I slept in a bit after rolling in from a day at Mohegan Sun at 1 AM.
I packed up and headed for the road.
The Mark Twain House let me in on my Clark Membership for free and then I used that ticket to get $3 off the senior price of the Harriet Beecher Stowe house next to the Mark Twain.
I just saw the Mark Twain house last year, but I had forgotten much of the interiors. Also, each time a different tour guide takes me around and so there is a different perspective. This time there was less about the writing than about furnishing, etc. because my fellow tourists were from Europe and Africa. They perhaps had never read Twain, but they were curious about the house itself.
My memory is very bad these days, so the experience was for the most part, new. I did not really come prepared to take notes and there is no photography, so much of it will perhaps be new again on my next visit. They did not let me take notes with a pen, but brought me a pencil.
I did, of course, remember the billard room. But it had not really registered as more than a place the men gathered for loud talk with cigars. It was also the place Twain found most conducise to his writing and there was a desk there. When he was stuck or tired of the task, he could walk about, play a bit on the billard table. This was perhaps better than the other spot in the house that he wrote, and it was more isolated being on the third floor.
I also remembered the "frog went a courtin'" wall paper in the children's room. This was the original pattern which was restored. They found evidence behind the fireplace when it was removed for restoration.
I remembered too the main fireplace mantle or ornate wood in the main dining room although this guide did not tell the full story of the piece. I remember there were some difficulties installing it.
I remembered the semi circle winter garden area. Currently it has a pond with water pumped as a fountain. It was a wilder area when Twain lived there, so packed with plants his children called it "The Jungle."
I don't think it registered with me that Twain bought the house to retire from writing and just enjoy his wealth, hoping to make so much on the type fitting machine that he need no longer write. Our guide said that the writing was more work than enjoyment. Perhaps that is debatable.
The house was situated on a large parcel of land and the only folks who might build there were those with come connection to literature or the arts or intellectual pursuits. So, in a sense, Twain chose an elite place to live, quite in contrast to his romantic vision of being poor and rambling about. More Tom Sawyer than Huck Finn.
In one room there was a fireplace that had a window directly above it. This was accomplished with an offset flu. Interesting. The right door in this room went no where but just archetectually balanced the room.
Plenty was done here that was impractical but upscale. The banisters were so short that they tried to keep the young children from playing on the third floor, fearing they would fall over the low railings. This was done to make the entire area seem more grand, with higher ceilings. The banister was the only part of the house that we were allowed to touch.
I could not
I had not known that four of the rooms were decorated in four different countries: Morocco‚ India‚ Japan‚ China and Turkey.. That was also the style of those who wished to impress.
I don't know how much of the need to impress was Livy's need. In Twain's writing he would distain the need to impress, but certainly his life here was driven by it.
Livy was always trying to get the rough edges off his manners. At the dinner table, for example, she would correct his behavior by code. Perhaps she would ask, "Did you see the blue note I left for you?" and this meant that he was spending too much time talking to only one person. I think I remember too that at times he would become exasperated and just leave the dining room and guests altogether to go off by himself. There much have been some tensions in that relationship.
George Griffin was interesting to me. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/18/nyregion/after-long-absence-twain-s-butler-is-to-return.html
https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-3598901821/interview-with-bonnyeclaire-smith-stewart-about-george
https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-3598901821/interview-with-bonnyeclaire-smith-stewart-about-george
Our guide said that he was fired three times for gambling with the guests, and always rehired. Also he was a great story teller, so he made an excellent companion for Twain.
Our guide explained that the cooks had really burdensome jobs and often worked very long days, as much as 20 hours. So there was a huge turnover. We some some of the meny items. As well as the Twain family, the cook had to feed the servants.
The bed in the bedroom was mentioned again. It cost $200 and was supposed to be an antique, but later Twain found out that most of it was new, only the base was antique. They slept facing the headboard in order to see the carvings there. I remember too that Twain would smoke in bed right near a gas lamp. Very dangerous.. On the posts were carved angels that could be removed as they were just mounted on the top of the posts with a dowel. The girls would sometimes play with them as their dolls, taking them for walks and even one time giving one a bath.
Among other original pieces was the glass chandelier that they had brought from the house in Buffalo. When I was a boy, the site where Twain lived was a fine restaurant and we went there a few times. I believe for a while my sister worked there as well.
There were a few Madonna a child paintings around that reflected Livy's religious interests. Now they would be assumed to be Catholic. One looked very much like a painting I have recently seen on one of the museums I visited. Perhaps I can make the connection.
To the rest of my fellow tourists the bits and pieces of the house were fascinating. So I learned that the primary wood used was walnut, that the telephone was both a bragging point and a frustration for Twain, and again saw all the speaking tubes.
One of the women caring for the girls was German, and Livy wanted her to speak German so the girls could get that language around them. One remarked that they would like the woman better had she. "Been made English." The children were home schooled and studied 5 languages, including Greek and Latin. If I remember right these were French, German, and Italian.
One room had a wild ceiling wall paper. It was all spider webs and fly like insects. It was not the original design, but was one of Candice Wheeler's choices.
So, in this they tried to reflect the period and her firm had helped to design the house.
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HARRIET BEECHER STOWE HOUSE
This is Harriet's father. He was a stern preacher who raised his children on short leashes. All his boys became preachers, and Harriet would have liked to have done that except women were not allowed. So, she wrote a book complete with sermon.
Her second inspiration was the death of her young son. This sensitized her to the suffering of slaves, especially when she lived in Kentucky and went to a slave auction where she witnesses a boy about the age of her son, separated from his mother and sold to another buyer. There was little she might do for children who died of disease, but this tragedy seemed preventable.
There is a great debate about this novel. On the one hand it clearly inspired folks to fight for the abolition of slavery and helped cause the war.
On the other hand, Stowe was only a moderate abolitionist. She was not totally egalitarian and the book grates against modern Black minds, especially since the central character of Uncle Tom morphed into a derogatory Black label for subservience. Further confusing the issue is that the popularity of the book caused a storm of commercialism that had nothing to do with Harriet Beecher Stowe and created even more objectionable characters based on her novel but not reflecting the way she wrote about them.
The house reflects all this ambiguity In the beginning there is a wall of quotations on the novel from various writers.
Most interesting was Baldwin's attack on sentimentality and his sense that it does not help in reform movements.
Then Henry Lewis Gates Jr. took on the issue in his Annotated Uncle Tom's Cabin making the argument more complex.
They had a copy in the display.
Harriet's bed was small as were most beds in those days. This gives some perspective to the fancy bed the Twain slept in.
Here is a painting depicting characters from the novel.
The novel became a hit in popular culture and many people sought to profit from that. Harriet got nothing on the production of novel based plays, papers, ceramics, music, etc. In fact, some of them were so far off from the actual novel that it was hard to make an intelligent connection. There were even plays where white people played the Black characters in blackface. Just crazy.
I don't know if I would recommend this house tour for everyone. Unlike the Twain house there were few actual pieces from her life and too much of what was displayed is available on the internet and not museum quality.
More information on Stowe here:
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