June 21 Monday — In Redding, Conn, Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore in Hartford.
Dear Brer Whitmo’—
Have you our old Hartford check-books? If you have, will you send them to me? I don’t want the vast one from which we used to pay the robber Paige; it is those from which we paid our household expenses that I want.
Jean is no longer an exile; she has been with us two months, & maintains perfect health, robust health, now that she is free of the privations & irritations & captivity of the sanitariums. She is out doors all day, riding, driving, & managing her farm. I believe she could have been with us a year ago as well as not.
Clara has virtually forsaken her New York quarters, & lives with me nearly all the time, now. So I’ve a family again, you see. I suppose Jean’s banishment was necessary for her recovery, but I hope it will never have to be repeated.
With love to you & Mrs. Whitmore, & hoping you will give us another visit,
Yours affectionately
SLC
P.S.
Do you remember the last time I was in Hartford you had a letter from some hospital in Texas saying my cousin Fred Quarles was there, & a small monthly sum for tobacco, &c., would be a help to him? If you can get on his track again & send him $5 a month for me, I should like it [MTP]. Note: William Frederick Quarles (1833-1898) was the youngest son of Sam’s uncle John Quarles [MTA 7: 218.25; 533]. Note: Fred died in 1898, so one wonders what brought him to the attention of Clemens some eleven years later. The children of John Adams Quarles and Martha Ann Lampton are listed on familytreemaker website as follows:
- Benjamin Lampton Quarles, b. May 06, 1826, Overton, Tennessee, (d. 1902).
- James T. Quarles, b. December 21, 1827, Overton, Tennessee. (d. 1866; shown as James A, in MTA 17: 533)
- Margaret Quarles, b. June 17, 1830, Monroe, Missouri.
- Frances L. Quarles, b. April 08, 1832.
- William Frederick Quarles, b. December 15, 1833, Tennessee (d. 24 Mar. 1898)
- Tabitha Hawes Quarles, b. February 01, 1836. (“Puss” Greening)
- Sarra J. Quarles, b. June 22, 1838, Florida, Monroe, Missouri.
- Polk Quarles, b. 1842, Clinton, Monroe, Missouri.
- John Knox Quarles, b. October 15, 1844, Missouri.
- Martha C. Quarles, b. January 25, 1848, Missouri
- Jane Clemens Quarles, b. July 09, 1850, Missouri.
Paine writes of this afternoon with Clemens, when Sam was reading A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1901) by Andrew Dickson White (1832-1918).
June 21, A peaceful afternoon, and we walked farther than usual, resting at last in the shade of a tree in the lane that leads to Jean’s farm-house. I picked a dandelion-ball, with some remark about its being one of the evidences of the intelligent principle in nature—the seeds winged for a wider distribution.
“Yes,” he said, “those are the great evidences; no one who reasons can doubt them.”
And presently he added:
“That is a most amusing book of White’s. When you read it you see how those old theologians never reasoned at all. White tells of an old bishop who figured out that God created the world in an instant on a certain day in October exactly so many years before Christ, and proved it. And I knew a preacher myself once who declared that the fossils in the rocks proved nothing as to the age of the world. He said that God could create the rocks with those fossils in them for ornaments if He wanted to. Why, it takes twenty years to build a little island in the Mississippi River, and that man actually believed that God created the whole world and all that’s in it in six days. White tells of another bishop who gave two new reasons for thunder; one being that God wanted to show the world His power, and another that He wished to frighten sinners to repent. Now consider the proportions of that conception, even in the pettiest way you can think of it. Consider the idea of God thinking of all that. Consider the President of the United States wanting to impress the flies and fleas and mosquitoes, getting up on the dome of the Capitol and beating a bass-drum and setting off red fire.”
He followed the theme a little further, then we made our way slowly back up the long hill, he holding to my arm, and resting here and there, but arriving at the house seemingly fresh and ready for billiards [MTB 1506-7].
Charles E. Miner wrote to Sam. “I am directed by Mr. Collier to send you the enclosed petition for dissolution of the Educational Theatre, and to ask that you sign the petition in the places indicated” [MTP]. Note: this is catalogued as from Robert J. Collier; petition not in file. ““Ans’d June 22, ‘09”