Autobiography of Mark Twain (168 page)

462.12 a neighbor brought the celebrated Russian revolutionist, Tchaykoffsky] Nikolai Vasilievich Chaykovsky (1850–1926), founder and leader of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, was in New York to appeal for weapons for the Russian revolutionary struggle (“Russian Here for Firearms,” New York
Times
, 21 Mar 1906, 4). The neighbor was Charlotte Teller (1876–1953), a writer and socialist who lived nearby. Teller later explained that when Chaykovsky arrived he was

much depressed because he did not know how to reach Mark Twain, whom he wanted as chairman for a big mass meeting. Although I did not know Mark Twain myself, I offered to see what could be done. I went to 21 Fifth Ave. and asked for Mr. Clemens’ secretary. She said to bring Tschaikowsky back at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. (Teller 1925, 5)

Clemens developed a friendship with Teller and treated her as a sort of protégée. Their relationship later became problematic, when rumors circulated that she was a fortune hunter who sought to marry him (see Schmidt 2009a).

462.19 McKinleys] William McKinley (1843–1901) was the twenty-fifth president of the United States, elected in 1896 and again in 1900, but was assassinated in September 1901, whereupon he was succeeded by his vice-president, Theodore Roosevelt. The Spanish-American War (1898), which left the United States in control of Cuba and the Philippines, was fought during his term of office.

462.33–36 when our windy and flamboyant President . . . new Angel of Peace . . . peace between Russia and Japan] The Russo-Japanese War, fought over control of Manchuria and
Korea, lasted from February 1904 until September 1905. On 30 March 1905, exactly a year before the present dictation, it was first reported that the combatant nations had chosen Theodore Roosevelt as mediator. Roosevelt’s sustained efforts eventually resulted in the Treaty of Portsmouth (New Hampshire), signed on 5 September. His peacemaking received lavish praise, at home and abroad, including a tribute from Cardinal James Gibbons (1834–1921), the ranking Catholic prelate of the United States, who called him “an angel of peace to the world.” As a result of the conflict, Russia, which had lost several major battles and had seen its entire fleet destroyed, was forced to recognize Korea’s independence and to make major concessions in Manchuria, while Japan emerged as the strongest power in East Asia (New York
Times:
numerous articles, 31 Mar–7 Sept 1905, especially “Roosevelt May End War in Far East,” 31 Mar 1905, 1, and “Roosevelt ‘Angel of Peace,’ ” 18 June 1905, 2).

462.36–37 no one . . . except Dr. Seaman and myself uttered a public protest] Surgeon Louis L. Seaman (1851–1932), a highly decorated army major and expert on military sanitation who had spent six months in Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War, proclaimed on 30 August 1905 that the peace mediated by Roosevelt would “prove detrimental to the Japanese and to the rest of the world,” that “in fifteen years Russia will have recuperated sufficiently for another struggle,” and that the war should have been allowed to continue “until the Russians had been driven away entirely from the Pacific Coast” (“Thinks Peace a Mistake,” New York
Times
, 31 Aug 1905, 3). Clemens’s own “public protest” came in a letter of 29 August 1905 to the editor of the Boston
Globe:

Russia was on the high road to emancipation from an insane and intolerable slavery. I was hoping there would be no peace until Russian liberty was safe. I think that this was a holy war in the best and noblest sense of that abused term, and that no war was ever charged with a higher mission; I think there can be no doubt that that mission is now defeated and Russia’s chains re-riveted, this time to stay.

I think the czar will now withdraw the small humanities that have been forced from him, and resume his medieval barbarisms with a relieved spirit and an immeasurable joy. I think Russian liberty has had its last chance, and has lost it.

I think nothing has been gained by the peace that is remotely comparable to what has been sacrificed by it. One more battle would have abolished the waiting chains of billions upon billions of unborn Russians, and I wish it could have been fought.

I hope I am mistaken, yet in all sincerity I believe that this peace is entitled to rank as the most conspicuous disaster in political history. (SLC 1905d)

463.2 Roosevelt had given the Russian revolution its death-blow] Clemens’s conviction that Roosevelt’s peacemaking had enabled the Tsarist government to concentrate on suppressing domestic political reform was widely shared. Government violence against the populace in fact had been extreme in 1905 following the peace (see AD, 10 Jan 1906, note at 257.18–21), and again during the first three months of 1906 (New York
Times:
“Russians Are Skeptical,” 13 June 1905, 2; “Gorky Not Coming Here,” 6 July 1905, 2; “John Bigelow Condemns Peace of Portsmouth,” 3 Dec 1905, SM4; “Roosevelt and Russia,” 13 Feb 1906, 6, and numerous articles, 1 Jan–30 Mar 1906).

463.4 I came across Dr. Seaman last night] Probably at the meeting of the New York State Association for Promoting the Interests of the Blind (see the note at 464.17–19).

