December 27 Wednesday – In New York at the Players Club, Sam wrote to daughter Susy. He wished she could be with him at Dr. Rice’s gathering the following night. He also told of how happy his speech had made Brander Matthews, quoting him as saying the delivery was “masterly!” Also, he told about his ruined Christmas dinner due to a lady he detested (See. Dec. 25 entry). Sam finished the letter after a six-hour interval, at midnight.
In the interim Sam went to dinner at Laurence Hutton’s home.
No outsider there but me. A most pleasant time. A Mr. Kip, of Buffalo, came in later — fine man. But at dinner I was still full of that detested woman [Christmas at the Laffan’s] and turned myself loose on her, covering up her identity very artfully, as I thought. Finally Mrs. Hutton said, “I want to shake hands with you; she is my pet detestation, too” — & she named her. But men haven’t any intuitions; Hutton had guessed wide of the mark.
[Note: the female in question may have been Emma Sayles, who Sam wrote about on Feb. 15 to Livy: “the sight of her brought all that was vicious in me to the surface.” Or, as Laura Skandera-Trombley conjectures, [p.164] was Lillian Aldrich; either female caused Sam extreme irritation]
Sam also told of seeing Wayne MacVeagh, who was now Minister to Italy. He then related the whirl that his life in New York had become, a whirl which caused the title, “Belle of New York,” which is attributed to Jamie (James) Dodge, son of Mary Mapes Dodge (See MTB 972):
Dear me, how full my days are! I don’t get a chance to do anything. I go to bed at 3 in the morning & get up at 8, 10, & 11; but I am never tired, & am always brisk. I wish I could give you some of my superabundant health, dear child. Every few days the papers say I am very ill; then come letters & telegrams of sympathy from people I could whip with one hand tied behind me. Mr. Rogers said yesterday, “I am entirely broken down with the Chicago trip; I can’t get rested, in bed or out of it. But you look fresh & fine; what’s your secret? I said — & it was the truth — “I am fresh & fine. I play billiards till 3 in the morning, & have got more health & vigor than I know what to do with. My secret is — ” — “but I’ll tell you that when we get the right news from Chicago” [MTP].
Sam then wrote that he would write Jean now. And so, the letter to Jean is dated Dec. 28, “After midnight.”