April 24 Saturday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Robert J. Collier.
Dear Robert:-—
If in my time I shall have your good and dear father’s happy fortune, be glad for me, as I am glad for him; but grieve for those I leave behind, as I am grieving for yours.
With my love,
S.L. Clemens
(MTP: Peter F. Collier, In Memoriam 1910).
Sam’s new guestbook:
| Name | Address | Date | Remarks |
| Edward Loomis ) | 160 West 59th New York | April 24-5-6 | |
| Julie Loomis ) |
Robert J. Collier wrote to Sam somewhat before Apr. 24. Before, because Robert’s father Peter, mentioned in this letter, died on Apr. 24. “The H.R. is justifying its name, — Harvey won’t be in town till Friday, Peter is tied up every day this week and I have to stick to the office to clean things up before my father’s return on Friday, / I shall try to get them all together next week and take them up in a motor for lunch with you” [MTP].
David J. Hill for the US Embassy in Berlin wrote to Harpers acknowledging Sam’s gift of Is Shakespeare Dead? to the Emperor [MTP].
Sam noted in his after Sept. 25, 1909 letter that on this day, “Paine comes home.” Note: Albert Bigelow Paine had been in London gathering material for Sam’s biography.
Charles Warren Stoddard (1843-1909), Sam’s old secretary during his 1873 London stay, died in Monterey, Calif. Clemens first met Stoddard in San Francisco among the literati who gathered at the Occidental Hotel. At that time Stoddard wrote poetry for the Era under the name Pip Pepperwood. See June-July 1864 and other Vol. I entries. In 1876 Sam wrote of Stoddard, “Poor, sweet, pure-hearted, good-intentioned, impotent Stoddard” [MTL 5:476].