October 3 Wednesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam finished his Oct. 3 to daughter Clara, in care of John Walker, 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C. 6, a.m., Wednesday.
Take my bedroom—you will never hear a hoof-click there. And keep it, permanently, if your own room is big enough for a billiard room. I hope it is, & I feel sure it is. I think I know it is.
I must telegraph you this to-day, dear [MTP].
Sam also replied to the Sept. 27 from Brander Matthews.
Certainly you can use the speech, & you do not need to copyright it. I have not seen it in print, but if you’ve a copy of it send it to me & I will revise it.
I am very glad you like the autobiography. We are shoving 9,000 words a month into the Review, & there’s 300,000 to draw from, not to speak of the 50,000 which I shall dictate each month until the end of time.
There ain’t going to be any volume of speeches, because I am too lazy to collect them & revise them [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Charlotte Teller Johnson.
Dear Charlotte, I got your first before leaving for the yacht that morning—many thanks for it— and found the Philadelphia one awaiting me upon my arrival from Fairhaven at 8 last night. Miss Lyon is up & about, but not quite able to resume work yet. Mr. Paine & Miss Hobby have been acting as her substitutes for more than a week, & they have kept things up to date, right along; but Paine had to go to New York yesterday, therefore I had to hurry home 2 days before my Fairhaven holiday was out, & resume business at the old stand before I wanted to. If the contract isn’t signed, get it signed & off your mind. And presently when there’s a carbon MS that neither you nor Sears needs, let’s have it here. Evidently you are in first-rate spiritual trim for work, now, & I am glad [MTP].
Clemens’ A.D. of this day included: Clara Clemens’ debut in Norfolk, Conn.—The episode of her crib catching fire when she was 7 yrs. old—The two other fires on the two following days —Rosa’s promptness in rescuing the children—Rosa’s marriage, and her experience with the scarecrow and the crows [MTP Autodict2].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Mr. Brush came for dinner.
This morning I showed the King some little photographs I made of him with Sackcloth & Ashes [cats] & when he looked at himself he said—“Well, I can look more different kinds of ways than any bug I ever saw outside of a museum.” It’s true, too. My decided misinformation of 2 weeks troubled me by a renewed sleeplessness last night. And at 3 o’clock this morning I [two illegible words] that now the only thing to do is to take hold of the condition mentally. I must heal it from within & in my own lame way I shall do it. I did quiet the quivering nerves, & this afternoon I lay out in the sunshiny field & slept for an hour. There was such a blessed peace within me when I wakened. Dr. Stowell commands that I go away for a rest cure, but now I think that won’t be necessary [MTP TS 126].
Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote on Koy-lo Co. letterhead to Sam. “Here is some more Plasmon literature; please read it at your convenience, and then post it back to me. / Yours…” [MTP].
(Harold) Witter Bynner wrote from NYC to confess to Sam that he’d resigned from McClure’s and would live: “on Grub street for six months and then O if I have to I can get something again in some office. / Do I deserve a scolding? –or a fatherly and saintly pat? / Will you in either event do me the inestimable favour of copying for me that Prayer from the little girl’s diary? I want it badly. / Dear man, I am …ever yours” [MTP].
O.W. Norton wrote from Chicago to compliment Sam on “The Horse’s Tale,” which he thought was “a little gem.” He added that he was “an old soldier and an old bugler,” and offered criticism that “the bugle call by which the little girl summoned her horse…except the first strain it could not possibly be played on a bugle or trumpet.” Also, “The first strain of the ‘Soldier Boy’ call could be played on any bugle or trumpet, but the following strains or variations could only be played on the cornet or some keyed instrument, and these are never used for bugle calls” [MTP].