eve in Eden. Mrs. Glyn had never before + heard anything like Mark Twain's wonderful talk, and she was anxious + to print their interview. She wrote what she could remember of it + and sent it to him for approval. If his conversation had been + frank, his refusal was hardly less so. + + + To Mrs. Elinor Glyn, in New York: + + Jan. 22, '08. +DEAR MRS. GLYN, It reads pretty poorly--I get the sense of it, but it is +a poor literary job; however, it would have to be that because nobody can +be reported even approximately, except by a stenographer. +Approximations, synopsized speeches, translated poems, artificial flowers +and chromos all have a sort of value, but it is small. If you had put +upon paper what I really said it would have wrecked your type-machine. +I said some fetid, over-vigorous things, but that was because it was a +confidential conversation. I said nothing for print. My own report of +the same conversation reads like Satan roasting a Sunday school. It, and +certain other readable chapters of my autobiography will not be published +until all the Clemens family are dead--dead and correspondingly +indifferent. They were written to entertain me, not the rest of the +world. I am not here to do good--at least not to do it intentionally. +You must pardon me for dictating this letter; I am sick a-bed and not +feeling as well as I might. + Sincerely Yours, + S. L. CLEMENS. + + + Among the cultured men of England Mark Twain had no greater admirer, + or warmer friend, than Andrew Lang. They were at one on most + literary subjects, and especially so in their admiration of the life + and character of Joan of Arc. Both had written of her, and both + held her to be something almost more than mortal. When, therefore, + Anatole France published his exhaustive biography of the maid of + Domremy, a book in which he followed, with exaggerated minuteness + and innumerable footnotes, every step of Joan's physical career at + the expense of her spiritual life, which he was inclined to cheapen, + Lang wrote feelingly, and with some contempt, of the performance, + inviting the author of the Personal Recollections to come to the + rescue of their heroine. "Compare every one of his statements with + the passages he cites from authorities, and make him the laughter of + the world" he wrote. "If you are lazy about comparing I can make + you a complete set of what the authorities say, and of what this + amazing novelist says that they say. When I tell you that he thinks + the Epiphany (January 6, Twelfth Night) is December 25th--Christmas + Day-you begin to see what an egregious ass he is. Treat him like + Dowden, and oblige"--a reference to Mark Twain's defense of Harriet + Shelley, in which he had heaped ridicule on Dowden's Life of the + Poet--a masterly performance; one of the best that ever came from + Mark Twain's pen. + + Lang's suggestion would seem to have been a welcome one. + + + To Andrew Lang, in London: + + NEW YORK, April 25, 1908. +DEAR MR. LANG,--I haven't seen the book nor any review of it, but only +not very-understandable references to it--of a sort which discomforted +me, but of course set my interest on fire. I don't want to have to read +it in French--I should lose the nice shades, and should do a lot of gross +misinterpreting, too. But there'll be a translation soon, nicht wahr? +I will wait for it. I note with joy that you say: "If you are lazy about +comparing, (which I most certainly am), I can make you a complete set of +what the authorities say, and of what this amazing novelist says that +they say." + +Ah, do it for me! Then I will attempt the article, and (if I succeed in +doing it to my satisfaction,) will publish it. It is long since I +touched a pen (3 1/2 years), and I was intending to continue this happy +holiday to the gallows, but--there are things that could beguile me to +break this blessed Sabbath. + Yours very sincerely, + S. L. CLEMENS. + + + Certainly it is an interesting fact that an Englishman--one of the + race that burned Joan--should feel moved to defend her memory + against the top-heavy perversions of a distinguished French author. + + But Lang seems never to have sent the notes. The copying would have + been a tremendous task, and perhaps he never found the time for it. + We may regret to-day that he did not, for Mark Twain's article on + the French author's Joan would have been at least unique. + + Samuel Clemens could never accustom himself to the loss of his wife. + From the time of her death, marriage-which had brought him his + greatest joy in life-presented itself to him always with the thought + of bereavement, waiting somewhere just behind. The news of an + approaching wedding saddened him and there was nearly always a + somber tinge in his congratulations, of which the following to a + dear friend is an example: + + + To Father Fitz-Simon, in Washington: + + June 5, '08. +DEAR FATHER FITZ-SIMON,--Marriage--yes, it is the supreme felicity of +life, I concede it. And it is also the supreme tragedy of life. The +deeper the love the surer the tragedy. And the more disconsolating when +it comes. + +And so I congratulate you. Not perfunctorily, not lukewarmly, but with a +fervency and fire that no word in the dictionary is strong enough to +convey. And in the same breath and with the same depth and sincerity, +I grieve for you. Not for both of you and not for the one that shall go +first, but for the one that is fated to be left behind. For that one +there is no recompense.--For that one no recompense is possible. + +There are times--thousands of times--when I can expose the half of my +mind, and conceal the other half, but in the matter of the tragedy of +marriage I feel too deeply for that, and I have to bleed it all out or +shut it all in. And so you must consider what I have been through, and +am passing through and be charitable with me. + +Make the most of the sunshine! and I hope it will last long--ever so +long. + +I do not really want to be present; yet for friendship's sake and because +I honor you so, I would be there if I could. + Most sincerely your friend, + S. L. CLEMENS. + + + The new home at Redding was completed in the spring of 1908, and on + the 18th of June, when it was entirely fitted and furnished, Mark + Twain entered it for the first time. He had never even seen the + place nor carefully examined plans which John Howells had made for + his house. He preferred the surprise of it, and the general + avoidance of detail. That he was satisfied with the result will be + seen in his letters. He named it at first "Innocence at Home"; + later changing this title to "Stormfield." + + The letter which follows is an acknowledgment of an interesting + souvenir from the battle-field of Tewksbury (1471), and some relics + of the Cavalier and Roundhead Regiments encamped at Tewksbury in + 1643. + + + To an English admirer: + + INNOCENCE AT HOME, REDDING, CONNECTICUT, + Aug. 15, '08. +DEAR SIR,--I highly prize the pipes, and shall intimate to people that +"Raleigh" smoked them, and doubtless he did. After a little practice I +shall be able to go further and say he did; they will then be the most +interesting features of my library's decorations. The Horse-shoe is +attracting a good deal of attention, because I have intimated that the +conqueror's horse cast it; it will attract more when I get my hand in and +say he cast it, I thank you for the pipes and the shoe; and also for the +official guide, which I read through at a single sitting. If a person +should say that about a book of mine I should regard it as good evidence +of the book's interest. + Very