March 7 Thursday – Sam did not attend the memorial meeting for the late Ernest Howard Crosby, one of the founders of the Social Reform Club, but sent a letter (not extant), as did a few other luminaries. Sam was listed in the Feb. 23 NY Times article as being among those in charge of the meeting in Cooper Union [NY Times, Mar. 8, p.2 “Honor Crosby’s Memory”].
Franklin and Harriet Whitmore came for a three-day stay with Sam [Mar. 12 to Clara; Hill 165; IVL TS 32].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: This evening Mr. & Mrs. Whitmore arrived. It had been a harassing day for Mary Cook developed a very bad mastoid condition of ear & Dr. McKernon came, pierced the poor creature’s ear drums & then they took her away to the hospital. I was quivering with misery over her suffering & I’d been trying to keep her illness from Mr. Clemens when Dr. Halsey went into the King’s room (his door was open & he lay on the bed) & told him of Mary’s condition. “However, it’s all right, there are no mistakes in the fabric.”
The King & Mr. Whitmore played billiards until late, & it was a delight to hear the billiard balls clicking again. The King flitted around the table, with pink cheeks & bright eyes, while Mr. Whitmore plays a ponderous but beautiful game [MTP TS 32].
Fred H. Clifford wrote from Bangor, Maine, disappointed that Sam would not come there during Clara’s tour; he sent a copy of the 1906 B. & A. R.R. Guidebook, “which is fairly suggestive of recreation life in northern Maine” [MTP].
C. Henry Fosgate wrote to Sam, having just purchased the Mark Twain Hotel in Hannibal. He enclosed a clipping from this day’s Quincy Herald, which offered Twain $5,000 a year just to come and live in the hotel, the idea, Fosgate wrote “of the ambitious editor” [MTP].
Alex Mackay-Smith wrote to Sam from Phila., enclosing an extract from the Encyclopedia Britannica on one Joanna Southcott (1750-1814) a self-described prophetess similar to Mary Baker Eddy [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote: “Mentioned in the beginning of C.S. Long ago disappeared. They don’t mention her any more.”
Albert B. Paine wrote from Kansas City, Mo. to Sam and Isabel Lyon.
Dear King and Secretary: / No disasters to date except the eating house at London Ontario, where in her haste to escape, Joy left her doll’s handbag, which thus far has not caught up with us, making it necessary for her doll to sleep in a garment which I, like Katy Murray, am far too modest to name [MTP]. Paine also compared K.C. with Chicago. Joy Paine was his youngest daughter.
James K. Paulding sent Sam a printed notice for a memorial meeting in honor of Ernest Howard Crosby, Mar 7. Paulding would be pleased to use Sam’s name as a member of the committee arranging for this meeting [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote: “I am willing”
Frederick E. Pierce for Lincoln Farm Assoc. wrote to Sam, enclosing a letter by Clarence H. Mackay. The work of the Assoc. “is going forward splendidly,” and he solicited the use of Sam’s name on a list of prominent men in Connecticut [MTP].
Robert Reid wrote to Isabel Lyon.
I can’t tell you how shocked and distressed I am by your letter. I seem to have driven one more nail into the coffin of the lovely (to me) friendship of dear St. Mark—by expressing my letter to him so badly as to have it entirely misinterpreted. I simply asked him, as a friend of both— whether he thought My telling Mr. Rogers a certain fact would—or could not—further my nearly hopeless cause. / And he doesn’t even congratulate me!! / Most sincerely… [MTP]. Note: On the same day Sam gave the following instructions to Isabel Lyon for a reply:
Tell Robert Reid am not willing to speak to M . Rogers again. I did not get enough encouragement the last time I spoke to him to make me want to. There is nothing I could say to him that I have not already said—& indeed repeated. If it were some one else, another r repetition might do good, but I think that with M . Rogers’s make it would most probably fail again [MTP].
An unidentified person from NYC wrote a nonsensical, crank letter to Sam [MTP].
George Thomson Wilson for Pilgrims of the U.S. sent a printed invitation to Sam for a banquet by The Pilgrims, Mar. 23 at 7 p.m. in honor of James Bryce, O.M., English Ambassador to the US [MTP].