December 6 Sunday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Margaret Blackmer.
You “suppose” I had a happy Thanksgiving, do you? You don’t suppose anything of the kind, you dear little rascal. You know very well I wouldn’t have a happy Thanksgiving & you not here.
But it was just sweet of you to send me the flowers. They are lasting very well; they haven’t lost their freshness yet.
We’ve been telephoning last night, & I am hoping we are going to capture you next Friday. But we have to wait & see if your mother will consent. Mr. Howells is coming, & he is just a love (but you mustn’t flirt with him;) & Colonel Harvey is coming; if there is a spare bed I hope your mother will come, too. / With love [MTP; MTAq 237-8 misdated as Nov. 29].
Sam also wrote to Dorothy Sturgis.
Dear Annieanlouise: / A week ago I drifted over the 73-year frontier safely & entered my second childhood in good shape. It was like passing a milestone in the dark—I couldn’t notice that anything was happening. It is very different at 50 & at 70. And again at a hundred, of course.
We have had a good many guests since the burglar days, but not an actress. I was too slow. October came, all of a sudden, & brought a time-table change which effectually put up the bars against the profession. There was but one who was free—Margaret Illington. Free by disaster, emancipated by broken health. It looks as if the stage is going to lose her, but I hope it will not happen.
I was in New York day before yesterday, & was to have stayed with the Rogerses, but at the last moment Mrs. Rogers was taken ill, & Mrs. Benjamin also (surgical operation): so I stayed with other friends. I saw Benjamin, & he said Mr. Rogers would probably go to Bermuda soon.
Your fellow-visitors of Sept. 18 have been tried, sentenced, & sent to jail—one of them for 4 years, the other for 9—this latter for burglary and shooting with intent to kill. The terms were light because they pleaded guilty. I had a letter from the murderous one three days ago. He is clearly a merciless devil, a bloody-minded devil, but softly sentimental, just the same, for he is a German. In his lament he says, “ich traume in des Lebens Blüthezeit.” (He is about 43.) / With lots of love— / Major [MTP; MTAq 239]. Note: Cooley offers translation: “I dream about a new (better) life.”
Sam also wrote to Martin W. Littleton, 113 E. 57th Street, NYC.
Dear Littleton: / Thank you for delivering into my hands those sumptuous examples of the art of decorating & putting together tobacco in the right & reverent way—when it is such tobacco—tobacco without its previous equal in flavor & fragrance, if my knowledge & experience are to be depended on.
And thank you again, & again, & again, & again, for not keeping it to yourself. I shall always admire you for this.
And please thank Mr. O’Grady for me, & very cordially. Thank him for the whisky, too. I had just reformed, but it is not too late to re-arrange that. I am used to it. / Sincerely Yours … [MTP].
W.L. French wrote to ask for an interview about analyzing character from handwriting [MTP]. Note: “Ans Dec 11 MLH”
Charles J. Grundstrom, 21 year old “working boy” wrote from Riverside, Calif. to ask Sam for a “personal letter” about “some little incident” in his life [MTP]. Note: “Ans Dec 14 MLH; autogr. sent”
Hattie Summerfield for Illinois Woman’s Press Assoc., Chicago wrote to ask Sam for an autographed copy of one of his books for the benefit of the Needy Author’s Fund [MTP].