truly yours, + S. L. CLEMENS. + + + In his philosophy, What Is Man?, and now and again in his other + writings, we find Mark Twain giving small credit to the human mind + as an originator of ideas. The most original writer of his time, he + took no credit for pure invention and allowed none to others. The + mind, he declared, adapted, consciously or unconsciously; it did not + create. In a letter which follows he elucidates this doctrine. The + reference in it to the "captain" and to the kerosene, as the reader + may remember, have to do with Captain "Hurricane" Jones and his + theory of the miracles of "Isaac and of the prophets of Baal," as + expounded in Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion. + + By a trick of memory Clemens gives The Little Duke as his suggestion + for The Prince and the Pauper; he should have written The Prince and + the Page, by the same author. + + + To Rev. F. Y. Christ, in New York: + + REDDING, CONN., Aug., '08. +DEAR SIR,--You say "I often owe my best sermons to a suggestion received +in reading or from other exterior sources." Your remark is not quite in +accordance with the facts. We must change it to--"I owe all my thoughts, +sermons and ideas to suggestions received from sources outside of myself." +The simplified English of this proposition is--"No man's brains ever +originated an idea." It is an astonishing thing that after all these +ages the world goes on thinking the human brain machinery can originate a +thought. + +It can't. It never has done it. In all cases, little and big, the +thought is born of a suggestion; and in all cases the suggestions come to +the brain from the outside. The brain never acts except from exterior +impulse. + +A man can satisfy himself of the truth of this by a single process,--let +him examine every idea that occurs to him in an hour; a day; in a week +--in a lifetime if he please. He will always find that an outside +something suggested the thought, something which he saw with his eyes or +heard with his ears or perceived by his touch--not necessarily to-day, +nor yesterday, nor last year, nor twenty years ago, but sometime or +other. Usually the source of the suggestion is immediately traceable, +but sometimes it isn't. + +However, if you will examine every thought that occurs to you for the +next two days, you will find that in at least nine cases out of ten you +can put your finger on the outside suggestion--And that ought to convince +you that No. 10 had that source too, although you cannot at present hunt +it down and find it. + +The idea of writing to me would have had to wait a long time if it waited +until your brain originated it. It was born of an outside suggestion-- +Sir Thomas and my old Captain. + +The hypnotist thinks he has invented a new thing--suggestion. This is +very sad. I don't know where my captain got his kerosene idea. (It was +forty-one years ago, and he is long ago dead.) But I know that it didn't +originate in his head, but it was born from a suggestion from the +outside. + +Yesterday a guest said, "How did you come to think of writing 'The Prince +and the Pauper?'" I didn't. The thought came to me from the outside-- +suggested by that pleasant and picturesque little history-book, Charlotte +M. Yonge's "Little Duke," I doubt if Mrs. Burnett knows whence came to +her the suggestion to write "Little Lord Fauntleroy," but I know; it came +to her from reading "The Prince and the Pauper." In all my life I have +never originated an idea, and neither has she, nor anybody else. + +Man's mind is a clever machine, and can work up materials into ingenious +fancies and ideas, but it can't create the material; none but the gods +can do that. In Sweden I saw a vast machine receive a block of wood, and +turn it into marketable matches in two minutes. It could do everything +but make the wood. That is the kind of machine the human mind is. Maybe +this is not a large compliment, but it is all I can afford..... + Your friend and well-wisher + S. L. CLEMENS. + + + To Mrs. H. H. Rogers, in Fair Hawn, Mass.: + + REDDING, CONN, Aug. 12, 1908. +DEAR MRS. ROGERS, I believe I am the wellest man on the planet to-day, +and good for a trip to Fair Haven (which I discussed with the Captain of +the New Bedford boat, who pleasantly accosted me in the Grand Central +August 5) but the doctor came up from New York day before yesterday, and +gave positive orders that I must not stir from here before frost. It is +because I was threatened with a swoon, 10 or 12 days ago, and went to New +York a day or two later to attend my nephew's funeral and got horribly +exhausted by the heat and came back here and had a bilious collapse. In +24 hours I was as sound as a nut again, but nobody believes it but me. + +This is a prodigiously satisfactory place, and I am so glad I don't have +to go back to the turmoil and rush of New York. The house stands high +and the horizons are wide, yet the seclusion is perfect. The nearest +public road is half a mile away, so there is nobody to look in, and I +don't have to wear clothes if I don't want to. I have been down stairs +in night-gown and slippers a couple of hours, and have been photographed +in that costume; but I will dress, now, and behave myself. + +That doctor had half an idea that there is something the matter with my +brain. . . Doctors do know so little and they do charge so much for +it. I wish Henry Rogers would come here, and I wish you would come with +him. You can't rest in that crowded place, but you could rest here, for +sure! I would learn bridge, and entertain you, and rob you. + With love to you both, + Ever yours, + S. L. C. + + + In the foregoing letter we get the first intimation of Mark Twain's + failing health. The nephew who had died was Samuel E. Moffett, son + of Pamela Clemens. Moffett, who was a distinguished journalist--an + editorial writer on Collier's Weekly, a man beloved by all who knew + him--had been drowned in the surf off the Jersey beach. + + + To W. D. Howells, Kittery Point, Maine: + + Aug. 12, '08. +DEAR HOWELLS,--Won't you and Mrs. Howells and Mildred come and give us as +many days as you can spare, and examine John's triumph? It is the most +satisfactory house I am acquainted with, and the most satisfactorily +situated. + +But it is no place to work in, because one is outside of it all the time, +while the sun and the moon are on duty. Outside of it in the loggia, +where the breezes blow and the tall arches divide up the scenery and +frame it. + +It's a ghastly long distance to come, and I wouldn't travel such a +distance to see anything short of a memorial museum, but if you can't +come now you can at least come later when you return to New York, for the +journey will be only an hour and a half per express-train. Things are +gradually and steadily taking shape inside the house, and nature is +taking care of the outside in her ingenious and wonderful fashion--and +she is competent and asks no help and gets none. I have retired from New +York for good, I have retired from labor for good, I have dismissed my +stenographer and have entered upon a holiday whose other end is in the +cemetery. + Yours ever, + MARK. + + + From a gentleman in Buffalo Clemens one day received a letter + inclosing an incompleted list of the world's "One Hundred Greatest + Men," men who had exerted "the largest visible influence on the life + and activities of the race." The writer asked that Mark Twain + examine the list and suggest names, adding "would you include Jesus, + as the founder of Christianity, in the list?" + + To the list of statesmen Clemens added