January 10 Wednesday – Sam went to Hartford and took in the play, The Masque of Culture, by the Saturday Morning Club, which he’d established years before. It had been performed previously at Unity Hall, so it’s likely that’s where it came off on this day. Sam had missed two prior invitations to see the play with Annie E. Trumbull in the cast. He described the play, and evaluated roles in a letter to Livy the next day. Sam mentioned Annie, who “looked beautiful, but she was not graceful, & she was ill at ease”; May Shipman, “in divided skirts & a Derby hat”; Milly Cheney, and Josie Barnard.

I wouldn’t have missed seeing the piece for anything.

And I saw all the girls after the piece & had a great time with them, chatting, while Noel Flagg arranged them on the stage to be photographed by flash-light.

During the piece one of their grand successes was when they would occasionally break into a confusion of talking, making a chaotic din.

I sat between Fanny Hesse & Mrs. Cabell, with Mrs. Jonathan Bunce behind me & Charley & Susy Warner & Ned Bunce in front of me; & they were all so persistent in calling my attention to this that & the other big of “business” & in warning me when a good thing was going to be said, & in asking me what I thought of it after it was said, that at last I begged them not to interrupt any more.

Sam added his love and that he was not sick as per the last newspapers trumpeted [Jan. 11 to Livy: MTP]. (Editorial emphasis.)

January 10-12 Friday – Stanford White sent an invitation to Sam for a “little dinner to Henry C. Abbey” on Monday Jan. 15 at half past seven [MTP].