December 21 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean.  

Dear Jean this is John Howells’s wedding-day. I do not know who it is he is going to marry, I only know the sex. The sex is the main thing, & this time it is the right one.

The Howellses sail for Europe Jan. 4; on the 2d all the Harper staff, to the number of 60, go down to Lakeville by special train & give him a send-off. Miss Lyon & Mr. Paine are included, by my desire, upon the argument that they are my aides & guards, & also upon the argument that they are co-biographers with me. When I break into hellfireworks of speech, Miss Lyon sets down the words in a book. Mr. Littleton says it takes three historians to record me: a biographer, an autobiographer, and a naughty biographer—Paine, myself, & Miss Lyon.

Christmas is coming. However, we can’t help that. Also Dorothy is coming today, to take me to the hippodrome.

Goodnight, dear heart—many hugs & kisses. / Father [MTP]. Note: Martin W. Littleton, neighbor across the street, whom Sam met at the Jamestown Fulton celebration.

Dorothy Quick arrived for a visit. Not aware that Sam had “canceled” Christmas after the death of Livy, Dorothy handed him a gift to open. It was a smoker’s jackknife, according to Cooley, and he “reciprocated by presenting Dorothy with an illustrated edition of Joan of Arc, thus allowing Christmas into his life once again” [93]. Note: if Sam’s plans held, the pair went to the Hippodrome, which was a theatre from 1905 to 1939 on Sixth Ave. between 43rd and 44th Streets. Called the largest in the world by its builders, it seated 6,000. See inserts for postcard view, and for the program they enjoyed, either the matinee or the evening:

Miss H. Riddell wrote from NYC to Sam, having rec’d an introduction from Harmony Twichell. She requested “the privilege of meeting” him. “…it will be a great delight to take back to Japan with me” [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Tall woman [illegible two words] in hospital for lepers in Japan ”