the name of Thomas Paine; to + the list of inventors, Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. The + question he answered in detail. + + + To-----------, Buffalo, N. Y. + + Private. REDDING, CONN, Aug. 28, '08. +DEAR SIR,--By "private," I mean don't print any remarks of mine. + + .................. +I like your list. + +The "largest visible influence." + +These terms require you to add Jesus. And they doubly and trebly require +you to add Satan. From A.D. 350 to A.D. 1850 these gentlemen exercised a +vaster influence over a fifth part of the human race than was exercised +over that fraction of the race by all other influences combined. Ninety- +nine hundredths of this influence proceeded from Satan, the remaining +fraction of it from Jesus. During those 1500 years the fear of Satan and +Hell made 99 Christians where love of God and Heaven landed one. During +those 1500 years, Satan's influence was worth very nearly a hundred times +as much to the business as was the influence of all the rest of the Holy +Family put together. + +You have asked me a question, and I have answered it seriously and +sincerely. You have put in Buddha--a god, with a following, at one time, +greater than Jesus ever had: a god with perhaps a little better evidence +of his godship than that which is offered for Jesus's. How then, in +fairness, can you leave Jesus out? And if you put him in, how can you +logically leave Satan out? Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but +it is the lightning that does the work. + Very truly yours, + S. L. CLEMENS. + + + The "Children's Theatre" of the next letter was an institution of + the New York East Side in which Mark Twain was deeply interested. + The children were most, if not all, of Hebrew parentage, and the + performances they gave, under the direction of Alice M. Herts, were + really remarkable. It seemed a pity that lack of funds should have + brought this excellent educational venture to an untimely end. + + The following letter was in reply to one inclosing a newspaper + clipping reporting a performance of The Prince and the Pauper, given + by Chicago school children. + + + To Mrs. Hookway, in Chicago: + Sept., 1908. +DEAR MRS. HOOKWAY,--Although I am full of the spirit of work this +morning, a rarity with me lately--I must steal a moment or two for a word +in person: for I have been reading the eloquent account in the Record- +Herald and am pleasurably stirred, to my deepest deeps. The reading +brings vividly back to me my pet and pride. The Children's Theatre of +the East side, New York. And it supports and re-affirms what I have so +often and strenuously said in public that a children's theatre is easily +the most valuable adjunct that any educational institution for the young +can have, and that no otherwise good school is complete without it. + +It is much the most effective teacher of morals and promoter of good +conduct that the ingenuity of man has yet devised, for the reason that +its lessons are not taught wearily by book and by dreary homily, but by +visible and enthusing action; and they go straight to the heart, which is +the rightest of right places for them. Book morals often get no further +than the intellect, if they even get that far on their spectral and +shadowy pilgrimage: but when they travel from a Children's Theatre they +do not stop permanently at that halfway house, but go on home. + +The children's theatre is the only teacher of morals and conduct and high +ideals that never bores the pupil, but always leaves him sorry when the +lesson is over. And as for history, no other teacher is for a moment +comparable to it: no other can make the dead heroes of the world rise up +and shake the dust of the ages from their bones and live and move and +breathe and speak and be real to the looker and listener: no other can +make the study of the lives and times of the illustrious dead a delight, +a splendid interest, a passion; and no other can paint a history-lesson +in colors that will stay, and stay, and never fade. + +It is my conviction that the children's theatre is one of the very, very +great inventions of the twentieth century; and that its vast educational +value--now but dimly perceived and but vaguely understood--will presently +come to be recognized. By the article which I have been reading I find +the same things happening in the Howland School that we have become +familiar with in our Children's Theatre (of which I am President, and +sufficiently vain of the distinction.) These things among others; + +1. The educating history-study does not stop with the little players, +but the whole school catches the infection and revels in it. + +2. And it doesn't even stop there; the children carry it home and infect +the family with it--even the parents and grandparents; and the whole +household fall to studying history, and bygone manners and customs and +costumes with eager interest. And this interest is carried along to the +studying of costumes in old book-plates; and beyond that to the selecting +of fabrics and the making of clothes. Hundreds of our children learn, +the plays by listening without book, and by making notes; then the +listener goes home and plays the piece--all the parts! to the family. +And the family are glad and proud; glad to listen to the explanations and +analyses, glad to learn, glad to be lifted to planes above their dreary +workaday lives. Our children's theatre is educating 7,000 children--and +their families. When we put on a play of Shakespeare they fall to +studying it diligently; so that they may be qualified to enjoy it to the +limit when the piece is staged. + +3. Your Howland School children do the construction-work, stage- +decorations, etc. That is our way too. Our young folks do everything +that is needed by the theatre, with their own hands; scene-designing, +scene-painting, gas-fitting, electric work, costume-designing--costume +making, everything and all things indeed--and their orchestra and its +leader are from their own ranks. + +The article which I have been reading, says--speaking of the historical +play produced by the pupils of the Howland School-- + +"The question naturally arises, What has this drama done for those who so +enthusiastically took part?--The touching story has made a year out of +the Past live for the children as could no chronology or bald statement +of historical events; it has cultivated the fancy and given to the +imagination strength and purity; work in composition has ceased to be +drudgery, for when all other themes fall flat a subject dealing with some +aspect of the drama presented never fails to arouse interest and a rapid +pushing of pens over paper." + +That is entirely true. The interest is not confined to the drama's +story, it spreads out all around the period of the story, and gives to +all the outlying and unrelated happenings of that period a fascinating +interest--an interest which does not fade out with the years, but remains +always fresh, always inspiring, always welcome. History-facts dug by the +job, with sweat and tears out of a dry and spiritless text-book--but +never mind, all who have suffered know what that is. . . + I remain, dear madam, + Sincerely yours, + S. L. CLEMENS. + + + Mark Twain had a special fondness for cats. As a boy he always + owned one and it generally had a seat beside him at the table. + There were cats at Quarry Farm and at Hartford, and in the house at + Redding there was a gray mother-cat named Tammany, of which he was + especially fond. Kittens capering about were his chief delight. + In a letter to a Chicago woman