February 21 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote a letter of introduction to Albert Bigelow Paine for Joe Goodman [MTP: Am. Art Assoc-Anderson Galleries catalogs, 11-12 Nov. 1937, No. 4346, Item 88]. Note: Paine would travel in the West gathering information for the Mark Twain biography.
In the two-volume copy of Studies in the History of Venice (1907) by Horatio Robert Forbes Brown (1854-1926), Sam put his name and the month and year, then wrote on the front free endpaper of vol. 1 a lengthy note dated Feb. 21, 1908 of his meeting with Brown in Venice thirty years earlier [Gribben 87].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: The King went to hear Tetrazzini tonight. When he came home I went in to see him as he lay in bed smoking, & he said that he was enchanted with her singing. Here she is with her great fame to come after her after her 45th year. For years she sang in San Francisco & elsewhere, at a modest salary, & in London she burst upon the world in her great glory.
Mother is standing by me working for me, doing errands. Copying letters & today she bought tobacco for the King. I could not go without her wonderful & sympathetic help [MTP: IVL TS 25]. Note: insert ad of Feb. 17, 1908 shows this day’s performance (Friday) was Lucia Di Lammermoor, a tragic opera in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti, running about 3 hours 40 minutes at Oscar Hammerstein’s Manhattan Opera House. Luisa Tetrazzini (1871-1940), Italian soprano of great international fame. Her 1907 debut in London’s Covent Garden as Violetta in La traviata was a sensation, and in 1908 she played the same role in New York.
Howells & Stokes wrote to Sam to enclose a copy of William Webb Sunderland’s letter agreeing to complete the loggia wing at $4,100 by June 1, weather permitting [MTP].
John Larkin wrote to Sam enclosing a receipt for payment of personal property taxes of $79.77 [MTP].
Frances Nunnally wrote again from St. Timothy’s, Catonsville, Md. to Sam.
About two hours after I mailed that note to you the postman brought me that lovely pin. It certainly is pretty and you don’t know how much I appreciate it. The angel-fish surely must be a beautiful fish if it has all those lovely colors. …What has become of that trip to Washington you thought you might make? I certainly wish you would take it and stop by Baltimore [MTP].
Miss Lula Phillips wrote from Monticello, Va. to Sam. “In looking thru an old trunk of my mother’s I came across this photo of your mother and thinking that you would like to have it I take pleasure in forwarding it to you. / The late Dr. J.M. Clemens of Louisville was a relation of mine (our Mothers being sisters) and I presume this is how the picture came to be in her possession” [MTP]. Lyon wrote on the env., “Important / contains photo of Mr. Clemens’s mother / Answd. Explaining etc.”
Dorothy Quick wrote from Plainfield, NJ to Sam. “I am glad you are going back to Bermuda because I know you love it there but I shall not see you for so long I wish I could go too / Will you write me when ever you have time and tell me all about the beautiful lilies when they come out / With lots of love and kisses your loving /Dorothy” [MTP].