December 18 Saturday — Clemens and Albert Bigelow Paine sailed on the Bermudian bound for New York. In his Dec. 19 to Marion Schuyler Allen (Mrs. William H, Allen) Sam wrote, “We plunged into heavy seas before the waving handkerchiefs & the flag were an hour out of sight...”.
December 18-20 Monday — On board the Bermudian Sam wrote to Helen Schuyler Allen in Hamilton, Bermuda.
I knew how it would be—the deck steward is entirely out of the question. So is the stewardess—oh, entirely! Well, no matter—I will try to get along without any good-morning until I see Bay House again. My, but I do miss you, dear!
This is dreary weather—rainy, blustery, cold, clammy, rough—& everybody looks sorry to be alive. There are a few men on deck, but only two or three women—among these the lady with the wonderful voice.
Paine makes himself agreeable to her—between intervals. During the intervals he has to go away & enjoy his seasickness. (Col. Winter comes to the table—he & a young friend of his—but otherwise our table is vacant. There is no satisfactory place but the captain’s room, It is comfy there, & I like the captain ever so much, There’s lots of young first-voyage country-people on board, & they were boisterously hilarious yesterday while we were on soundings—then they disappeared & have been seen no more. I wish you were here, dear, I find it lonesome.
I told you something was happening the 17th, That presentiment was right. The king of Belgium, whom I detested, was dying; also a son of the Earl of Aberdeen was dying, of a motor-car accident. I love his parents, & am very very sorry for their bereavement. My presentiments seldom materialize, but they did this time.
Think! that infamous king has gone to Satanville unprepared. I wish I had written him some etiquette— etiquette that would make him do the wrong thing every time & get him into trouble with Satan. Satan is very particular. He is an uncle of mine.
Helen dear, beware of Arthur! O, beware of that snake in the grass, that precocious criminal, that ultimate decoration of the gallows!
What a murderous face he has! For one so young. He is the one who is creating that reign of terror in Paget. I am the only one who knows it, & he has implored me not to tell, because it is there that he gets money to spend on moving pictures.
Alas! alas! alas! / ... [MTP].