May 19 Tuesday – In Johannesburg, S. Africa, Sam wrote at 12:30 p.m. to Livy:
Livy dear, I have just finished bathing & shaving — I slept straight through ten hours — for the fatigue of that sleepless night in the train had arrived at last, though there had been no suggestion of it before [MTP].
Sam wrote a second letter to Livy later in the afternoon, as he waited for Mrs. Adele Chapin’s carriage to drive him out.
Livy dear, I’ve only a moment. The interviewers were on hand when we arrived last night at 10. I got to bed at 12, after a large cold-roast-beef supper. The interviewers were here again this morning just after I had had a late bath & a shave & had returned to bed to warm up. Visitors & luncheon have occupied all my time since this moment….Tremendous excitement here over the suicide of that poor prisoner. His wife lies in a stupor & does not believe he is dead — thinks the report is a lie.
I love you, dearly, sweetheart. / Saml / I wish you had come with me [MTP]. Note: See Parsons, “Clubman in S.A.” 245 — he identifies the dead man as Fred Gray, who had just cut his throat in despair. Hammond was initially serving a fifteen year sentence; others in the Jameson raid lesser sentences.
Sam ate lunch at the Rand Club, Mr. Jennings chairman. Political tangles in the country were difficult to translate for anyone, much less an American visitor. Parsons writes of the Rand Club and its links to the prisoners at Pretoria:
Built in 1889, just three years after the discovery [of gold], this Rand Club, the second cost £45,000. The entrance fee was ten guineas, the monthly subscription one guinea, and the membership about six hundred. When Mark appeared for lunch on Tuesday, all that transpired to the press was Mr. Jennings’ proposing his health, upon which the guest “made an interesting speech, full of wit, fun, and truth, which is the very essence of wit.”
Although it has long been protested that “the Rand Club had nothing to do with the Reform movement” or the Jameson Raid, all the Reform leaders were members and many of those jailed in Pretoria had been arrested at the Club [“Clubman in S.A.” 245].
In the evening Sam gave his “At Home” (No. 2) lecture at the Standard Theatre [Philippon 16].
Livy wrote to Sam “Please thank Mr. Smythe for his telegram which we were so very glad to receive from Johannesburg yesterday, stating that there were no colds & no carbuncle’s as yet….I am afraid your programs are not quite long enough. Do you think they are? ….Of course, Mr Smythe will help you to judge…you might try the “Jumping Frog” again nicht?”
She added that she had so many beautiful images in her mind from the trip so far. She’d been with Clara “over to the Museum this morning. It was not particularly interesting,” and that she’d asked Mr. Milligan in for tea this afternoon [MTP].