June 7 Sunday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Ebenezer J. Hill, postmaster, N.Y. A draft plus a signed letter survive.

Dear Sir: /I am just about to settle in Redding; but to live there, & have to break bulk at Branchville, on then mail addressed to Georgetown, is too confusing for me. The Railroad Co has done its part to my entire satisfaction, in the matter of granting us express-service after June 15, and now I turn to you to help me out of the difficulty of being outside the limit allowed to the rural free delivery that starts from the Redding Post Office. There are several of us newcomers, & there will be some more. Hoping you will be able to help us, I am /  Very … [MTP: Christie’s East catalogs, Nov. 12, 1997, Item 27].

Sam also replied to the June 5 from Dorothy Quick.

You dear little rat, aren’t you ever going to stop catching cold & struggling with bronchitis? I am so sorry for you. Wait till I get you up-country at “Innocence at Home”—then we’ll set your health up!

Yes, I like the idea of waiting till fall to buy the pony. A hired one will answer quite well in the meantime.

I am glad you’ve got Billy & Dodo. In December they will be just right, & I will run down to see you & we will have them for dinner. I am like you, I just love rabbits.

I have been scheming to get down to your school-exercises day after tomorrow, but I failed, because of a string of business engagements which are going to keep me here for more than two days yet. I would love to see you, dear.

Will it be safe to leave them with Claire Kenworthy? Do you know her well-enough? Is she good, & does she go to Sunday school? I think I wouldn’t take any rash chances; because if she should eat them—however, maybe she can resist. I will hope so. She can eat the “products,” & that will be all right, because they will belong to her.

Miss Lyons sends her love, & I send lots & lots of love, dear heart  / SLC

I reckon this will catch you before you get started toward Atlantic City. Tell me—what is your address there, & how long shall you stay? [MTAq 170-1].

Note: Cooley in the latter source cites Clara in MFMT that the name for the new house at Redding was changed from “Autobiography House” to “Innocence at Home” on June 3, but this is incorrect. Sam made the change on the morning of June 2, at the end of his stay in Deal,

N.J. with the Harveys; see entry. Such errors often get repeated.

Sam also wrote to John L. RoBards in Hannibal, Mo.

If the graves of my family need putting in order, will you kindly have it attended to and send me the bill? I shall be greatly obliged.

I was very sorry to miss you that afternoon at the Auditorium, but I was constantly being introduced to people, & had no chance to get out my glasses & examine the cards placed in my hands until you were gone; then all my efforts to get on your track were futile. By George it was a day of confusions, mistakes, disappointments, defeated intentions, & cross-purposes!

You came east, that time, without looking in at 21 Fifth avenue. Please don’t act like that again. I will always be a delight to me to see you—& the time left us is not long, John / Sincerely Your friend … [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Dorothy Sturgis.

The Directors of the Children’s Theatre are holding a business meeting down stairs, but as I am only Honorary President, I don’t have to do any work & can therefore stay up here & answer Aquarium letters. Yours I cannot find; & so, as I don’t know what State Woodstock is in I will send this to your Boston address.

I find I am not going to pass through Boston till then end of the month, because I can’t get away from here earlier. I do hope you will be at home again by that time. I have to be in Portsmouth, N. H., June 30 for the Tom Bailey Aldrich Memorial dedication.

I go visiting on Long Island tomorrow, but shall return on Friday to receive an angel-fish (the Georgian) & her parents, who will dine with me & sail for Europe next Day. Then I shall go back & finish the visit.

Yesterday we went to see “The Servant in the House”) (oh, a noble play), & tonight I go dining out, to meet the author of it, whom I very much wish to know.

I don’t know how I have managed to mislay your letter. Such is not my custom—certainly it isn’t as regards the letters of the Aquarium. I don’t care for the others, they are Miss Lyon’s affair. / Lovingly … [MTAq 169-70]. Note: Charles Rann Kennedy (1871-1950) Anglo- American dramatist, was the author of The Servant in the House; his plays dealt with moral dilemmas. Frances Nunnally was the Angelfish Sam planned to receive on Friday.

The New York Times, June 8, ran a squib on p. 7 covering the Kennedy dinner:

Dinner to Charles Rann Kennedy.

Miss Elizabeth Jordan gave a dinner at Delmonico’s last night in honor of Charles Rann Kennedy, author of “The Servant in the House,” and Mrs. Kennedy, (Edith Wynne Mathison.)

      Among those present were Mark Twain, Mr. and Mrs. Selden Bacon, Mr. and Mrs. St. Clair McKelway, Charles A. Conant, Mrs. James Robert McKee, Mr. and Mrs. Morgan Goetchius, Miss Elizabeth Cutting, and Mr. Arthur Brisbane.

Newton Wallop (Earl of Portsmouth) wrote to Sam. “I wish I could have seen you as well as your handwriting. We shall not be returning to town before the end of this month; but Lady Portsmouth hopes then to give herself the opportunity of making your daughters acquaintance.” The Wallops were visiting the US [MTP].