Entry for 6 April 1876

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Jamie went to was at home when I arrived. He had enjoyed a most successful trip, though the road was frightfully washed away by the floods, and huge tressle-bridges quivered under the weight of the train as the carriages passed over. It was a fearful and a sad sight

He found Mrs Clemmens quite ill. They had been in N.Y. where he had given 4 lectures hoping to get money for Dr. Brown.1explanatory note He had never lectured there before without making a great deal of money. This time he barely covered his expenses. He was very interesting and told J. the whole story of his life. They sat until midnight after the lecture, Mark, drinking ale to make him sleep. He says he can’t sleep as other people do his kind of sleep is the only sort for him; 3 or 4 hours of good solid comfort—more than that makes him ill, he cant afford to sleep all his thoughts away—He described the hunger of his childhood for books—how the Fortunes of Nigel2explanatory note was one of the first stories which came to him while he was learning to be a pilot on a Mississippi boat. He hid himself with it behind a barrel where he was found by the Master who read him a lecture upon the ruinous effects of reading “Ive seen it over and over agin he said ye’re neednt tell me anythin’ about it if yurre going to be a pilot on this ere river ye’se needn’t ever think of reading for it jist spils all—Yese can’t remember how high the tide was in Can’s Gut three trips before the last now, I’ll wager—” [“]Why no, said Mark, that was six months ago.” “I don’t care ef t’was said the man, if ye’se hadn’t been spiling yo’re mind by readin’ ye’d have remembered.” So he was never allowed to read anymore after that. “And now says Mark not being able to have it when I was hungry for it I can only read the Encyclopedia now-a days.” Which is not true, he reads everything—

The story of his courtship and marriage too was very strange and interesting. A portion of this has however leaked into the daily papers so I will not repeat it here. One point interested me very much however, as showing the strength of character and rightness of vision in the man. He said he had not been married many months when his wife’s father came to him one evening and said “My son, wouldn’t you like to go to Europe with your wife?[”] Why yes Sir he said I would if I could afford it—Well then said he if you will leave off smoking and drinking ale you shall have ten thousand dollars this next year and go to Europe beside—Thank you, Sir, said Mark, this is very good of you and I appreciate it but I can’t sell myself. I will do anything I can for you or any of your family but I can’t sell myself—The result was said Mark I never smoked a cigar all that year nor drank a glass of ale—but when the next year came I found I must write a book and when I sat down to write I found it wasn’t worth anything, I must have a cigar to steady my nerves. I began to smoked and I wrote my book, but then I couldnt sleep and I had to drink ale to go to sleep—now if I had sold myself I couldnt have written my book or else I couldnt have gone to sleep, but now everything works perfectly well3explanatory note

He and his wife have wretched health, poor things! And in spite of their beautiful home must often have rather a hard time. He is very eccentric, disturbed by every noise and it cannot be altogether easy to take care of such a man. It is a very loving household though Mrs Clemmens mother Mrs Langdon hardly knows what to make of him sometimes it is quite evident.

Entry for 27–29 April 1876

Thursday—April 27. I had arranged to go with Mary Lodge to the North End to see poor people today,4explanatory note but she sent her maid in early to say her mother had been so ill all night that she had scarcely touched her bed since we parted and she should not go—I was glad for I was weary—I cannot say with what, but I dreaded the excitement and labor of a North End Tour with the other plans we had onhand So I read and wrote letters until it was time to pack my bag to go to Hartford with dear J. Mean while he was lecturing before the Boston University whence he returned at noon laden with an exquisite bouquet one of the largest I ever saw.

We lunched and at 3 P.M. were en route for Hartford. I slept and read Mr. Tom Appleton’s journal on the Nile5explanatory note and looked out at the sunset and the touches of spring in the hollows, each in turn, doing more sleeping than either of the others I fear, because I seem for some unexplained reason to be tired as Mrs Hawthorne6explanatory note used to say far into the future. By giving up to it however I felt quite fresh when we arrived at half past seven o’clockCMr. Clemens’ (Mark Twain’s) carriage was waiting for us to take us to the hall where he was to perform for the second night in succession Peter Spyk in the Loan of a Lover— It is a pretty play and the girl’s part Gertrude was well done by a Miss Helen Smith, but Mr. Clemmens’ part was a creation. I see no reason why, if he chose to adopt the profession of actor, he should not be as successful as Jefferson in whatever he might conclude to undertake.7explanatory note It is really amazing to see what a man of genius can do out of beside what is usually considered his legitimate sphere. Afterward we went with Mr. Hammersley to the Club8explanatory note for a bit of supper— This I did not wish to do but I was overruled of course by the decision of our host. We met at supper one of two clever actors who played in a little operetta called the Artful Mendicants.9explanatory note It was after 12 o clock when we finally reached Mr. Clemmens house. He believed his wife would have retired as she is in very delicate health; but there she was expecting us with a pretty supper table laid When her husband discovered this he fell down on his knees in mock desire for forgiveness— His mind was so full of the play and with the poor figure he felt he had made in it, that he had entirely forgotten all her directions and injunctions. She is a very small sweet looking, simple, finished little creature, charming in her ways and evidently deeply beloved by him— The house is a brick villa designed by one of the first N.Y. architects,10explanatory note standing in a lovely lawn which slopes down to a small stream or river at the side. In this spring season the black birds are busy in the trees and the air is sweet and vocal— Inside there is great luxury. Especially I delight in a lovely conservatory opening out of the drawing room.

