October 16 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam finished his Oct. 11, 12, 13 to Mary B. Rogers.
Tuesday
You hope you will come out of it “a better woman.” You don’t need it, Mary. You have the clean mind & the right heart, & this is a condition which is not really betterable. It is going to carry you far out of Harry’s reach & mine. But I believe—I truly believe—we shall be allowed to call, sometimes, as the aeons drift by on their long course. St. Peter will sniff & say—
“Damn that mobile, throw it over the battlements!”
Angel on Duty:
“It isn’t a mobile, my lord, it’s brimstone. It’s that over-roasted pain that comes begging around every century smelling the place up, and—”
”What do they want?”
“To see Mary Rogers.”
Peter (touched):
“Oh, we can’t be always bothering with those cinders. Give them a bucket of ice & throw them over the balusters.”
“But my lord, they haven’t been admitted far as much as three centuries, now. It is quite pitiful.
And really the old one is very nice, & he does want to see his pal very bad.”
“Oh, well, let him in—I remember the old wreck, & he is very nice—but heave the young one over.”
“But my lord, the young one isn’t so very very bad; they say there’s worse ones down there.”
“Oh, tell it to the marines! Still, in the circumstances . . . . where is Mary?”
“Thirteenth floor, your Highness.”
“Jesus H.! my, but she is a swell!”
“It is even so, my lord. A whole flat to herself, & doesn’t associate with any but archangels.”
“Ah, well, we have to strain a point for that kind. Say—does she want to see those stokers?”
“Certainly there’s no accounting for tastes. Send them up.”
“Says she does.”
“Passenger-lift, my lord?”
“Oh, h—alifax, no! Freight-lift, or let them climb. And say—tell them that if they ever come here again I’ll heave then in amongst the Presbyterian missionaries & keep them there to all eternity!”
Take warning, Mary. If you go & play your hand for a floor or so higher, we’ll never get a glimpse of you again after this life.
Your affectionate uncle …. [MTP].
Sam also wrote again on Tuesday night to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.) in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.
Dear Pal, there is nothing to write about but dismalnesses, & they would only distress you—so I will wait. I did not know it until 8 this evening, when I had been in the house 24 hours—then I got the history of the last 10 days’ happenings.
I will write when there is something cheerful to say. Meantime please dash me off a letter, Wasp, & put as many jabs & jibes & sarcasms in it as you have in stock. The more the better. Blow me a refreshing breeze! /Affectionately your uncle [MTP].
Sam also replied to (not extant) from Louise Brownell Saunders in Clinton, N.Y., touched that Louise had named her daughter after the late Susy Clemens.
Your moving letter has reached me—& my heart—& finds a grateful welcome. It is a deep pleasure to me to know that you think I am writing worthily of Susy—& her mother—that beautiful & inspiring & pathetic theme. So rare they were! I think they left not many of their lofty rank in the world when they quitted it. I wish, with you, that Livy could have known that your child was to bear Susy’s name & keep her dear memory green in your heart.
I thank you, thank you, for your letter. …. [MTP].
Sam also replied to the Oct. 9 from Katharine B. Clemens (Mrs. James Ross Clemens) in Ontario, Canada
Dear Cousin Katherine: / Your letter has loitered a week, but has reached me at last. We have occupied this house five months, & I think we shall return to it next year, for it is charmingly situated among the hills & overlooks a noble landscape; & as for peaceful & reposeful seclusion, it has it, our nearest neighbors not being within sight.
Clara is at home in New York; she took a house in Norfolk, Conn., & didn’t come here, either last summer or this. We are breaking up, now, and leaving for home (21 Fifth avenue,) two days hence.
I hope to find your Vogue article there, & shall be glad to see it. Our printed mail-matter doesn’t come here, but accumulates all summer.
I think that in the spring we shall begin building a house near New York—therefore we shall want to be far away—even farther than this place, part of the time—& so if it weren’t for the Autobiography (which requires the presence of a stenographer & another girl (secretary) [)], I should certainly pay you a visit up there in Canada; but I’m too old to travel with a horde.
Please kiss Jim for me when you see him; & remember that I am your affectionate cousin …. [MTP]. Note: Sam rather regularly drops the closing parenthesis.
Clemens’ A.D. of this day included: Reminiscences of Charles Dudley Warner & Uncle Remus (Joel Chandler Harris)—Anecdote of Jim Wolfe & the wasps [MTP Autodict2; MTE 136-39].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Mr. Clemens is always so distressed over the sight of open trunks & packing that he wanted to run away to town as soon as he heard that we were to go by the 17th or 18th. I couldn’t have him go—for Jean is unmanageable & I must have his authority over her, so I begged him to give me a chance to see how much of the packing could be done out of his sight. All the books have been boxed in the servants’ sitting room, all the trunks have been packed in rooms where he never goes & tomorrow morning he will leave at 6:30 for Boston. Gerald & Gladys came in for tea & the great dear King came down to see them & he read us an extract from a letter to Mary Rogers [MTP TS 136-137].
Frederick A. Duneka wrote to Sam. “To hear is to obey. I have changed your address so the periodicals will go to 21 Fifth Avenue after today” [MTP].