November 26 Friday — In Hamilton Bermuda Sam wrote to daughter Clara.
Clärchen dear, I do hope Jean & the house are getting along well, for I don’t feel a bit like leaving this peaceful refuge. If I could be sure of Jean & the house’s happiness I wouldn’t sail from here till the 18th of December.
Everything—weather included—is in perfection here now. Paine & I drive in a light victoria about 3 hours every day, over these smooth hard roads, with the dainty blues & greens & purples of the sea always in sight. We have charming rooms in the new part of the hotel, & the table is very very good. I shall stay a good deal, both nights & days, with the Allens, but shall keep my hotel-quarters all the time. I am declining all social invitations that require me to be out at night or late in the afternoon, but I am going to Government House this afternoon, for that invitation has the quality of a command.
I hope Ossip is making good progress, & that you are getting rested-up. Paine thought you were looking pretty well fagged out. I’ve got a delightful magazine-article on the ways. It is full of interest, & I can fall back on it for refreshment whenever time may hang heavy on my hands. If I finish it too quickly, no matter, I can build it over again. / With best to you both— / Marcus [MTP]. Note: Sam’s article for the Bazaar was “The Turning-Point In My Life.”
Finley Peter Dunne for American Magazine, NY wrote to Sam with tongue firmly in cheek.
My dear and respected Subordinate in the G. D, / Human Race Association:
The enterprising gentlemen who are associated with me in this philanthropic undertaking have secured by unparalleled enterprise and prodigious expense, a photograph hitherto unpublished of the new comet in the literary sky, Mr. Henry M. Alden. I am opposed to publishing it. I believe they should not be carried away by Mr. Alden’s momentary popularity. I want them to wait until the patient judgment of the world has been delivered on works that have merit, but seem to me to be a little too flashy for permanence. Besides, I am opposed to the flashy school in literature. You and I, my dear friend, have tried to keep our art pure. Mr. Alden ought to prove himself before he can be considered worthy of a place in our gallery of distinguished artists, including in the past such names as James J. Jeffries, Captain Chance, Kyrle Bellew and others who shall be nameless (or should be). Still they think in this office that a picture of Mr. Alden would help our circulation in the Tenderloin, and they have had the cheek to ask me, to have the cheek to ask you to write an “appreciation” of this best seller-—four hundred words they crave to go with the photograph. I am told Mr. Alden is prepared for the blow. I don’t want you to do it unless you can’t find any reason, personal, commercial, artistic or other for not doing it—unless indeed you are urged to do it by strong reasons of your own. I realize that it is too much for the magazine to ask, and not enough for me to ask, which I consider the obligations you are under to me for not calling the attention of the police to your nefarious billiard game while you are rioting in Capuan luxury on money wrung from a guileless friend.
Bob Collier and I have been planning to descend on you, but Rob has had his brains addled by having an intoxicated horse fall under him while hunting, and my liver has been so disturbed by constant meditation, that I have had to take a cure at French Lick Springs. But you may expect us soon, if the invitation has not been withdrawn and we are still welcome. Is there any possibility that you will be in New York this autumn, so that the three of us can have a mild spree, if only to lunch together?
Please present my regards to Miss Clemens, and think of me, in spite of this request for copy, as /
Affectionately yours... [MTP]. Note: “Ans, Nov 30/09 / by Jean Clemens”
Maude Jordan wrote from London to wish Sam a happy birthday and to ask that he give her and her sisters his autographs on enclosed postcards and small photos [MTP].