October 11 Friday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam replied to the Oct. 7 from Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.).

Mariechen dear, Flower of Nieces, it was my purpose to thank you for your letter in person, but the court had a more different story about it, & it forbade Fairhaven, & furnished me a couple of days’ testifying to do.

Ah, you ought to see the baby! I have seen the baby. It is beautiful, but not so beautiful as the mother. It looks wonderfully young, but that is a Kane specialty, they all look that way. I did not get its good opinion, but I think that was my own fault. It overheard me say it looked like Bryan. I meant it as a compliment, but I would have chosen some one else if I had known it was prejudiced. I am always doing the unfortunate thing, & always meaning the opposite. The child did not say anything, but I know by its expression that the next time I call I shall not get in. Yet I give you my word of honor, I wouldn’t have wounded it for anything in the world. I want to write it a letter, if you think that would do any good.

I walked every step of the way out there & back, except that a lady carried me up the hill in her brougham & left me at the door. I mean to take a walk every year—it does me good. Down in the road, coming away, I met Grandmother Kane, looking as girlish & handsome as ever, & with her was another girl, her daughter.

You will find your sloping lawn satisfactorily green & comely, when you arrive; & there’s a fine crop of tall yellow flowers down by the water—crocuses, I reckon.

I don’t know what the penalty is that’s hanging over me, but I know the anfractuosities of the Admiral’s temper well enough to know that he will forget all about it before he gets a chance to inflict it. Come along home, please. To my most affectionate niece—

These, from her most affectionate / Uncle Mark

 P. S., 5 p. m. Telephone from Mrs. Broughton, Great Neck:

“The yacht left for Fairhaven to-day to bring all the family home on Sunday.” Including you & your triplets, I hope. Instead of burning this I will allow myself the privilege of mailing it to your home here as a Welcome [MTP].

Note: the testifying may have been in Ralph W. Ashcroft’s lawsuit against John Hays Hammond, who had sent a telegram about the American Plasmon Co. to Sam with words Ashcroft deemed libelous: “I strongly oppose turning over the company to Ashcroft’s Board of Directors. He had been identified with the administration of Cook & Wright and is incompetent, or worse” [NY Times, Oct. 16, 1907, p.7, “John Hays Hammond Sued”].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “I’ve been telephoning to a Miss Eualabee Dix, who has written to ask if the King would lunch with the Countess of Warwick and it is arranged for tomorrow” [MTP TS 114].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “I told him [Clemens] that I had picked up a little clipping in the hall & it voices—in part—his own feelings [about Roosevelt]. I’ll copy it for he wants it again. Henry Watterson wrote it” [Gribben 749].

George G. Ball for the Harvard Union wrote to invite Sam to address a student gathering on Nov. 5 at 8 p.m. [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Answd”

Cara L. Broughton sent a telegram from Great Neck, N.Y.: “The Yacht left for Fairhaven today to bring all the family home on Sunday” [MTHHR 642n1].

George M. Payne, news editor of The Washington Times wrote to invite Sam to lecture to “small group of Washington newspaper men” [MTP].

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