October 12 Monday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam began a letter to Frank N. Doubleday that he added a PS to on Oct. 13.
The books came—ever so many thanks. I have been reading “The Bell Buoy” & “The Old Men” over & over again—my custom with Kipling’s work—& saving the rest for other leisurely & luxurious meals. A bell-buoy is a deeply impressive fellow-being. In these many recent trips up & down the Sound in the Kanawha he has talked to me nightly, sometimes in his pathetic & melancholy way, sometimes with his strenuous & urgent note, & I got his meaning—now I have his words! No one but Kipling could do this strong & vivid thing. Some day I hope to hear the poem chanted or sung—with the bell-buoy breaking in, out of the distance.
“The Old Men,” delicious, isn’t it? And so comically true. I haven’t arrived there yet, I suppose I am on the way . . . ./ Yours ever,/ Mark [MTP]. Note: “The Bell Buoy,” and “The Old Men,” poems by Kipling; see Gribben 376 and 380.
Sam also wrote to Frank N. Doubleday “Mrs. Clemens wishes you to send to her sister the best of all magazines of its breed—the big one which deals with American country homes and such. Check enclosed. … I am only guessing at the price…” [MTP].
Sam’s notebook (a to-do list): “Tell Reeves to re-rent or put a man on the place. / Have sent to Miss Lyon. / Get baggage-tags printed / Beckwith—lawyer—pay him. / See J.P. Morgan & Mr. Rogers?” [NB 46 TS 25-26].