14/03/2026 20:34

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There followed a sort of reception in the hotellobby, after which Bixby took him across to the rooms of the PilotsAssociation, where the rivermen gathered in force to celebrate hisreturn. To-day is very lovely; when the afternoon arrives there will be a new picture every hour till dark, & each of them divine--or progressing from divine to diviner & divinest. There were some billiard games going on between the champions Hoppe andSutton, at the Madison Square Garden, and Clemens, with his eagerfondness for the sport, was anxious to attend them. color-harmony--and at the other end of the hall, the splendid, glowingbilliard-room, where hung all the pictures in which he took delight.

I am astonished to find that I have known 8 of these 14 neighbors a long time; 10 years is the shortest; then seven beginning with 25 years & running up to 37 years' friendship. eorge Parsons Lathrop,though Howells justly claims the glory of having fixed the price ofadmission at five dollars. One familiar with the Clemens history might well have been filled withforebodings. With this work out of his hands, Clemens was ready for his great newundertaking.