December 4 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Horace N. Allen (1858-1932), American Minister in Seoul, Korea (1897-1905).
I am very glad to have that historical digest, & I thank you for sending it. I hope your boys have successfully resisted all of Tom & Huck’s efforts to dismoralize them, & that they are stronger for the resistance.
I was profoundly sorry to hear, last week, that Mr. Hunt is smitten with an illness & is far from his home. I hope he is well now….[MTP]. Note: Allen was a former Presbyterian missionary to Korea (1884-1890). The digest is not further identified.
Sam also wrote to Frank Fuller.
It saddens me to find that I am not in it, but no matter about that, your idea is just as valuable now as it was then; and if advertised in the right way will be some millions of times more valuable (pecuniarily) than it was then or is now. Rightly handled, it will puke money like a mint. There was an immense defect in your fashion of putting it before the public in that early day. Avoid that mistake this time [MTP]. Note: See Fuller’s of Dec. 3.
Sam also replied to Miss Muriel M. Pears (See Nov. 16) in Scotland wondering why she hadn’t sent her picture along with her letter, and telling her about the new house and setting in Riverdale:
If you were in this house, now, I would show you something!—a hundred forest trees mailed in ice & flashing in the sun; yes, & the imposing Hudson sweeping by, & the stately Palisades lifting their frosty precipices beyond. No doubt you have a good opinion of Scotland, but just wait till you come under this rook—then I will show you things! …
My wife & daughters—who are always intruding here because they have not been rightly disciplined—are desiring to know to whom I am writing such a long letter.
“To a girl.”
“And you 66 years old last Saturday.”
“It is too late to reform now. I always liked them; I don’t seem to discover any change as I go along.”
I have given them your loving message, now, & that atmosphere has changed, & they send their love with mine to you. I am a most shrewd old person, & know how to do many things [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Helen Maria Winslow.
If I were there, I should rejoice, & be glad, & should skip like the lambs on a thousand hills, if lambs do that, & if it would be decorous in a person of my age to act similar—but I am not there, the distance is great, the time is winter; & in my gray wisdom I give you hearty thanks for inviting me, & stick to my hearthstone [MTP]. Note: See Dec. 3, 1900 entry for more on Winslow.
Elisabeth Marbury wrote that she’d written to Francis Wilson and would let Sam know [MTP].