April 5 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to Carl Kelsey’s Apr. 1.
My membership would be purely ornamental & therefore valueless. Have retired from the activities of life. I did not retire until I had been in the harness 40 years & concluded that I had done my share—that I have not retired in reality but I have all the work on my hands that I can attend to & that I mustn’t add any thing to it [MTP]. Note: Kelsey with Am. Academy of Political and Social Sciences.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Today I took Theresa out to Jean. Poor Jean and poor Theresa.
Yes, the King is depressed and tonight at dinner said that he wouldn’t go again to Elmira. He couldn’t.
We went over to the Gilders this evening and saw Mme. Modjeska and T.A. Janvier and Jeannette Gilder. It was a charming break, for I had such a good chat with J. Gilder, who had on a black velvet masculine gown. The family came up and patted her approvingly, and she said to me, “You know I have a horror of being overdressed.” Tom Janvier seems full of vanities and withal a pugnacious creature. Nowadays I want to fight him for he will find flaws in situations or statements. The King was in white and beautiful—though tired—and just as we were leaving I had a word with Mme. Modjeska, who longed to talk with pretty natural gestures, of C.C. and the King. Gabrilowitsch went in just as we were leaving. We talked about Redding—J. Gilder and I [MTP TS 48]. Note: Thomas Allibone Janvier, writer; Helena Modjeska famous actress. The Richard Watson Gilders had a gathering that was rather open every Friday evening. Lyon often went; Sam occasionally.
Daniel Carter Beard wrote from Flushing, NY to Sam on “The Sons of Daniel Boone” letterhead, advising of his organizing Boone clubs, each chapter to keep “an old gun as a tally gun, on the stock of which they cut a notch…I have made a few Top Notches, one of which will be the Roosevelt Notch, one the Dewey Notch, one the Bell Notch, after General Bell, of Kentucky.” Beard wanted to use the Mark Twain notch for moral courage [MTP]. Note: After Apr. 5 Sam wrote instructions for Lyon to respond: “Thank him for the honor—but tell him I haven’t any suggestions to make.”
John Mead Howells wrote to Sam. “We hand you herewith copy of prints of the ¼” scale drawings of your house and of your stable…We enclose a few notes of decisions arrived at at our last meeting with Miss Lyon” [MTP].
Chapters from “My Autobiography—XV” ran in the N.A.R. p.673-82.