Although we had already eaten supper the gentlemen took a glass of lager beer to keep Mrs Clemmens company while she ate a bit of bread after her long anxiety and waiting— Meantime Mr. Clemmens talked— The quiet earnest manner of his speech would be impossible to reproduce but there is a drawl in his tone peculiar to himself also. He is much interested in actors and the art of acting just now and seriously talks of going to Boston next week to the debut of Anna Dickenson.11explanatory note

We were a tired company and went soon to bed and to sleep. I slept late but I found Mr. Clemmens had been re-reading Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast12explanatory note in bed early and revolving subjects for his Autobiography

Their two beautiful baby girls come to pass an hour with us after breakfast— Exquisite affectionate children the very fountain of joy to their interesting parents—

Mrs Perkins and Mrs Cowen called. I went with the latter to what is called their Union for Home Work and saw an excellent pair Mr. & Mrs Sluyter and their children whose lives are dedicated to the service of the poor and lowly. Mrs Sluyter is one of those angels in human form raised up to benefit humanity—13explanatory note How much such women need encouragement— How much we need them. I was pleased to hear that George McDonald14explanatory note appreciated Mrs Sluyter thoroughly—

Returning to lunch I found our host and hostess and eldest little girl in the drawing room. We fell into talk of the mishaps of the stage and the disadvantage of an amateur under such circumstances— “For instance on the first night of our little play,” said Mr. Clemmens “the trousers of one of the actors suddenly gave way entirely behind which was very distressing to him though we did not observe it at all”

I want to stop here to give a little idea of the appearance of our host. He is forty years old with some color in his cheeks and a heavy light colored moustache & over hanging light eyebrows— His eyes are grey and piercing yet soft and his whole face expresses great sensitiveness. He is exquisitely neat also though careless and his hands are small not without delicacy He is a small man but his mass of hair seems the one rugged lookeding thing about him. I thought in the play last night that it was a wig—

To return to our lunch table. He proceeded to speak of his Autobiography which he intends to write as fully and sincerely as possible to leave behind him— His wife laughingly said, she should look it over and leave out objectionable passages— No, he said very earnestly almost sternly, [“]you are not to edit it—it is to appear as it is written with the whole tale told as truly as I can tell it— I shall take out passages from it and publish as I go along, in the Atlantic and elsewhere, but I shall not limit myself as to space and at whatever ever age I am writing about even if I am an infant and an idea comes to me about myself when I am forty I shall put that in. Every man feels that his experience is unlike that of anybody else and therefore he should write it down—he finds also that everybody else has thought and felt on some points precisely as he has done, and therefore he should write it down—” The talk naturally branched to education and thence to the country. He has lost all faith in our government. This wicked ungodly suffrage he said where the vote of a man who knew nothing was as good as the vote of a man of education and industry: this endeavor to equalize what God had made unequal was a wrong and a shame. He only hoped to live long enough to see such wrong and such a government overthrown. Last summer he wrote an article for the Atlantic “printed without my signature” proposing the only solution of such evil of which he could conceive. It is too late now he continued to restrict the suffrage, we must increase it—for this let us give every university man let us say ten votes and every man with common school education 2 votes, and a man of superior power and position a hundred votes if we choose— This is the only way I see to get out of the false position into which we have fallen—15explanatory note Here we were interrupted very pleasantly by the entrance of Mrs Colt the richest woman I believe in Hartford. She has built a memorial church of great beauty here—she is a fine looking woman cordial and appreciative.16explanatory note The social club allows five or six ladies every evening and Mrs Colt is one of them usually.

Went to lie down and read Appleton’s Nile Journal At five, the hour appointed for dinner, I returned to the drawing-room where our host lay at full length on the floor with his head on cushions in the bay-window; reading and taking what he called “delicious comfort”— Mrs Perkins came in to dinner and we had a cosy good time.

Mr. Clemmens described the preaching of a western clergyman, a great favorite, with the smallest possible allowance of idea to the largest possible amount of words. It was so truthfully and vividly portrayed that we all concluded, perhaps, since the man was in such earnest, he moved his audience more than if he had troubled them with too many ideas—

This truthfulness of Mr. Clemmens which will hardly allow him to portray anything in a way to make out a case of worthy of any by exaggerating or distorting a truth is a wondrous and noble quality, it. This makes art and makes life and will continue to make him a daily increasing power among us—

He is so unhappy and discontented with our government that he says he is not conscious of the least emotion of patriotism in himself He is overwhelmed with shame and confusion and wishes he were not an American. He thinks seriously of going to England to live for a while at least and I think it not unlikely he may discover away from home a love of his country which is still waiting to be unfolded. I believe hope must dawn for us, that so much earnest endeavor of our statesmen and patriots cannot come to naught, and perhaps the very idea he has dropped, never believing that it can bring forth fruit will be adopted in the end for our salvation. Certainly women’s suffrage and such a change as he proposes should be tried since we cannot keep the untenable ground of the present.