he tells how those of Tammany + assisted at his favorite game. + + + To Mrs. Mabel Larkin Patterson, in Chicago: + + REDDING, CONNECTICUT, + Oct. 2, '08. +DEAR MRS. PATTERSON,--The contents of your letter are very pleasant and +very welcome, and I thank you for them, sincerely. If I can find a +photograph of my "Tammany" and her kittens, I will enclose it in this. + +One of them likes to be crammed into a corner-pocket of the billiard +table--which he fits as snugly as does a finger in a glove and then he +watches the game (and obstructs it) by the hour, and spoils many a shot +by putting out his paw and changing the direction of a passing ball. +Whenever a ball is in his arms, or so close to him that it cannot be +played upon without risk of hurting him, the player is privileged to +remove it to anyone of the 3 spots that chances to be vacant. + +Ah, no, my lecturing days are over for good and all. + Sincerely yours, + S. L. CLEMENS. + + + The letter to Howells which follows was written a short time before + the passage of the copyright extension bill, which rendered Mark + Twain's new plan, here mentioned, unneeded--at least for the time. + + + To W. D. Howells, in New York: + + Monday, Oct. 26, '08. +Oh, I say! Where are you hiding, and why are you hiding? You promised +to come here and you didn't keep your word. (This sounds like +astonishment--but don't be misled by that.) + +Come, fire up again on your fiction-mill and give us another good +promise. And this time keep it--for it is your turn to be astonished. +Come and stay as long as you possibly can. I invented a new copyright +extension scheme last Friday, and sat up all night arranging its details. +It will interest you. Yesterday I got it down on paper in as compact a +form as I could. Harvey and I have examined the scheme, and to-morrow or +next day he will send me a couple of copyright-experts to arrange about +getting certain statistics for me. + +Authors, publishers and the public have always been damaged by the +copyright laws. The proposed amendment will advantage all three--the +public most of all. I think Congress will pass it and settle the vexed +question permanently. + +I shall need your assent and the assent of about a dozen other authors. +Also the assent of all the large firms of the 300 publishers. These +authors and publishers will furnish said assent I am sure. Not even the +pirates will be able to furnish a serious objection, I think. + +Come along. This place seemed at its best when all around was summer- +green; later it seemed at its best when all around was burning with the +autumn splendors; and now once more it seems at its best, with the trees +naked and the ground a painter's palette. + Yours ever, + MARK. + + + Clemens was a great admirer of the sea stories of W. W. Jacobs and + generally kept one or more of this author's volumes in reach of his + bed, where most of his reading was done. The acknowledgment that + follows was sent when he had finished Salthaven. + + + To W. W. Jacobs, in England: + + REDDING, CONN, + Oct. 28, '08. +DEAR MR. JACOBS,--It has a delightful look. I will not venture to say +how delightful, because the words would sound extravagant, and would +thereby lose some of their strength and to that degree misrepresent me. +It is my conviction that Dialstone Lane holds the supremacy over all +purely humorous books in our language, but I feel about Salthaven as the +Cape Cod poet feels about Simon Hanks: + + "The Lord knows all things, great and small, + With doubt he's not perplexed: + 'Tis Him alone that knows it all + But Simon Hanks comes next." + +The poet was moved by envy and malice and jealousy, but I am not: I place +Salthaven close up next to Dialstone because I think it has a fair and +honest right to that high position. I have kept the other book moving; +I shall begin to hand this one around now. + +And many thanks to you for remembering me. + +This house is out in the solitudes of the woods and the hills, an hour +and a half from New York, and I mean to stay in it winter and summer the +rest of my days. I beg you to come and help occupy it a few days the +next time you visit the U.S. + Sincerely yours, + S. L. CLEMENS. + + + One of the attractions of Stormfield was a beautiful mantel in the + billiard room, presented by the Hawaiian Promotion Committee. It + had not arrived when the rest of the house was completed, but came + in time to be set in place early in the morning of the owner's + seventy-third birthday. It was made of a variety of Hawaiian woods, + and was the work of a native carver, F. M. Otremba. Clemens was + deeply touched by the offering from those "western isles"--the + memory of which was always so sweet to him. + + + To Mr. Wood, in Hawaii: + + Nov. 30, '08. +DEAR MR. WOOD,--The beautiful mantel was put in its place an hour ago, +and its friendly "Aloha" was the first uttered greeting my 73rd birthday +received. It is rich in color, rich in quality, and rich in decoration, +therefore it exactly harmonizes with the taste for such things which was +born in me and which I have seldom been able to indulge to my content. +It will be a great pleasure to me, daily renewed, to have under my eye +this lovely reminder of the loveliest fleet of islands that lies anchored +in any ocean, and I beg to thank the Committee for providing me that +pleasure. + Sincerely Yours, + S. L. CLEMENS. + + + + +XLVII + +LETTERS, 1909. TO HOWELLS AND OTHERS. LIFE AT STORMFIELD. COPYRIGHT +EXTENSION. DEATH OF JEAN CLEMENS + + Clemens remained at Stormfield all that winter. New York was sixty + miles away and he did not often care to make the journey. He was + constantly invited to this or that public gathering, or private + party, but such affairs had lost interest for him. He preferred the + quiet of his luxurious home with its beautiful outlook, while for + entertainment he found the billiard afternoons sufficient. Guests + came from the city, now and again, for week-end visits, and if he + ever was restless or lonely he did not show it. + + Among the invitations that came was one from General O. O. Howard + asking him to preside at a meeting to raise an endowment fund for a + Lincoln Memorial University at Cumberland Gap, Tennessee. Closing + his letter, General Howard said, "Never mind if you did fight on the + other side." + + + To General O. O. Howard: + + STORMFIELD, REDDING, CONNECTICUT, + Jan, 12, '09. +DEAR GENERAL HOWARD,--You pay me a most gratifying compliment in asking +me to preside, and it causes me very real regret that I am obliged to +decline, for the object of the meeting appeals strongly to me, since that +object is to aid in raising the $500,000 Endowment Fund for Lincoln +Memorial University. The Endowment Fund will be the most fitting of all +the memorials the country will dedicate to the memory of Lincoln, +serving, as it will, to uplift his very own people. + +I hope you will meet with complete success, and I am sorry I cannot be +there to witness it and help you rejoice. But I am older than people +think, and besides I live away out in the country and never stir from +home, except at geological intervals, to fill left-over engagements in +mesozoic times when I was younger and indiscreeter. + +You ought not to say sarcastic things about my "fighting on the other +side." General Grant did not act like that. General Grant paid me +compliments. He bracketed me with Zenophon--it is there in his Memoirs +for anybody to read. He said if all the confederate soldiers had +followed my example and adopted my military arts he could never have +caught enough of them in a