January 29 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to Miss Eleanor Robson, who was raising money for the support of Bret Harte’s daughter, Mrs. Jessamy Steele, who, Miss Robson wrote this day was “in dire need and in the Portland Me. Almshouse.”
I feel that the American people owe a debt of gratitude to Bret Harte, for not only did he paint such pictures of California as delighted the heart, but there was such an infinite tenderness, such sympathy, such strength, and such merit in his work that the commanded the attention of the world to our country, and his daughter is surely deserving of our sympathy [NY Times Jan. 30, 1907, p.18 “Aid for Harte’s Daughter”].
Note: Eleanor Robson Belmont (1879-1979) was an English stage actress who was currently playing a role in a Bret Harte play, Salomy Jane. She made her New York debut in 1900 and was popular in the US until 1910, when she retired after marrying August Belmont, Jr. (1853- 1924) financier and builder of New York’s Belmont Park racetrack.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Miss Minah Smith came with her plans of her Bermuda house—$125 a month & darling. I carried them up to the King who was in his tub—so I waited on the stairs until he came out of the bathroom. He Swore roundly at something in there & come to find out he had dropped 2 cakes of soap in the tub & they were so slippery he couldn’t get hold of them. I rubbed his head dry while I told him about the plans & the nigger servants & how he’d be living close to the archbishop and he wondered if anyone would be good enough to induce the archbishop to move away.
A Mr. Leander Richardson came in a short time ago to ask Mr. Clemens to allow his name to be used in a testimonial Miss Eleanor Robson is getting up for one of the Bret Harte’s daughters who is in a poorhouse, & the King is willing.
The King went up to the Rogerses for dinner & to spend the night. It is Mr. Rogers’s birthday & the King took up an ash tray with an angel fish enameled upon it. Mother & I went out to the Brevoort & later AB came in and we had a sweet and cosy talk in my room. He is such a frank creature & looks fate in the eyes & believes in the great fabric of life [MTP TS 24-25].
Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Frederic Whyte. “M . Clemens asks me to write for him & say that he has received both your letter & the Graphic; and that he supposed there was nothing about your first letter that indicated you would use his private answer in a public way. It has made him violate a contract with his publisher, which he naturally regrets” [MTP]. Note: Whyte had written on Dec. 7, 1906 asking Sam’s reaction to the endorsement of phrenology by Alfred r Russel Wallace; Whyte then published some of Sam’s remarks in the London Daily Graphic without permission.
Rachel A. King wrote from Scotland to thank Sam for his kind letter and photo. On his next birthday she promised to send “something that will remind you of your boyhood” [MTP].
Mrs. F.B. Powell wrote from Woodstock, NY to ask Sam for a “few lines” [MTP].
Clemens A.D. for this day is listed by MTP.