463.9–10 only two or three months ago . . . You raised two millions of dollars in a breath] In early December 1905 it was reported that in only eighteen days, American Jews had raised $1 million for the relief of Jews being massacred in Russia, with contributions from Germany and Great Britain bringing the total to $2.475 million. Clemens assisted in the fundraising by speaking at an 18 December benefit matinee at the Casino Theatre at which several prominent actors, including Sarah Bernhardt, performed:

Mark Twain, who followed Mme. Bernhardt, spoke of the wonderful French language, which he always felt as if he were “just going to understand.”

“Mme. Bernhardt is so marvelously young,” he added. “She and I are two of the youngest people alive.”

Then the humorist told a story of how when Mme. Bernhardt was playing in Hartford some years ago three charitable old ladies decided to deny themselves the pleasure of seeing the great actress and to send the money instead to some needy friends.

“And the needy friends,” concluded Mr. Clemens drily, “gratefully took the money and bought Bernhardt tickets with it.” (“Mark Twain Speaks After Bernhardt Acts,” New York
Times
, 19 Dec 1905, 9)

By late December, the total raised in America and Europe, from Jews and Gentiles, exceeded $3 million (New York
Times:
“Fund Exceeds $1,000,000, Still More to Come,” 3 Dec 1905, 8; “Asks $1,000,000 More for Jewish Relief,” 5 Dec 1905, 6; “$935,000 Already Sent to Aid Russian Jews,” 7 Dec 1905, 6; “Amusements,” 18 Dec 1905, 14; “Relief Fund over $3,000,000,” 29 Dec 1905, 2).

463.23 ARMS TO FREE RUSSIA, TCHAYKOFFSKY’S APPEAL] Clemens had a clipping of this article, from the New York
Times
of 30 March 1906, pasted into the typescript of his dictation.

464.17–19 Chairman at the first meeting of the Association . . . in the interest of the adult blind. Joseph H. Choate and I had a very good time there] Clemens presided at the meeting of the New York State Association for Promoting the Interest of the Blind, held in the ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on 29 March 1906. As an instance of a time when he was himself momentarily blind, Clemens told about his hunt for a lost sock in a darkened German inn, which he had originally described in 1880 in chapter 13 of
A Tramp Abroad
(for a text of the speech, see Fatout 1976, 506–11). Choate, a leader in humanitarian causes, made a humorous appeal for contributions to the association (“Twain and Choate Talk at Meeting for Blind,” New York
Times
, 30 Mar 1906, 9; for Choate see AD, 23 Jan 1906, note at 303.2–10).

464.34–35 Blackwell’s Island] An island in the East River, named for Robert Blackwell (d. 1717?), its onetime owner, which housed a penitentiary for men and women, a workhouse for the drunken and disorderly, an almshouse and hospitals for some of New York City’s poor, and America’s first municipal insane asylum. Its name was changed to Welfare Island in 1921, then to Roosevelt Island, in honor of Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1973. Soon after that it became
largely residential (Moses King 1893, 496–500; NYC10044 2009; Roosevelt Island Historical Society 2009).

465.6–7 She was to be at Laurence Hutton’s house . . . Henry Rogers and I went together] In 1929 Keller devoted a chapter of
Midstream: My Later Life
to her long friendship with Mark Twain, recalling its beginning at Hutton’s home on a Sunday in 1894, when she was fourteen and Clemens “was vigorous, before the shadows began to gather”:

During the afternoon several celebrities dropped in, and among them Mr. Clemens. The instant I clasped his hand in mine, I knew that he was my friend. He made me laugh and feel thoroughly happy by telling some good stories, which I read from his lips. I have forgotten a great deal more than I remember, but I shall never forget how tender he was.

Keller also wrote fondly of Henry H. Rogers, whom she first met that same day and afterward saw frequently, and who financed her college education (Keller 1929, 47–48, 71, 288–89).

465.9 Miss Sullivan] Annie Sullivan (1866–1936), herself only partially sighted, had become Keller’s teacher in 1887. Her groundbreaking technique for educating Keller was based on a system of touch teaching. The two remained lifelong companions, even after Sullivan’s 1905 marriage to writer and literary critic John Macy, and together worked for increased opportunities for the blind.

466.7 Miss Holt] Winifred T. Holt (1870–1945), a sculptor, was the principal founder of the New York State Association for Promoting the Interests of the Blind. In early 1906 she was the organization’s treasurer pro tem and secretary, retaining the latter post until at least 1920. She later wrote numerous books and papers on blindness and worked extensively for the education and rehabilitation of the blind both in the United States and abroad (Holt to SLC, 24 Jan 1906, CU-MARK).

466.26 Wrentham, Mass., March 27, 1906] Keller’s letter was transcribed into this dictation from her original typed and signed letter, now in the Mark Twain Papers. She later published it in
Out of the Dark
(Keller 1913, 208–12).

APPENDIXES

SAMUEL L. CLEMENS: A BRIEF CHRONOLOGY