Mrs Perkins described to us a party of Indians who came to return one of the many yearly visits her husband had made into the wilds of Maine— Her dismay when they appeared and their visit for the whole summer on their lawn was worth hearing

It is most curious and interesting to watch this growing man of forty—to see how he studies and how high his aims are His conversation is always earnest and careful though full of fun. He is just now pondering much upon actors and their ways. Raymond who is doing the “Gilded Age” is so hopelessly given “to saving at the Spigot and losing at the Bung Hole” that he is evidently not over satisfied, nor does he count the acting everything it might be evidently—17explanatory note

We sat talking, chiefly we women after dinner and looking at the sunset. Mr. Clemens lay down with a book and J went to look over his lecture.18explanatory note I did not go to lecture but after all were gone I scribbled away at these pages and nearly finished Mr. Appleton’s Nile journal. They returned rather late, it was after ten bearing a bag of delicious I strawberries, Mrs Colt’s gift from her endless greenhouses. They were a sensation, the whole of summer was foreshadowed by their scarlet globes.

Some beer was brought for Mr. Clemmens, (who drinks nothing else and as he eats but little this seems to answer the double end of nourishment and soothing for the nerves) and he began again to talk. He said it was astonishing what subjects were missed by the Poet Laureate He thought the finest incident of the Crimean war had been entirely overlooked— That was the going down at sea of the man of war Berkeley Castle. The ship, with a whole regiment one of the finest of the English army on board, struck a rock near the Bosphorus There was no help—the bottom was out and the boats would only hold the crew & the other helpless ones, there was no chance for the soldiers— The Colonel summoned them on deck, he told them the duty of soldiers was to die, they would do their duty as bravely there as if they were on the battle field— He bade them shoulder arms and prepare for action The drums beat, the flags were flying, the service playing, as they all went down—to silent death in the great deep.19explanatory note Afterward Mr. Clemmens described to us the reappearance before his congregation of an old clergyman who had been incapacitated for work during 12 years—coming suddenly into the pulpit just as the first h[y]mn was ended— The younger pastor proposed they should sing the old man’s favorite Coronation20explanatory note omitting the first verse— He heard nothing of the omission but beginning at the first verse he sang in a cracked treble the remaining stanza after all the people were still—there was a mingling of the comic & pathetic in this incident which makes it consonant with the genius of our host.

Our dear little hostess complained of want of air and I saw she was very tired—so we all went to bed about eleven—

Saturday morning—Dear J. was up early and out in the beautiful sunshine. I read and scribbled until our breakfast at half past nine—

It was a lovely morning and I had already ventured out of my window and round the house to hear the birds sing and see the face of spring before the hour came for breakfast—when I did go to the drawing-room however I found Mr. Clemmens alone He greeted me apparently as cheerfully as ever and it was not for until some moments had passed that he told me they had a very sick child upstairs.21explanatory note From that instant I saw, especially after his wife came in that they could think of nothing else—they were half distracted with anxiety. Their messenger could not find the Dr. which made matters worse However the little girl did not really seem very sick so I could not help thinking they were unnecessarily excited— The effect on them however was just as bad as if the child were really very ill. The messenger was hardly despatched the second time before Jamie and Mrs Clemmens began to talk of his our getting away in the next train whereat he (Mr. C.) said to his wife, “Why didn’t you tell me of that etc. etc.”— It was all over in a moment but in his excitement he spoke more quickly than he knew and his wife felt it—nothing was said at the time, indeed we hardly observed it, but we were intensely amused and could not help finding it pathetic too, afterward, when he came to us and said, he spent the larger part of his life on his knees making apologies and now he had got to make an apology to us about that carriage. He was always bringing the blood into his wife’s face he said by his bad behavior and here this very morning he had said such things about that carriage. His whole life was one long apology. His wife had told him to see how well we behaved (poor we!!) and he knew he had everything to learn He was so funny about it that he left us in a storm of laughter, yet at bottom I could see it was no laughing matter to him He is in dead earnest, with a desire for growth and truth in life and with such a sincere admiration for his wife’s sweetness & beauty of character that the most prejudiced and hardest heart could not fail to fall in love with him. She looked like an exquis[i]te lily as we left her—so white and delicate and tender. Such sensitiveness and self control as she possesses are very very rare.

Reached home in safety to find all well. There were letters to be answered and a telegram to be sent to Phila—so I sat with my bonnet on and worked at them until J laughed at me and said dinner was almost ready—however—I was ready then for peace and quiet so I was glad they were done.

When our friends came from J’s lecture last night they brought

I have omitted to describe a pleasant visit at the house of Mrs Perkins, a neighbor of Mrs Clemensts’ yest on our way to the car— A nice large family and a pleasant cottage Evidently people earnestly in search of culture and the higher life, eager and interesting—good neig[h]bours and good Americans—people to make the heart glad anywhere— Kingsley stayed here while in H.22explanatory note