October 16 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam’s notebook: “Yesterday [Oct. 15] we left York in a special invalid car at 8.45 & came through to Riverdale without delay or change in 9 ½ hours. Special locomotive at both ends. Cost, $339 ” [NB 45 TS 31].
Sam replied to an invitation by Laurence Hutton, in Princeton, N.J.
Yes, if you are sure you can provide cap, gown & hood for me, I will leave mine at home & save baggage-space. But mind, I shall depend on you.
I shall come on the 24th, by the train which you say leaves THIS side (W. 23d) at 3.55 p.m.
We left York Harbor at about 9 yesterday morning in an invalid car & special train to a point south of Boston, & reached the Grand Central at 5.40; special engine rushed us up to Riverdale in 20 minutes—a long rough journey for a sick person & terribly fatiguing, but she is shut from noise & the fambly, now, in a comfortable hermitage, & will prosper [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Miss Gertrude Swain in Greeley, Nebr., care of her father “the County Attorney”:
My dear Child:
I would rather have your judgment of the moral quality of the Huck Finn book, after your fifty re-readings of it, than that of fifty clergymen after reading it once apiece. I should have confidence in your moral vision, but not so much in theirs, because it is limited in the matter of distance, & is pretty often out of focus. (But these are secrets, & mustn’t go any further: I only know them because I used to study for the ministry myself) [MTP].
Jean Clemens wrote a letter to the York Harbor neighbor, Millard Sewell:
We intended to wire you yesterday when we arrived, but in the excitement of the arrival our intention was forgotten. I am very sorry. After all you did to help us I think the least we could do was to let you know as quickly as possible that Mother got through the journey better than we hoped considering the behavior of her bed, which bounded her into the air whenever the train was in motion. It didn’t make any difference whether she was on the air-bed or the car-mattrass, we bounded the entire time.
We reached here a little before seven, somewhat tired but on the whole very comfortable, except Anna [Jean’s maid] who was car-sick and had a headache which gave her the joyful opportunity of making enough fuss for six people dying of consumption. (I am kind, don’t you think so?)
At the station here there came near being a tragedy. Clara had just stepped off our car and Father was following when a lightning express passed between our car and the platform. Some men yelled and the train whistled so that Clara leaped for the platform and Father managed to stay on the car steps. If either of them had been half a minute later (or earlier), they would have been killed” [Heritage Auction Archives Oct. 15, 2009, Lot 35132; “Be Sure and Save the Gentians,” by Peter Salwen, 2005].
Sarah A. Sage (widow of Dean Sage) wrote from Albany, NY to Sam, thanking him for his letter and “kind words of sympathy” [MTP].
Franklin G. Whitmore wrote to Sam, sorry he’d been unable to see him on the train the day before when he passed through, but he didn’t get Sam’s telegram until 2 p.m. and was busy at his office until 3. The train went through Hartford at 2:58 p.m. He wished Livy the best and extended any help [MTP]. Sam wrote on the env. “Telegram from Boston Hartford, 2 hours.”