January 7 Friday — Sam arrived in Hamilton, Bermuda, where he wrote from the Allen’s Bay House, Pembroke Parish, to Frederick A. Duneka or Frederick T. Leigh at Harper’s.
Dear Duneka
or The Major:
Please get for me with good dispatch, & send to me to the above address, these things, to-wit, and charge to me:
“Old Rose & Silver,” by Myrtle Reed;
“Their Heart’s Desire” (illustrated by Harrison Fisher;)
“The Master’s Violin.” hy Myrtle Reed
Can you send me the cover-picture of Xmas No. of the Bazar, without the rest of the page—just the picture alone, for framing? Can you?
With love to you all, / Your/ Uncle Mark [MTP].
Notes; D. Hoffman writes this letter delivered with a black mourning border for Jean. Myrtle Reed (1874-1911): Old Rose and Silver (1909); The Master's Violin (1905); Reed wrote a number of best sellers and cookbooks under the pseudonym Olive Green. She took her own life. See Gribben 573, Francis Foster Perry: Their Heart's Desire (1909), Illustrated by Harrison Fisher and decorated by Theodore B. Hapgood; not in Gribben. Was this Hapgood related to Sam’s old friend Norman Hapgood? This doesn’t seem to be the sort of pulp tear-jerker that Clemens would otherwise be interested in. In a later letter (Jan 11-20) to Paine Sam requested “Harpers to send all books through the firm mentioned by Mr. Allen,” so these may not have been for Clemens.
Sam also wrote to Edward Eugene Loomis and Julia Langdon Loomis.
Dear Edward:
I have just arrived, & am very much pleased with the weather. I am not writing for the sake of furnishing news, for there isn’t any. I am only wanting to say how thankful I am to have a Mark Twain Company such as I have got—sterling men, every one, & to the last degree capable.
Julie dear, you are with the family now, I suppose, & I beg you to thank them earnestly for me, for their loving ministrations lately when my Jean was their guest, tarrying with them a day on her happy journey.
With love to you' & yours & mine / Uncle Sam [MTP].
Annie Colt McLeadoth wrote from London to offer “a few words of sympathy” MTP}.
January 7-31 —In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote to Mr. Roberts. “Dear Sir, / You were so kind as to say you would play a selection for me, and this note is to beg you to play the Intermezzo of Cavallerio Sunday morning, if I am not trespassing too much upon your kindness / Very truly Yours, / ...” [MTP]. Note. Sam usually went to the Sunday band concerts at Prospect Military Park. This is likely a request for one Sunday while he was in Bermuda.
January 7-April 7 — In Redding, Conn. Sam sent a form letter to an unidentified person. “Dear Sir (or Madam):—I try every remedy sent to me. I am now on No. 67. Yours is 2,653. I am looking forward to its beneficial results” [MFMT 287],