December 29 Tuesday – Sam wrote in the new Guestbook before transferring names and information from the old guestbook:
STORMFIELD GUESTBOOK
I bought this farm of 200 acres three years ago, at the suggestion of Albert Bigelow Paine, who said its situation and surroundings would content me, a prophecy which came true 2 years later, when I arrived on the ground. John Howells, architect, & Clara Clemens & Miss Lyon planned this house without help or advice from me, & began to build it in June 1907. When I arrived a year later … it was all finished & furnished & swept & garnished, & was a home, cosy and comfortable as if it had been occupied a generation. This was on the 18th of June of the present year (1908.) I only came to spend the summer, but I shan’t go away any more.
We installed a guest-book June 27th & used it until four days ago, when this new & more satisfactory one arrived from the hand of my niece Mary Rogers & put it out of commission. I have transferred the names from that one to this one. The autographing of signatures will now be resumed. Has been resumed, I should say: that charming Billie Burke was the first guest to arrive after the coming of the book, & she inaugurated the resuming. Her signature heads them. / S.L. Clemens / Dec. 29, 1908.
Note: On the first signatory page, Clemens went back and, in his own hand, listed the visitors of the preceding six months, beginning with himself on June 18, 1908. The original guestbook was “installed” on June 27, 1908 and used until Mary B. Rogers gave Sam the new book for Christmas, 1908.
In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Frances Nunnally in Atlanta.
Go it, dear! Go to all the dances & teas & luncheons, & all the other wholesome dissipations that offer—they are the due of your youth. I used to do like that, myself, in the early part of last century.
Benares sails for England to-day, on some business of mine. We shall miss him.
Billie Burke spent last Sunday & part of Monday here, & was her charmingest self. We’ve had lots of delightful company lately, & lots more are coming. But not you, you rascal!—& it’s a pity, I think.
Margaret, M. A. has been here, with her mother. They are in Bermuda now.
“Stormfield?” I made the change lately. That’s its public name; the other is its official name, for my fishes; & is restricted to the Aquarium.
You are a Democrat, perhaps. No matter; when the President-elect comes you must shake hands with him for me, & give him my very best wishes. I am a Mugwump (the only one left, perhaps), but I like him ever so much & am glad he was elected, for he will make a good President. He lets on to like me, & I think he does.
Don’t you fail to write me a line when you get back to school. Try & remember that.
Good bye, dear. Have a good time. / Affectionately … [MTP].
Sam wrote a note on p. 69 of Aspects of the Earth, etc. by Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, a gift from Elizabeth Wallace: “Dec. 29, 1908. I was reading these volcanic pages in bed when the morning paper brought this account of Aetna’s yesterday performances.” Note: see Dec. 31, Gribben.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: There has been a great earth quake in Italy again & when we go to read the paper about it, we find that the King has cut out that article quite regardless of anyone. Gabrilowitsch & I walked down to the gorge in the early moonlight. I wear a pair of the King’s white trousers & rubber boots, & find it very good going [MTP: IVL TS 88].
Milk Commission of the Allegheny County Medical Society per Ogden Edwards wrote to ask Sam for a subscription donation [MTP]. Note: “Ans Jan 4 MLH”
Willard G. Day wrote from Baltimore to ask Sam to “give a reading or lecture in Baltimore sometime in the near future” [MTP]. Note: “Ans Jan 4 MLH”
E.T. Elcock for the NY Evening Post wrote to Sam, replying to Lyon’s letter that he wished the New York Evening Post discontinued and the Nation sent [MTP]. Note: “Ans Dec 30 MLH”; and IVL: “In as much as it’s only the Editorials that I want, it not a matter of any consequence whether it comes the evening before or the week after but it’s really the Nation that I want, so that I can let it lie on my pillow & read it when I get ready.”
Marguerite L. Glentworth for Woman’s Press Club of NYC wrote to ask Sam to speak to their Press Day on Jan. 30 [MTP]. Note: “Ans Dec 30 MLH”; IVL: “Would like to be able to accept the invitation thanks for it”
Thomas Commerford Martin for Electrical World wrote to Lyon (though catalogued as to Clemens) [MTP].
Bismark Moore wrote from NYC to Sam touting their Platinum Co. as an investment [MTP]. Note: “Ans Dec 30 MLH”; IVL: “Many thanks for offer, but all he has made all investments that it is possible to make”
New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad per A.B. Smith wrote to Sam that he rec’d his of Dec. 28 in regard to the forwarding of baggage for Redding on the 3:32 p.m. train out of NY. He would investigate [MTP].
Paul Thompson for the Article Syndicate, NYC wrote to Lyon (though catalogued as to Clemens) [MTP].
Barbara West wrote from St. Louis to Sam, enclosing a poem she’d sent to five publishers who’d rejected it. What was his opinion? [MTP].