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 Ideserve 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.