bunch to inconvenience the Rebellion. General +Grant was a fair man, and recognized my worth; but you are prejudiced, +and you have hurt my feelings. + But I have an affection for you, anyway. + MARK TWAIN. + + + One of Mark Twain's friends was Henniker-Heaton, the so-called + "Father of Penny Postage" between England and America. When, after + long years of effort, he succeeded in getting the rate established, + he at once bent his energies in the direction of cheap cable service + and a letter from him came one day to Stormfield concerning his new + plans. This letter happened to be over-weight, which gave Mark + Twain a chance for some amusing exaggerations at his expense. + + + To Henniker-Heaton, in London: + + STORMFIELD, REDDING, CONNECTICUT, + Jan. 18, 1909. +DEAR HENNIKER-HEATON,--I do hope you will succeed to your heart's desire +in your cheap-cablegram campaign, and I feel sure you will. Indeed your +cheap-postage victory, achieved in spite of a quarter-century of +determined opposition, is good and rational prophecy that you will. +Wireless, not being as yet imprisoned in a Chinese wall of private cash +and high-placed and formidable influence, will come to your aid and make +your new campaign briefer and easier than the other one was. + +Now then, after uttering my serious word, am I privileged to be frivolous +for a moment? When you shall have achieved cheap telegraphy, are you +going to employ it for just your own selfish profit and other people's +pecuniary damage, the way you are doing with your cheap postage? You get +letter-postage reduced to 2 cents an ounce, then you mail me a 4-ounce +letter with a 2-cent stamp on it, and I have to pay the extra freight at +this end of the line. I return your envelope for inspection. Look at +it. Stamped in one place is a vast "T," and under it the figures "40," +and under those figures appears an "L," a sinister and suspicious and +mysterious L. In another place, stamped within a circle, in offensively +large capitals, you find the words "DUE 8 CENTS." Finally, in the midst +of a desert space up nor-noreastard from that circle you find a figure +"3" of quite unnecessarily aggressive and insolent magnitude--and done +with a blue pencil, so as to be as conspicuous as possible. I inquired +about these strange signs and symbols of the postman. He said they were +P. O. Department signals for his instruction. + +"Instruction for what?" + +"To get extra postage." + +"Is it so? Explain. Tell me about the large T and the 40. + +"It's short for Take 40--or as we postmen say, grab 40" + +Go on, please, while I think up some words to swear with." + +"Due 8 means, grab 8 more." + +"Continue." + +"The blue-pencil 3 was an afterthought. There aren't any stamps for +afterthoughts; the sums vary, according to inspiration, and they whirl in +the one that suggests itself at the last moment. Sometimes they go +several times higher than this one. This one only means hog 3 cents +more. And so if you've got 51 cents about you, or can borrow it--" + +"Tell me: who gets this corruption?" + +"Half of it goes to the man in England who ships the letter on short +postage, and the other half goes to the P.O.D. to protect cheap postage +from inaugurating a deficit." + +"-------------------" + +"I can't blame you; I would say it myself in your place, if these ladies +were not present. But you see I'm only obeying orders, I can't help +myself." + +"Oh, I know it; I'm not blaming you. Finally, what does that L stand +for?" + +"Get the money, or give him L. It's English, you know." + +"Take it and go. It's the last cent I've got in the world--." + +After seeing the Oxford pageant file by the grand stand, picture after +picture, splendor after splendor, three thousand five hundred strong, the +most moving and beautiful and impressive and historically-instructive +show conceivable, you are not to think I would miss the London pageant of +next year, with its shining host of 15,000 historical English men and +women dug from the misty books of all the vanished ages and marching in +the light of the sun--all alive, and looking just as they were used to +look! Mr. Lascelles spent yesterday here on the farm, and told me all +about it. I shall be in the middle of my 75th year then, and interested +in pageants for personal and prospective reasons. + +I beg you to give my best thanks to the Bath Club for the offer of its +hospitalities, but I shall not be able to take advantage of it, because I +am to be a guest in a private house during my stay in London. + Sincerely yours, + S. L. CLEMENS. + + + It was in 1907 that Clemens had seen the Oxford Pageant--during the + week when he had been awarded his doctor's degree. It gave him the + greatest delight, and he fully expected to see the next one, planned + for 1910. + + In the letter to Howells which follows we get another glimpse of + Mark Twain's philosophy of man, the irresponsible machine. + + + To W. D. Howells, in New York: + + STORMFIELD, REDDING, CONN., + Jan. 18, '09. +DEAR HOWELLS,--I have to write a line, lazy as I am, to say how your Poe +article delighted me; and to say that I am in agreement with +substantially all you say about his literature. To me his prose is +unreadable--like Jane Austin's. No, there is a difference. I could read +his prose on salary, but not Jane's. Jane is entirely impossible. It +seems a great pity that they allowed her to die a natural death. + +Another thing: you grant that God and circumstances sinned against Poe, +but you also grant that he sinned against himself--a thing which he +couldn't do and didn't do. + +It is lively up here now. I wish you could come. + Yrs ever, + MARK + + + To W. D. Howells, in New York: + + STORMFIELD, REDDING, CONNECTICUT, + 3 in the morning, Apl. 17, '09. + [Written with pencil]. +My pen has gone dry and the ink is out of reach. Howells, Did you write +me day-before-day before yesterday, or did I dream it? In my mind's eye +I most vividly see your hand-write on a square blue envelop in the +mailpile. I have hunted the house over, but there is no such letter. +Was it an illusion? + +I am reading Lowell's letter, and smoking. I woke an hour ago and am +reading to keep from wasting the time. On page 305, vol. I. I have +just margined a note: + +"Young friend! I like that! You ought to see him now." + +It seemed startlingly strange to hear a person call you young. It was a +brick out of a blue sky, and knocked me groggy for a moment. Ah me, the +pathos of it is, that we were young then. And he--why, so was he, but he +didn't know it. He didn't even know it 9 years later, when we saw him +approaching and you warned me, saying, "Don't say anything about age--he +has just turned fifty, and thinks he is old and broods over it." + +[Well, Clara did sing! And you wrote her a dear letter.] + +Time to go to sleep. + Yours ever, + MARK. + + + To Daniel Kiefer: + + [No date.] +DANL KIEFER ESQ. DEAR SIR,--I should be far from willing to have a +political party named after me. + +I would not be willing to belong to a party which allowed its members to +have political aspirations or to push friends forward for political +preferment. + Yours very truly, + S. L. CLEMENS. + + + The copyright extension, for which the author had been working so + long, was granted by Congress in 1909, largely as the result of that + afternoon in Washington when Mark Twain had "received" in "Uncle + Joe" Cannon's private room, and preached the gospel of copyright + until the daylight faded and the rest of the Capitol grew still. + Champ Clark was the last to linger that day and they had talked far + into