February 12 Sunday – Samuel E. Belt wrote from Greenwood B.C. to Sam.
“I am collecting facts about the blowing up of the ‘Saluda’ at Lexington, Mo, being a nephew of the ill-fated Captain,” Francis Thomas Belt. He didn’t simply want an autograph but asked Sam for anything he might be able to tell him about the case [MTP].
Note: the Saluda, a side-wheel, wooden hull packet, 223 tons, christened in 1846, it sank in 1850 but was raised and restored. On Apr. 9, 1852, Good Friday, with Mormon emigrants aboard, the boat was headed for Council Bluffs, Iowa. Upon arriving at Lexington, the current was swift. Pilot Charles S. LaBarge pushed her too hard and her boilers blew. Pilot and Master Belt and about 75 others died. It was the worst disaster to that time on the Missouri River. At that time, Sam was still in Hannibal, working on Orion’s newspaper, the Journal.
Sam’s notebook (NB 48) bears this date on page one, his address at 21 Fifth Ave, and list the following names: Charles Frederick Moberly Bell, Andrew Lang, Marjorie Bowen, Francis H. Skrine. The list, all persons in England, continues but a date of “June 19 or 20” is boxed to the left [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Today Jean and I went to the Church of the Ascension. It is a beautiful church, and the service was so lovely. The music was as beautiful as the church, and it was good to be there. In the afternoon we had cards and again in the evening as usual” [MTP: TS 40].
Elias Cornelius Benedict wrote to Sam after searching for an article read years before he thought was titled “The Twins” [MTP].
Frances F. Cleveland (Mrs. Grover Cleveland) added a note to Benedict’s above letter to Sam: “Mr Benedict has opened letter & let me add a line of …good wishes. / Sincerely”.. [MTP].
February 12 ca. – On or just after this day at 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C., Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to the Feb. 12 of Samuel E. Belt.
“M . Clemens wishes me to say that if he ever knew anything about the Saluda disaster it long ago went out of his memory” [MTP]. See notes after Belt’s inquiry.
Isabel also replied for Sam to Elias Cornelius Benedict’s Feb. 12 question. The sketch asked about “The Twins” was in the Century early in 1895 and was now collected in the Hillcrest Edition, in the PW volume [MTP].