October 22 Tuesday – In New Haven, Conn. sometime after noon, Sam wrote to Livy of missing events of the previous day:
I didn’t write last night, Livy darling, for it was 11 when I went to bed, & I was part tired & part lazy. Breakfast was to be served at 8.45, & I thought I would have plenty of time to write before that meal; but I slept until 9—then I rushed down unshaven, & was just in time. The reason I didn’t shave was because there was no razor among my traps. Immediately after breakfast I borrowed the razor of my fellow-guest, Professor Walton, who is here to represent Edinburgh University.
The Stokeses are charming. There are three unmarried daughters; the Ilsenberg Stokes is the eldest son— he will be here tomorrow morning.
The function at 3 yesterday afternoon was the first one requiring gowns & hoods, & is described as being a splendid display of brilliant colors.
The second one was at 10, this morning; there were to be a lot of formidable orations, & I didn’t go; Walton, his wife, the Stokes girls & I made a tour of the University buildings, covering two hours very pleasantly. In the campus a great crowd of students thundered the Yale cry, closing with “M-a-r-k T-w-a-i-n— Mark Twain!” & I took off my hat & bowed.
When we got back to the house (12.05) Choate had arrived, & we went & left cards at President Hadley’s house—nobody at home. So that’s done, & I’m glad, because of course I missed his guest-reception yesterday, & am intending to leave before his guest-farewell to-morrow, though it may be that I can’t do it. The reception to the President of the U.S. [Roosevelt] is to-morrow evening, 9 to 10. Etiquette may require that I remain to that; in which case I shall not reach Riverdale until some time day after tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon.
Mr. Stokes and Wm. E. Dodge are cousins. …
Sam compared the festivities to the 1,000th anniversary of Heidelberg University, which, he noted, he hadn’t seen due to “laziness.” After his signature he noted the view from the window of academic gowns up and down the street, denoting this as daytime [MTP].
Notes: Anson Phelps Stokes, Sr. (1838-1913), philanthropist and multimillionaire, had five daughters and four sons, including Anson Phelps Stokes, Jr. (1874-1958), secretary of Yale since 1899. The junior Stokes did not have the “three tall unmarried daughters” who Sam spoke of, but the Senior Stokes did. Sam stayed with the Stokes family in the house they’d rented for the week, writing the elder Mrs. Louisa Stokes on Nov. 1 his thanks (see entry); William Earle Dodge, Sr. (1803-1883) had been in the copper mining business with Stokes, Sr. The cousin of Stokes, Jr. who Sam referred to was the son, William Earle Dodge, Jr. (1833-1903). Arthur Twining Hadley (1856-1903), President of Yale (1899-1921).
The Independent (NY) described the events of Tuesday, some of which Sam may have seen, though his letters make no mention of them:
On Tuesday large audiences heard the address of President Northrup (’57), of Minnesota University, on Yale in its relation to the Development of the Country, and of President Gilman (’52), of Johns Hopkins, on the relation of the college to Science and Letters. A game of football drew many to Yale Field in the afternoon, and at a later hour the lovers of music enjoyed Professor Parker’s oratorio, “Hora Novissima,” in the theater across the street from Vanderbilt Hall. That night, under a benign October moon, 9,000 graduates and undergraduates assembled in a huge amphitheater on the inclosed campus before a temporary stage to witness a series of brief dramatic performances representing events in the life of the college, from the founding by the ten ministers in Branford, to the inspection of Yale’s volunteers by Washington, and the execution of Nathan Hale, and finally to the exhibitions of the social customs of recent years. As the hours of the mild October night passed by, old college songs were sung by the great assembly, class answered class across the great open-air auditorium, old customs and cries were revived, and it seemed that no more successful and enjoyable a meeting of college men could ever be held [Oct. 31, 1901 p. 2553-4]. Note: Cyrus Northrup (1834-1922); Daniel Coit Gilman (1831-1908).