Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-08-05
Mark Twain's Former
Secretary Will Sue
To Recover Cottage He Gave
Her at Redding, CT.
Her Husband Arranges to Pay Re.
pair Bills, Cause Of Dispute.

Mark Twain and Isabel " Lyon, his
former secretary, over the Lobster
Pot" the cottage he gave to her at
Redding, Conn.,, are nearing an end,
according to a statement issued yester-
day by Ralph w. Ashcroft. the secre-
tary's husband and also manager of
the Mark Twain CO.. at No. "a Stone
Street. Mark Twain hurried Mrs. Ash
croft home from her honeymoon in
Europe by attaching the cottage to Sc
cure money advanced by him for it's
repair In the haste of her resentment
she deed back the property to the hui
morist. Mr.. Ashcroft now says that
she will get it again, possibly by re-
sort of court, and that the repair bills
will be settled by himself under a
separate agreement.
All that has happened of an unpleas-
ant nature is attributed, in Mr.. Ash
croft's statcmtn, to the jealousy of the
Misses Clemens, who resented the in
fuence of Miss Lyon over their father
in the management of his affairs, fol-
lowing tn death of Mrs. Clemens in
Italy in 1904. Both of the daughters
were in sanataria, he says. most of
the time for two years after that af
Fiction. Miss Lyon naturally became
hostess and person of affairs at the
Clemens home.
A letter by Mark Twain to one of the
daughters. who bitterly criticised Miss
Lyon two years ago, is quoted by Mr..
Ashcroft.
Il have somebody in whom I have
confidence to attend to every detail of
my daily affairs for me except my lit
erary work." he wrote. Il attend to
not one of them myself.
Il give Miss Lyon instructions; she
does nothing of her own initiative.
When you blame her you are merely
blaming me; she is not open to criti
cism in the matter. She does all of
my matters well, and although they
are often delicate and difficult. she
makes no enemies. either for herself
or me. I am not acquainted with an
other human being of whom this could
be said
ut would not be possible for any
other person to see reporters and
strangers every day. refuse their re-
quests ard yet send them away good
and permanent friends to me and her
self I should make enemies of many
of them if l tried to talk with them.
The servants in the house are her
friends: they all have confidence in
her All Tuxedo likes Miss Lyon, the
hackman. the 7aristocrats and all. g
"She has failed to secure your con-
fidence and esteem. and 1 am sorry.
wish it were otherwise, but it is no ar
gument. since she has not failed in any
other persons case. One failure to 1900
successes means that the fault is not
in her.
Mark Twain placed all his financial
responsibilities on Miss Lyons Shout
ders, Mr.. Ashcroft says. She followed
the custom in vogue under the regime
of Mrs Clemens. No books of account
were kept, except check books. There
was no record of cash expenditures. 1t
comes in i'll grace, Mr.. Ashcroft says,
for Miss Clara Clemens to charge i'm
proper use of such cash. considering
that it was freely used for the ex-
penses of Miss Clemens concert tours,
he urges, furnished no just cause for
resenting the successful management
of Mark Twain's affairs by Miss Lyon.
but the abandonment of the tours en-
genered the bitterness that culminat-
ed in the cottage attachment.
Mr.. Ashcroft includes in his state
ment an agreement regarding money
advanced for cottage repairs. drawn
between himself and Mark Twain on
March 13 of the present year. 1t re-
ceipts for S9S247 in promissory notes
from Mr.. Ashcroft. that being the esti-
mated balance due on money advanced
to Miss Lyon for renovation of the Lob
ster Pot, it being understood that fur-
ther repayments would be made by
Ashcroft If the checkbooks for the
year ending Feb. 90 should show that
more than the sum named had been adj
vanced for this purpose.
H. H. Rogers figures in the state
ment as an admirer of Miss Lyon for
her services to Mark Twain when the
death of Mrs. Clemens left him like a
ship without rudder. She came to
the front at that trying time and brave
ly kept there, and no one had a right
to criticise her, in Mr.. Rogers opinion.
Mr.. Ashcroft says that but for the sud-
den and unexpected death of Mr. Rog-
ers the affair would have been settled
long ago without any publicity.