June 15 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to the June 14 from Lilian W. Aldrich.
Dear Mrs. Aldrich: / It is lovely of you to invite me for the 29th, & I wish I could accept, but I shall not be able to arrive until the next day. I shall be pretty sure to catch the special train; but failing that, I shall go by the 10 a.m. I could easily miss both trains if I were alone, but a friend will go with me who will protect me from myself. / Yours affectionately / Mark. / P. S. / I started this note, was then called away, & presently came back & unwittingly made a new start [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.).
Mariechen dear, it is lovely of you to invite me, & I do wish I could say yes, but I am tied up with preventive engagements—that is to say, company at “INNOCENCE AT HOME” (name of the house I have built in the country—you are permitted to keep your sarcasms to yourself, dear; & it wouldn’t be safe for you to utter any, anyway.)
The final last tinkering & fussing & finishing was completed yesterday on the Sabbath day, & everything is shipshape & ready now. Miss Lyon & the servants & the four cats will go up to- morrow morning & take possession, & I am to follow two days later, in the later afternoon. Friends will arrive Friday, Saturday & Monday. I am conscious of a steadily augmenting great curiosity to see what the house looks like. And also the region round about. Clara & Miss Lyon claim that it is as beautiful as Tuxedo, but I doubt it.
Of course you can have any head I’ve got, & right welcome—but I don’t know of any “large” head, unless you mean the brown-tinted London one such as H. H. has. If that is it, I can get a copy from London in about 3 weeks. If it is the Gessford (New York) picture, tell me & I will attend to it. I think I like the London one better.
The skinning of this house goes steadily on, hour by hour. There is not an ornament left in my bedroom now but a bottle of Scotch whisky, & somebody has even been skinning that.
Paragon of nieces, I herewith enclose my warm regards and regrets to Father Fitz Simon; & to you my love. / Uncle Mark [MTP]. Note: William Fitz-Simon was about to be married. The London photographer was H. Walter Barnett; see June 26.
Monte A. Dernham wrote from San Francisco to ask for an autograph [MTP].