January 2 Thursday – The New York Times, p. 9 ran this brief squib of an upcoming gathering:
Lotos Club Dinner to Mark Twain
A jollification dinner is announced at the Lotos Club on Jan. 11. Mark Twain is to be the guest of the evening.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Loose jointed & weary I am in bed all day. Not doing much thinking— not doing any work but reading Daniel Deronda with greater delight than ever.
The King signed some kind of a document that pertains to the settling of the Knickerbocker Trust Co’s depositor claims, and Ashcroft came to help him do it. It is claimed that in 2 yrs & 4 mos. all depositors will receive the full value of their moneys.
He told me about the farewell dinner to Mr. Howells, that he went to last night at the Metropolitan Club—“the millionaires’ club.” Col. Harvey gave the dinner & the food was fine —“delicious terrapin—2 rounds of it”—the King hadn’t eaten anything for 24 hours so his appetite was good & even if he hadn’t the big dish of radishes that he eats every night for dinner, he had no heart burn. The Colonel asked him to speak last & to go after 6 speeches, one of them by Alden, who droned away [before] the King talked—“Just talked,” which is so wonderful. Like a dream edifice, for you don’t know what is coming next, & his talks build into exquisite towers & pinnacles & when he sits down the wonderful structure he has built fades away & you have only an imperishable memory of a hauntingly beautiful thing that you can never remember and never forget [MTP: IVL TS 1].
Mrs. Augusta Quimby Frederick wrote to Sam from Belfast, Maine, having just finished CS and regretted that it ended.
“My knowledge of Mrs. Eddy dates back prior to 1866, before she had mounted the Eddy throne, in all her war-paint and feathers. She was then plain Mrs. Patterson in more ways than in name, but her ability to circle round the truth and not touch it, dates back to her first breath.”
She wrote she was the daughter of the late Phineas P. Quimby [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Answd. Jan. 22, 08”
Harper & Brothers wrote to ask Sam’s permission for a Louisville, Ky. high school to give “two or three performances of” P&P [MTP].