the dusk. Clark was powerful, and had fathered the bill. Now + he wrote to know if it was satisfactory. + + + To Champ Clark, in Washington: + + STORMFIELD, REDDING, CONN., June 5, '09. +DEAR CHAMP CLARK--Is the new copyright law acceptable to me? +Emphatically, yes! Clark, it is the only sane, and clearly defined, and +just and righteous copyright law that has ever existed in the United +States. Whosoever will compare it with its predecessors will have no +trouble in arriving at that decision. + +The bill which was before the committee two years ago when I was down +there was the most stupefying jumble of conflicting and apparently +irreconcilable interests that was ever seen; and we all said "the case is +hopeless, absolutely hopeless--out of this chaos nothing can be built." +But we were in error; out of that chaotic mass this excellent bill has +been instructed; the warring interests have been reconciled, and the +result is as comely and substantial a legislative edifice as lifts its +domes and towers and protective lightning rods out of the statute book, +I think. When I think of that other bill, which even the Deity couldn't +understand, and of this one which even I can understand, I take off my +hat to the man or men who devised this one. Was it R. U. Johnson? Was +it the Author's League? Was it both together? I don't know, but I take +off my hat, anyway. Johnson has written a valuable article about the new +law--I enclose it. + +At last--at last and for the first time in copyright history we are ahead +of England! Ahead of her in two ways: by length of time and by fairness +to all interests concerned. Does this sound like shouting? Then I must +modify it: all we possessed of copyright-justice before the fourth of +last March we owed to England's initiative. + Truly Yours, + S. L. CLEMENS. + + + Because Mark Twain amused himself with certain aspects of Christian + Science, and was critical of Mrs. Eddy, there grew up a wide + impression that he jeered at the theory of mental healing; when, as + a matter of fact, he was one of its earliest converts, and never + lost faith in its power. The letter which follows is an excellent + exposition of his attitude toward the institution of Christian + Science and the founder of the church in America. + + + To J. Wylie Smith, Glasgow, Scotland: + + "STORMFIELD," August 7, 1909 +DEAR SIR,--My view of the matter has not changed. To wit, that Christian +Science is valuable; that it has just the same value now that it had when +Mrs. Eddy stole it from Quimby; that its healing principle (its most +valuable asset) possesses the same force now that it possessed a million +years ago before Quimby was born; that Mrs. Eddy. . . organized that +force, and is entitled to high credit for that. Then, with a splendid +sagacity she hitched it to. . . a religion, the surest of all ways to +secure friends for it, and support. In a fine and lofty way-- +figuratively speaking--it was a tramp stealing a ride on the lightning +express. Ah, how did that ignorant village-born peasant woman know the +human being so well? She has no more intellect than a tadpole--until it +comes to business then she is a marvel! Am I sorry I wrote the book? +Most certainly not. You say you have 500 (converts) in Glasgow. Fifty +years from now, your posterity will not count them by the hundred, but by +the thousand. I feel absolutely sure of this. + Very truly yours, + S. L. CLEMENS. + + + Clemens wrote very little for publication that year, but he enjoyed + writing for his own amusement, setting down the things that boiled, + or bubbled, within him: mainly chapters on the inconsistencies of + human deportment, human superstition and human creeds. The "Letters + from the Earth" referred to in the following, were supposed to have + been written by an immortal visitant from some far realm to a + friend, describing the absurdities of mankind. It is true, as he + said, that they would not do for publication, though certainly the + manuscript contains some of his mgt delicious writing. Miss + Wallace, to whom the next letter is written, had known Mark Twain in + Bermuda, and, after his death, published a dainty volume entitled + Mark Twain in the Happy Island. + + + "STORMFIELD," REDDING, CONNECTICUT, + Nov. 13, '09. +DEAR BETSY,--I've been writing "Letters from the Earth," and if you will +come here and see us I will--what? Put the MS in your hands, with the +places to skip marked? No. I won't trust you quite that far. I'll read +messages to you. This book will never be published--in fact it couldn't +be, because it would be felony to soil the mails with it, for it has much +Holy Scripture in it of the kind that . . . can't properly be read +aloud, except from the pulpit and in family worship. Paine enjoys it, +but Paine is going to be damned one of these days, I suppose. + +The autumn splendors passed you by? What a pity. I wish you had been +here. It was beyond words! It was heaven and hell and sunset and +rainbows and the aurora all fused into one divine harmony, and you +couldn't look at it and keep the tears back. All the hosannahing strong +gorgeousnesses have gone back to heaven and hell and the pole, now, but +no matter; if you could look out of my bedroom window at this moment, you +would choke up; and when you got your voice you would say: This is not +real, this is a dream. Such a singing together, and such a whispering +together, and such a snuggling together of cosy soft colors, and such +kissing and caressing, and such pretty blushing when the sun breaks out +and catches those dainty weeds at it--you remember that weed-garden of +mine?--and then--then the far hills sleeping in a dim blue trance--oh, +hearing about it is nothing, you should be here to see it. + +Good! I wish I could go on the platform and read. And I could, if it +could be kept out of the papers. There's a charity-school of 400 young +girls in Boston that I would give my ears to talk to, if I had some more; +but--oh, well, I can't go, and it's no use to grieve about it. + +This morning Jean went to town; also Paine; also the butler; also Katy; +also the laundress. The cook and the maid, and the boy and the +roustabout and Jean's coachman are left--just enough to make it lonesome, +because they are around yet never visible. However, the Harpers are +sending Leigh up to play billiards; therefore I shall survive. + Affectionately, + S. L. CLEMENS. + + + Early in June that year, Clemens had developed unmistakable symptoms + of heart trouble of a very serious nature. It was angina pectoris, + and while to all appearances he was as well as ever and usually felt + so, he was periodically visited by severe attacks of acute "breast + pains" which, as the months passed, increased in frequency and + severity. He was alarmed and distressed--not on his own account, + but because of his daughter Jean--a handsome girl, who had long been + subject to epileptic seizures. In case of his death he feared that + Jean would be without permanent anchorage, his other daughter, + Clara--following her marriage to Ossip Gabrilowitsch in October-- + having taken up residence abroad. + + This anxiety was soon ended. On the morning of December 24th, jean + Clemens was found dead in her apartment. She was not drowned in her + bath, as was reported, but died from heart exhaustion, the result of + her malady and the shock of cold water. + [Questionable diagnosis! D.W.] + + The blow to her father was terrible, but heavy as it was, one may + perhaps understand that her passing in that swift, painless way must + have afforded him a measure of relief. + + + To Mrs. Gabrilowitsch, in Europe: + + REDDING, CONN., + Dec. 29, '09. +O, Clara, Clara dear, I am so glad she is out of it and safe--safe! I am +not melancholy; I shall never be melancholy again, I think. You see, I +was in such distress when I came to realize that you were gone far away +and no one stood between her and danger but me--and I could die at any +moment, and then--oh then what would become of her! For she was wilful, +you know, and would not have been governable. + +You can't imagine what a darling she was, that last two or three days; +and how fine, and good, and sweet, and noble-and joyful, thank Heaven!