February 11 Thursday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Beatrice M. Benjamin, granddaughter of H.H. Roger
O, come, dear heart, all this enthusiasm over a comparative stranger! But you have studied it over, & know whether it is warranted or not; so it isn’t for me to criticise.
I saw the announcement in the papers, & was properly & sincerely joyful, for your very dear sake. You said you would bring him up here for official inspection & approval: a formality, merely a formality it is true, but it is best, in organized societies, that formalities be observed, & not lightly set aside.
So you must keep your word. And I do hope you can bring your parents too, In Miss Lyon’s opinion your father was altogether delightful in Bermuda, & was “the life of the wake” there; & I think he is the life of the wake all the time.
We are “full up” for this present month, but March is vacant, & I hope you will hurry & name a date in it before it gets a chance to be unvacant—any date you please—& give me day & train & I will attend to transportation from our RR station to the house. Most of our guests manage to shirk business sufficiently to give us a full week-end—that kind of week-end begins with the Friday, you know—& I hope you can manage it too.
I suppose it could be possible that the roads would be in automobiling condition in March—in that case Will Coe can chart your course for you. We can put up your auto & find quarters for your chaufeur. (Darn that dam word, I never know how to spell it.) And I wouldn’t spell it right if I could.
It isn’t likely that I’ll be going to New York, for I get homesick the minute I get out of sight of the house; but if the hangman should send for me—& this is always likely to happen to the pets of the Deity—I’ll be sure to let you know.
There: with a great deal of love from your oldest friend / ... [MTP].
Charles B. Fager, Jr. wrote from Harrisburg, Penn. to ask if Sam would be willing to lecture for the teachers of Harrisburg [MTP].
Thomas R. Slicer, minister, All Soul’s Church wrote from NYC to Sam. After praising a play he saw at the Children’s Educational, Slicer announced 300,000 members of the new Optimist Club, with an attendant Optimist Publishing Co. and issuance of Optimist’s Magazine in April. He asked if Sam would write something for the magazine [MTP].