September 19 Saturday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Marjorie Breckenridge, in Brooklyn.
Marjorie dear, we all thank your Mother ever so much for her invitation, but meantime I have been accepting an invitation to a matinee on the 26th, & was waiting for the tickets to come, so that I could send a couple to you & your mother & ask you to come to that matinée. The tickets have just arrived, & I enclose two. Do come if you can, for they say Billie Burke is just irresistible in this piece. Indeed you must, must, must come! At 2 p. m. Saturday Sept. 26 you will find Miss Lyon & me waiting for you at the door of the Lyceum Theatre, 45th st between Broadway & 6th avenue. But if by chance we should be delayed, don’t wait for us but go into the box & wait for us there. You won’t have to wait ten minutes.
Dorothy Sturgis M. A. arrived yesterday evening. She will stay till the 25th. We’ve been playing billiards this morning. On Tuesday Francesca M. A. will arrive from Europe but can stay with us only a day. Margaret Blackmer M. A. is coming before long, with her mother. They reached New York day before yesterday from the Pacific. After luncheon Dorothy, Miss Lyon, Ashcroft & I will drive down & call at the house of the Sheriff & inquire. He was shot by one of the burglars in the scuffle early yesterday morning.
Miss Lyon & I walked down (by way of the old bridge) to your house day before yesterday & climbed those cliffs that fence your clearing. It is to be repeated tomorrow. I found your porch a comfortable & restful & welcome place after that violent climb. We returned home by a perfectly charming woodland trail that I hadn’t known of before. We will exploit it when you come. / Good-bye, dear. With lots of love— …[MTP]. Note: Billie Burke was starring in Love Watches at the Lyceum Theatre, opening on Aug. 27.
Sam’s new guestbook:
Name Address Date Remarks
S.J. Cholmeley- Jones ————————————— September 19
Dorothea Gilder Tyringham, Mass September 19-21
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Dorothea Gilder for over Sunday. / Last night my nervousness was so great that I went to the billiard room at eleven where D. Sturgis and D. Gilder were playing at billiards with the King and I watched them from my perch, the observer or umpires seat in window” [MTP: IVL TS 65-66].
James W. Clinton wrote from Passaic, NJ to ask if the “William Clinton” mentioned in Sam’s autobiography in the Sept. 13, 1908 issue of the New York Tribune was the man’s true name, and if so, was he still alive? [MTP].
Porter F. Cope for the Anti-Vaccination League of Penn. wrote to ask Sam if they might use his name for the upcoming conference [MTP].
Captain John W. Crawford wrote from Manistee, Michigan:
My dear Twain: – / I am sending you, under separate cover, my Broncho Book and I have taken the liberty of writing a verse on the flyleaf, to a man who has rubbed up against old Mother Nature in the early days of the wild and fuzzy west. The Broncho speaks for itself. I am sure there are some things in my little modest volume that you will appreciate and thoroughly understand. After you have glanced through it, I should be very glad to receive just a line from you and remember I am going to notify you in good time so that we can have the greatest western camp-fire just among a few thoroughbreds that have ever been seen in New York.
Some time I should be glad to entertain you at my Glen Mineral Springs which I am fixing up for a very beautiful summer resort. Trusting you are in good health and with very best wishes, believe me, in clouds and sunshine, / Your Friend J.W. Crawford / Capt. Jack [MTP]. Note: The Broncho Book, Being Buck-Jumps in Verse (1908); not in Gribben.
Gustav Haller for Security Mortgage, Pasadena, Calif. wrote to Sam having read in the local papers that Twain was “contemplating taking up a residence in Southern California— probably in Pasadena,” and offered their real estate services [MTP]. Note: the origin of this rumor is not clear, but Charles Langdon had recently spent time in S. California for his health and visiting a friend.
Frederick A. Wright, clergyman wrote from Brooklyn, NY to Sam. Wright’s wife had met Clemens at George Washington Cable’s house in New Orleans as a girl. This a thoughtful and sincere fan letter which details the joys of the HF characters [MTP].
September 19? Saturday – In Redding, Conn. Sam drafted a collect telegram reply to the Sept. 18 from Melville E. Stone of the Associated Press, NYC. “No. I can get burglars here at club rates and they pay their own fare. Can you lend me a dog? I want one that will leave strawberries and cream to eat burglar” [MTP].