-- +and how intellectually brilliant. I had never been acquainted with Jean +before. I recognized that. + +But I mustn't try to write about her--I can't. I have already poured my +heart out with the pen, recording that last day or two. + +I will send you that--and you must let no one but Ossip read it. + +Good-bye. + I love you so! + And Ossip. + FATHER. + + +The writing mentioned in the last paragraph was his article 'The Death of +Jean,' his last serious writing, and one of the world's most beautiful +examples of elegiac prose.--[Harper's Magazine, Dec., 1910,] and later in +the volume, 'What Is Man and Other Essays.' + + + + +XLVIII + +LETTERS OF 1910. LAST TRIP TO BERMUDA. LETTERS TO PAINE. +THE LAST LETTER + + Mark Twain had returned from a month's trip to Bermuda a few days + before Jean died. Now, by his physician's advice, he went back to + those balmy islands. He had always loved them, since his first trip + there with Twichell thirty-three years earlier, and at "Bay House," + the residence of Vice-Consul Allen, where he was always a welcome + guest, he could have the attentions and care and comforts of a home. + Taking Claude, the butler, as his valet, he sailed January 5th, and + presently sent back a letter in which he said, "Again I am leading + the ideal life, and am immeasurably content." + + By his wish, the present writer and his family were keeping the + Stormfield house open for him, in order that he might be able to + return to its comforts at any time. He sent frequent letters--one + or two by each steamer--but as a rule they did not concern matters + of general interest. A little after his arrival, however, he wrote + concerning an incident of his former visit--a trivial matter--but + one which had annoyed him. I had been with him in Bermuda on the + earlier visit, and as I remember it, there had been some slight + oversight on his part in the matter of official etiquette--something + which doubtless no one had noticed but himself. + + + To A. B. Paine, in Redding: + + BAY HOUSE, Jan. 11, 1910. + +DEAR PAINE,--. . . There was a military lecture last night at the +Officer's Mess, prospect, and as the lecturer honored me with a special +and urgent invitation and said he wanted to lecture to me particularly, +I being "the greatest living master of the platform-art," I naturally +packed Helen and her mother into the provided carriage and went. + +As soon as we landed at the door with the crowd the Governor came to me +at once and was very cordial, and apparently as glad to see me as he said +he was. So that incident is closed. And pleasantly and entirely +satisfactorily. Everything is all right, now, and I am no longer in a +clumsy and awkward situation. + +I "met up" with that charming Colonel Chapman, and other officers of the +regiment, and had a good time. + +Commandant Peters of the "Carnegie" will dine here tonight and arrange a +private visit for us to his ship, the crowd to be denied access. + Sincerely Yours, + S. L. C. + + + "Helen" of this letter was Mr. and Mrs. Allen's young daughter, + a favorite companion of his walks and drives. "Loomis" and "Lark," + mentioned in the letters which follow, were Edward E. Loomis--his + nephew by marriage--named by Mark Twain as one of the trustees of + his estate, and Charles T. Lark, Mark Twain's attorney. + + + To A. B. Paine, in Redding: + + HAMILTON, Jan. 21, '10. +DEAR PAINE,--Thanks for your letter, and for its contenting news of the +situation in that foreign and far-off and vaguely-remembered country +where you and Loomis and Lark and other beloved friends are. + +I have a letter from Clara this morning. She is solicitous, and wants me +well and watchfully taken care of. My, she ought to see Helen and her +parents and Claude administer that trust! + +Also she says: "I hope to hear from you or Mr. Paine very soon." + +I am writing her, and I know you will respond to your part of her prayer. +She is pretty desolate now, after Jean's emancipation--the only kindness +God ever did that poor unoffending child in all her hard life. + Ys ever + S. L. C. + + + Send Clara a copy of Howells's gorgeous letter. I want a copy of my + article that he is speaking of. + + + The "gorgeous letter" was concerning Mark Twain's article, "The + Turning-point in My Life" which had just appeared in one of the + Harper publications. Howells wrote of it, "While your wonderful + words are warm in my mind yet, I want to tell you what you know + already: that you never wrote anything greater, finer, than that + turning-point paper of yours." + + From the early Bermuda letters we may gather that Mark Twain's days + were enjoyable enough, and that his malady was not giving him + serious trouble, thus far. Near the end of January he wrote: "Life + continues here the same as usual. There isn't a flaw in it. Good + times, good home, tranquil contentment all day and every day, + without a break. I shouldn't know how to go about bettering my + situation." He did little in the way of literary work, probably + finding neither time nor inclination for it. When he wrote at all + it was merely to set down some fanciful drolleries with no thought + of publication. + + + To Prof. William Lyon Phelps, Yale College: + + HAMILTON, March 12. +DEAR PROFESSOR PHELPS,--I thank you ever so much for the book--[Professor +Phelps's Essays on Modern Novelists.]--which I find charming--so charming +indeed, that I read it through in a single night, and did not regret the +lost night's sleep. I am glad if I deserve what you have said about me: +and even if I don't I am proud and well contented, since you think I +deserve it. + +Yes, I saw Prof. Lounsbury, and had a most pleasant time with him. He +ought to have staid longer in this little paradise--partly for his own +sake, but mainly for mine. + +I knew my poor Jean had written you. I shall not have so dear and sweet +a secretary again. + +Good health to you, and all good fortune attend you. + Sincerely yours, + S. L. CLEMENS. + + + He would appear to have written not many letters besides those to + Mrs. Gabrilowitsch and to Stormfield, but when a little girl sent + him a report of a dream, inspired by reading The Prince and the + Pauper, he took the time and trouble to acknowledge it, realizing, + no doubt, that a line from him would give the child happiness. + + + To Miss Sulamith, in New York: + + "BAY HOUSE," BERMUDA, March 21, 1910. +DEAR MISS SULAMITH,--I think it is a remarkable dream for a girl of 13 to +have dreamed, in fact for a person of any age to have dreamed, because it +moves by regular grade and sequence from the beginning to the end, which +is not the habit of dreams. I think your report of it is a good piece of +work, a clear and effective statement of the vision. + +I am glad to know you like the "Prince and the Pauper" so well and I +believe with you that the dream is good evidence of that liking. I think +I may say, with your sister that I like myself best when I am serious. + Sincerely