December 27 Monday – Redding, Conn, Sam wrote to Mai H. Coe.
Dear Mrs. Coe: / You must not think I am melancholy. No, I am not. It wrung my heart to lose Jean, who was so dear to me, & was all I had, now that Clara has gone to Europe to live; but I know my nature, & I knew I should soon be happy again, & not mourning any more, but only absorbed in remembering how beautiful her character was & how fine—how exquisitely fine—the very finest I have known except her mother’s & your father’s. And so I am already rejoicing that she has been set free. It is always so with me. My grief for the loss of a friend is soon replaced by gratitude that that friend is released from the ungentle captivity of this life. For sixteen years Jean suffered unspeakably, under the dominion of her cruel malady, & we were always dreading that some frightful accident would happen to her that would stretch her mutilated upon her bed for the rest of her life—or, worse—that her mind would become affected; but now she is free, & harm can never come to her more.
Eight months ago we got her back from her long & bitter exile in sanitariums, & from then until her last moment she was utterly & exultingly happy. I am so happy in this memory, that the very thought of it almost makes me cry.
We had two splendid days together—Wednesday & Thursday—I can never forget them. Then at seven-thirty Friday morning our old Katy appeared, gasping & quaking at my bedside & said words that are burnt into my memory:
“Miss Jean is dead!”
Yesterday evening at 6 I stood at my window & saw her borne away from this home to another, whence she will not return any more. I remained here. I saw her mother buried. I will never endure that shock again.
It is lovely of you to ask me to come; & some day I will.
It is good for me to be busy, these days, & I am. Ninety-five percent of the letters & telegrams that came yesterday & to-day & will begin to come from foreign countries a week hence, can be answered with a card. I shall answer the others with a pen.
With sincere thanks, & with love to you both, / SLC
The newspapers are mistaken about my health—I brought it back from Bermuda perfect [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Joe Twichell and Harmony C, Twichell.
Dear, dear Joe & Harmony:
Do not come—until by & bye. I am not suffering. My darling Jean is set free! That is the blessed music that rings in my heart all the time. For sixteen years she suffered—exile, pain, humiliation, despair—& now that dear sweet spirit is at rest. Jean was so fine, so admirable, so noble—just her incomparable mother over again! Think what I have lost in her. But think what she has gained.
We had two splendid days together—Wednesday & Thursday. Then at 7.30 the next morning Katy appeared at my bedside & said—without preliminary—
“Miss Jean is dead!”
When Clara got married & would have to go to Europe, my thought was, “My God, what is to become of Jean if I die!”
That terror cost me much sleep since.
Joe, Jean had a fine mind, a most competent brain. That [possibly canceled by someone other than SLC] shit said she was insane! She & her confederate told that to everybody around here. Jean’s last act, Thursday night, was to defend her when I burst out upon her! It makes me proud to remember that. . . O blessed Jean,
I saw Livy buried, I will never consent to see another dear friend put under the ground.
How sweet, & peaceful, & beautiful Jean was, in her coffin, with that classic face!
With lots & lots of love— / Mark [MTP].
Paine included a segment Sam added to his piece “The Death of Jean Clemens”:
December 27, Did I know jean’s value? No, I only thought I did. I knew a ten-thousandth fraction of it, that was all. It is always so, with us, it has always been so, We are like the poor ignorant private soldier-dead, now, four hundred years — who picked up the great Sancy diamond on the field of the lost battle and sold it for a franc. Later he knew what he had done.
Shall I ever be cheerful again, happy again? Yes, And soon, For I know my temperament. And I know that the temperament is master of the man, and that he is its fettered and helpless slave and must in all things do as it commands. A man’s temperament is born in him, and no circumstances can ever change it.
My temperament has never allowed my spirits to remain depressed long at a time.
That was a feature of Jean’s temperament, too. She inherited it from me, I think she got the rest of it from her mother [MTB 1552].
Sam’s new guestbook:
| Name | Address | Date | Remarks |
| Miss Holz | Montclair, N.J. | Dec. 27 | Jean’s friend |
More letters and telegrams of condolence were sent by:
| F.R. Bartholomew Anne E. Benjamin Richard R. Bowker Witter Bynner William S, Case H.R. Colbeck Elinor & Parry Angenete Comstock (telegram) Lawrence B, Evans Elisabeth N, Fairchild Mabel Farish Cecile Freese Frederick Gerken Margaret S, Graham Stephen M. Griswold Elizabeth Hall | Indianapolis News Ella H. Kalley Paul Kester Jervis Langdon II (clipping enclosed) Thomas R, Lounsbury William Mathers Regina A, Niehaus Cora W. Nunnally Dorothy Quick John L. RoBards William Rockefeller (telegram) R.C, Smith Guillaume Stengel, & Marcella Sembrich (telegram) Thomas Westing, & Louise Westing Jennie E, Woodworth [MTP]. |