November 4 Wednesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Berlin, Germany.
Jean dear, an Embassy isn’t a house, it is a function—strictly speaking. Still, custom allows us to speak of it as a house; & so, to speak of it in that way is right enough. Our Ambassador is a messenger, & in common parlance, the place he occupies—whether it be a hotel, a palace, a stable, a cellar, or a vacant lot—is an Embassy. Also that place ceases to be a part of the country it is in, & becomes for the time being, a part of the country the messenger represents; & its occupants are sacred from arrest or molestation, their persons are inviolable. Where the American ambassador unfurls his flag—say, in a vacant half-acre, that half acre is for the time being, a part of the United States, & accused persons taking refuge there, cannot be touched, by force. The King’s writ fails at the foot of the flagstaf. The buildings occupied in Paris & London by our Embassies, are not owned by our Government. We own no Embassies except 2 or 3 cheap shacks in the Far East. We save our money to buy votes with. Graft is our political religion.
Today the news arrives that Taft is elected. It may be that we shall presently own our embassies; Congress has been almost willing for the past few years.
My, but it is a black & threatening day! but very beautiful, enchantingly beautiful.
Tammany is dead. I am very sorry. She was the most beautiful cat on this side of the planet, & perhaps the most gifted. Intellectually, I mean; morally she was loose. She leaves behind her, inconsolable, by her first marriage, Billiards & Babylon, & by her second, Ananda Annanci & Sindbad. She was buried with the honors due her rank & reputation.
Hear you are making progress, & I am glad & grateful / Father [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Laura Hawkins Frazer.
Dear Laura,
We enjoyed the visit you and your granddaughter paid us very much, and remember it with pleasure. The pictures made by Miss Lyon came out very well. I enclose samples. All well but Tamany, Tamany is dead. Tamany is (was) the cat.
[on the envelope Sam wrote:]
Since sealing this your very welcome letter has arrived with the picture, and I thank you very much. S. L. C. [MTP: Hannibal Evening Courier-Post, 6 March 1935, p. 3c].
Sam also wrote to Louise Paine:
Dear Louise: / I don’t expect this to reach you, for your habit is to violate the first law of correspondence, which is repeat your address in every letter.
Tammany is dead. I am very sorry. She was the most beautiful cat on this western bulge of the globe, & perhaps the most gifted. She leaves behind her, inconsolable, two children by her first marriage—Billiards & Babylon; & three grandchildren by her second—Amanda, Annanci & Sindbad. She met her death by violence, at the hands of a dog. She was found dead in the early morning, under my window, whither she had apparently dragged herself from a predacious excursion, for she had with her a field mouse that had suffered death by murder.
She was buried by Miss Lyon with the honors due her official rank—for by appointment she was Mascot to the Aquarium, & brought it good luck as long as she lived. She took great interest in the M.A.’s & went to the billiard room every day to look at their pictures.
REQUIES CAT IN PACE
As a token of respect & regret, it is requested that each M.A. wear black head ribbons during one hour on the 30th of this month—Tammany’s birthday. / Lovingly S.L.C. [MTP: Redding Times, June 19, 1958, p.13; MTAq 230-1].
Howells & Stokes wrote to Sam, enclosing a bill for $32 from Russell & Erwin Mfg. For eight casement adjusters [MTP]. Note: “Ans. Nov. 5 MLH”
Mrs. Lee Lyon for The Temple Sisterhood, Kansas City, Mo. wrote to ask Sam to lecture there [MTP]. Note: “Ans. Nov. 13 MLH”
Charles P.G. Scott for the Simplified Spelling Board, NYC wrote to Sam about a “parchment book” that had been “going round the country from California to Boston for the signatures of the members of the Board” was now in New York. “If you have no hope of avoiding the duty of signing the document, and will indicate a time at which you will be home, and resigned, we will send it to you by messenger…the book is really very pretty, in spite of the bad handwriting of the signers” [MTP].