yours, + S. L. CLEMENS. + + + Through February, and most of March, letters and reports from him + were about the same. He had begun to plan for his return, and + concerning amusements at Stormfield for the entertainment of the + neighbors, and for the benefit of the library which he had founded + soon after his arrival in Redding. In these letters he seldom + mentioned the angina pains that had tortured him earlier. But once, + when he sent a small photograph of himself, it seemed to us that his + face had become thin and that he had suffered. Certainly his next + letter was not reassuring. + + + To A. B. Paine, in Redding: + +DEAR PAINE,--We must look into the magic-lantern business. Maybe the +modern lantern is too elaborate and troublesome for back-settlement use, +but we can inquire. We must have some kind of a show at "Stormfield" to +entertain the countryside with. + +We are booked to sail in the "Bermudian" April 23rd, but don't tell +anybody, I don't want it known. I may have to go sooner if the pain in +my breast doesn't mend its ways pretty considerably. I don't want to die +here for this is an unkind place for a person in that condition. I +should have to lie in the undertaker's cellar until the ship would remove +me and it is dark down there and unpleasant. + +The Colliers will meet me on the pier and I may stay with them a week or +two before going home. It all depends on the breast pain--I don't want +to die there. I am growing more and more particular about the place. + With love, + S. L. C. + + + This letter had been written by the hand of his "secretary," Helen + Allen: writing had become an effort to him. Yet we did not suspect + how rapidly the end was approaching and only grew vaguely alarmed. + A week later, however, it became evident that his condition was + critical. + + +DEAR PAINE,--. . . . I have been having a most uncomfortable time for +the past 4 days with that breast-pain, which turns out to be an affection +of the heart, just as I originally suspected. The news from New York is +to the effect that non-bronchial weather has arrived there at last, +therefore if I can get my breast trouble in traveling condition I may +sail for home a week or two earlier than has heretofore been proposed: + Yours as ever + S. L. CLEMENS, + (per H. S. A.) + + + In this letter he seems to have forgotten that his trouble had been + pronounced an affection of the heart long before he left America, + though at first it had been thought that it might be gastritis. + The same mail brought a letter from Mr. Allen explaining fully the + seriousness of his condition. I sailed immediately for Bermuda, + arriving there on the 4th of April. He was not suffering at the + moment, though the pains came now with alarming frequency and + violence. He was cheerful and brave. He did not complain. He gave + no suggestion of a man whose days were nearly ended. + + A part of the Stormfield estate had been a farm, which he had given + to Jean Clemens, where she had busied herself raising some live + stock and poultry. After her death he had wished the place to be + sold and the returns devoted to some memorial purpose. The sale had + been made during the winter and the price received had been paid in + cash. I found him full of interest in all affairs, and anxious to + discuss the memorial plan. A day or two later he dictated the + following letter-the last he would ever send. + + It seemed fitting that this final word from one who had so long + given happiness to the whole world should record a special gift to + his neighbors. + + + To Charles T. Lark, in New York: + + HAMILTON, BERMUDA. + April 6, 1910. +DEAR MR. LARK,--I have told Paine that I want the money derived from the +sale of the farm, which I had given, but not conveyed, to my daughter +Jean, to be used to erect a building for the Mark Twain Library of +Redding, the building to be called the Jean L. Clemens Memorial Building. + +I wish to place the money $6,000.00 in the hands of three trustees,-- +Paine and two others: H. A. Lounsbury and William E. Hazen, all of +Redding, these trustees to form a building Committee to decide on the +size and plan of the building needed and to arrange for and supervise the +work in such a manner that the fund shall amply provide for the building +complete, with necessary furnishings, leaving, if possible, a balance +remaining, sufficient for such repairs and additional furnishings as may +be required for two years from the time of completion. + +Will you please draw a document covering these requirements and have it +ready by the time I reach New York (April 14th). + Very sincerely, + S. L. CLEMENS. + + + We sailed on the 12th of April, reaching New York on the 14th, + as he had planned. A day or two later, Mr. and Mrs. Gabrilowitsch, + summoned from Italy by cable, arrived. He suffered very little + after reaching Stormfield, and his mind was comparatively clear up + to the last day. On the afternoon of April 21st he sank into a + state of coma, and just at sunset he died. Three days later, at + Elmira, New York, he was laid beside Mrs. Clemens and those others + who had preceded him. + + + + + THE LAST DAY AT STORMFIELD + + By BLISS CARMAN. + + At Redding, Connecticut, + The April sunrise pours + Over the hardwood ridges + Softening and greening now + In the first magic of Spring. + + The wild cherry-trees are in bloom, + The bloodroot is white underfoot, + The serene early light flows on, + Touching with glory the world, + And flooding the large upper room + Where a sick man sleeps. + Slowly he opens his eyes, + After long weariness, smiles, + And stretches arms overhead, + While those about him take heart. + + With his awakening strength, + (Morning and spring in the air, + The strong clean scents of earth, + The call of the golden shaft, + Ringing across the hills) + He takes up his heartening book, + Opens the volume and reads, + A page of old rugged Carlyle, + The dour philosopher + Who looked askance upon life, + Lurid, ironical, grim, + Yet sound at the core. + But weariness returns; + He lays the book aside + With his glasses upon the bed, + And gladly sleeps. Sleep, + Blessed abundant sleep, + Is all that he needs. + + And when the close of day + Reddens upon the hills + And washes the room with rose, + In the twilight hush + The Summoner comes to him + Ever so gently, unseen, + Touches him on the shoulder; + And with the departing sun + Our great funning friend is gone. + + How he has made us laugh! + A whole generation of men + Smiled in the joy of his wit. + But who knows whether he was not + Like those deep jesters of old + Who dwelt at the courts of Kings, + Arthur's, Pendragon's, Lear's, + Plying the wise fool's trade, + Making men merry at will, + Hiding their deeper thoughts + Under a motley array,-- + Keen-eyed, serious men, + Watching the sorry world, + The gaudy pageant of life, + With pity and wisdom and love? + + Fearless, extravagant, wild, + His caustic merciless mirth + Was leveled at pompous shams. + Doubt not behind that mask + There dwelt the soul of a man, + Resolute, sorrowing, sage, + As sure a champion of good + As ever rode forth to fray. + + Haply--who knows?--somewhere + In Avalon, Isle of Dreams, + In vast contentment at last, + With every grief done away, + While Chaucer and Shakespeare wait, + And Moliere hangs on his words, + And Cervantes not far off + Listens and smiles apart, + With that incomparable drawl + He is jesting with Dagonet now. + + [Copyright, 1910, by Collier's Weekly.] + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Letters Vol. 6 by Mark Twain + |