October 4 Friday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote a great spoof to William Dean Howells, and sent the same note to daughter Jean (perhaps the first part of the letter is lost).  

Jean dear it is an outrage the way the govment is acting so I am sending following complaint to N. Y. Times with Howels name signed because it will have more weight:

P. S.

To the Editor

Sir to you, I would like to know what kind of a goddam govment this is that discriminates between two common carriers & makes a goddam railroad charge every body equal & lets a goddam man charge any goddam price he wants to for his goddam operabox / W D Howels [MTP; MTHL 2: 827]. Note: source explains that Sam “never ceased to have fun in imagining Howells acting or talking like Pap Finn” [n1].

Sam also replied to the Oct. 2 of Frances Nunnally, who had traveled to her school, St. Timothy’s, in Cantonsville, Md..

Thank you very much, for letting me know you arrived safely, dear Francesca. It was hard for us to let you & your mother go; however it wouldn’t have been any easier if the visit had been many times longer than it was.

I hope Governor Warfield really has a daughter that’s coming out. I don’t know. But he said he had. I hope so; & that it will happen in November, & not in the holidays, so that I can see you.

If you please, dear, give my kindest regards to your mother, & thank her again for the visit / With love/ SLC/ Ashcroft came, & we played the game. When it was through he was about bankrupt, & Miss Lyon owed 94 buttons [MTP].

Sam also wrote to H.H. Rogers.

Didn’t Mary promise to write me a line (before Oct. 3) & tell me if the yacht would be sailing to-day or tomorrow?—so that I wouldn’t be making obstructing engagements. Yes, I think she did, if I didn’t dream it. I’d have postponed Clara, which would have been just as well, for I think she has postponed herself. She was due here hours ago & isn’t here yet, & hasn’t telegraphed.

Will you please examine the enclosed & correct the spelling & then mail it to the N. Y. Times. I believe it will help Howells with worldly people.

Now as to this Bumpkin Club. If you will draw the check to my order & send it here, I will endorse it over to Mr. Steck & see that he gets it. I will see to it personally. Please send it right away, because as you can see by his letter that you cannot get in after he closes the list, at any price at all, & he is liable to close it any minute. He evidently has great power in the Club. Would you like to be an officer? I believe I can fix it for you for $3. Send the money right now, or it may be too late. Harry has been accepted; I proposed him. I should wish to have the money soon. Could you speak to Winsor about this—and Broughton & Benjamin? I will get them in if I can. Let them send the money now. Would the like to be officers, think? $9. / Love to all./ SLC

P. P. S. He will call on you, if you wish further particulars. But hurry! [MTHHR 640].

Note: Sam’s plans to visit Fairhaven had been changed due to Clara’s expected visit. The enclosed was undoubtedly the spoof sent to the Times by “Howels” (see Oct. 4) and shared with Howells and Jean. The Bumpkin Club had been proposed by David P. Steele, in a letter dated Oct. 2. Sam clearly enjoyed spoofing it to Rogers for comedic effect. See Oct. 2 from Steele.

P. S. Hurry!

Katharine B. Clemens wrote from NYC to invite Sam to meet her and their mutual cousin James Brent Clemens, at Delmonico’s on Oct. 9 or 11. She would only be in town for ten days and then return to St. Louis [MTP]. Note: James Brent Clemens’ lineage was not found.

Myron H. Phelps wrote to enlist Sam in the cause of exposing the “disgraceful explotation” by the British in India, and also in the cause of allowing Indians to study in America.

I address you, Mr. Clemens, as the man who can probably do more for this cause than any other in the United States, and perhaps in the world; whose trenchant pen can uncover those living lies and compel to its revelations the attention of the world, can make Englishmen blush for the things which have been done in their name, and perhaps set right, under the lash of the world’s scorn, if need be, the shameful wrongs which have been thus inflicted upon a gentle and long- suffering race… [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote for Sam on the letter: “Tell him I tried to awake our people in behalf of the black folks that Leopold has been robbing and butchering for 15 years & thoroughly satisfied myself that it is quite impossible to interest the average human being with suffering that is beyond his sight & immediate touch. We know a valuable thing when we see it & this is precious beyond the dreams of avarice”