October 5 Saturday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to the Oct. 4th from Katharine B. Clemens (Mrs. James Ross Clemens), now in N.Y.C. Yes, Sam had rec’d the photographs of Katharine’s “two charming little children”; Lyon had written her thanks, and they’d waited for them until the last train “on that Saturday.”

Then he wishes me to say now, that he will be ever so glad to lunch with you next Wednesday the 9th, at Delmonico’s and meet Mr. Brent Clemens. Half past one will suit him very well, & give him plenty of time to catch the 3:53 train back to Tuxedo, as that is the train he must take.

The daughters are neither of them in New York, or near it. Clara is in Boston studying, & Jean is in her sanitarium, & cannot make trips away from it [MTP].

Sam also wrote to George B. Harvey.

Dear Uncle George: / The Pilgrim invitation has come, & as the matter started with you originally, etiquette requires that I reply to it to you, its source. I have thought it all over, &—I am 72. I would rather speak at this dinner than at any other, because it is given to a distinguished Englishman & naturally I am drawn toward our cousins, these days, with renewed warmth, because of the honors & generosities heaped upon me lately by Oxford & by the English people of all grades, but—I am 72. I attended no banquets last year. That was a restful & blessed year! I will duplicate it this season; & will begin by declining the only invitation I shall decline at cost of regret [Sotheby’s auction, June 19, 2003, Lot 119, p.101].

Note the Pilgrims, U.S. chapter had sent an invitation to a dinner on Oct. 15 honoring Rev.

Winnington-Ingram, lord bishop of London, who had arrived in America to present the King’s Bible to Bruton Church of Williamsburg, Virginia, the oldest Anglican in continuous use in the U.S. [Fatout, MT Speaking 590]. Sam did not attend the Oct. 15 dinner, although he wrote a speech for the event; he may have sent a letter, possibly this one, in it’s place. The speech contained a great deal of controversial criticism of American culture, and if it had been sent, the press would have had a field day. See source, p. 590-595 for the text of the MS, “Bishop Speech,” which is in the MTP.

John Hendersen Miller wrote from Kansas City, Mo. to Sam, enclosing a review of his book, which he felt Sam would enjoy, being also from Missouri [MTP].

Clemens A.D. for this day is listed by MTP.