October 20 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara.
Clarchen dear, I wish to learn to make the right & just allowance for Jean, & to try to keep constantly in mind that she is heavily afflicted by that unearned, undeserved & hellish disease, & is not strictly responsible for her disposition & her acts when she is under its influence (if there is ever a time when she is really free from its influence—which is doubtful). She has had 2 attacks to-day.
She drives herself to death, with a continuous carnival of riding, driving, walking, climbing, romping—I don’t know how she has survived it. I don’t mind the physical fatigue—that cannot harm her—but I think the persistent excitement must be hurtful.
Poor child, she is turning her hopes again toward a surgical examination and possible operation. She wants an X ray examination, & we must see Dr. Hartley about it when I come. The forenoon attack was incomplete—so there was another, this afternoon. That cleared her head & she is all right, now.
I go to Boston tomorrow. I shall see the Hopekirk-Wilsons. Ever so much love, dear ashcat
[MTP]. Note: Helen Hopekirk-Wilson (1856-1945), composer, pianist, subject of famous painting, “At the Piano.”
Sam also wrote to H.H. Rogers.
Dear Uncle Henry: / I suppose you are about arriving back from raiding the South by this time, & I hope you have had a good time & that there are some survivors down there—some for Roosevelt to finish up. I am leaving for Boston, to fill various social engagements (with my jaw) & I will finish up that end of the country—if the weapon holds out; she used to be pretty effective when Samson had her. I shall be there a week; possibly a couple, though I hope not, for Clara will have the house ready for me the 25th , & I certainly would like to get home as soon as possible.
Sam added he’d done much writing in Dublin. His trip to Norfolk, Conn. in hot weather to see Clara, one that laid him up with gout for weeks, hadn’t been needed since she’d expected him in October. He’d tied up the Upton house near Dublin for the next year with an option for two more . He liked the atmosphere of Dublin: “Physically regarded, I mean. The moral atmosphere wasn’t much to speak of, before I came” [MTHHR 602-3].
George W. Reeves, real estate agent, wrote to Sam. “Yours just recd I would very much like to have you perfectly satisfied before you leave I thought I had explained to your satisfaction. Am very sorry that you have any doubts after looking after your interests all this time. /
Sincerely…” [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Jean, 10:30 bed; 5 p.m. bed–unusually long and severe. Jean is in bad shape. Her malady seems to be increasing in violence.
“Miss Lillian Russell looks so well in vaudeville encased in Queen Wilhelmina’s $2,000 gown that Peter Dunn would never think of asking pensively, ‘Why do people marry Lillian Russell?’”
Mr. Clemens sat in the big window and commented on that Peter Dunne sentence as being so strong because one or two non-essential words are left out. Most writers, or folks, would have said: “Why do so many people marry L.R.?” [MTP TS 109]. Note: Finley Peter Dunne (1867-1936), pseud. “Mr. Dooley” in Dissertations by Mr. Dooley (1906). See also Hill p. 116.
October 20 ca. – Sam directed Isabel V. Lyon to “Stir Mr. Champlaine (Boston) up—we want the 12 photos,” in response to Nelly Goyder’s Oct. 6 request for a likeness [MTP]. Note: Two weeks allowed for mail from Tasmania.