January 18 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to the Jan. 3 of Margaret Christensen.
“Dear Madam: /I thank you gratefully for your welcome letter, which has deeply touched me. Nothing could be more gratifying to me than to know that my dear lost wife’s beautiful character has spoken to you from the grave & that you have treasured the message” [MTP]. Note: From Brooklyn.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: The King dined with Mr. & Mrs. Broughton tonight & he enjoyed it for he had a good talk with Peter Dunne who is loud in his praises of Roosevelt, & he is younger than he is loud in his praises. The King read him a philosophical lesson or two about the President’s impulses, but the air is still vibrating with the Dooley bomb of praise.
A.B. is going to Redding tomorrow & Mrs. Dunne asked the King to look after Mr. Dooley [Dunne] a bit—to use him—to billiardist him & when I told AB he felt that that Dooley editor oughtn’t to be playing billiards in the afternoons, even if they don’t want to.
Mother AB and I went to Fonfarone’s tonight & were amused by the crowd & the tenor who flatted, & the oldish pianist who touched the piano keys lovingly, & with all the humor of a virtuoso & then later AB & I practiced billiards & I have learned a little of the game. I made some shots [MTP: IVL TS 14-15].
Julia Langdon Barber wrote from “Belmont” in Wash. D.C. to ask Sam if he would sign the Hillcrest Edition volumes she was “about to order,” and to include her name in the inscription. She asked that especially IA be inscribed as she was one of his “favored listeners to the reading of the manuscript, upon the return voyage of the Quaker City via Bermuda” [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter: “Tell her there may be some delay about it for he has to do a great deal of autographing & is obliged to put it aside until he can devote a ½ day to that sort of thing. Then he’ll write his nom de plume in it with pleasure—not a Dam sight of pleasure but just pleasure.”
Mr. & Mrs. Urban H. Broughton sent Sam a formal invitation to dine on Friday January 18 at 8 pm [MTP].
Edmund D. Morel of the Congo Reform Assoc., London sent Sam “the second edition of ‘Red Rubber’ which you may be interested to see. I hope the first edition reached you safely.” [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter: “Yes—& has been in constant use as a window prop —”; also “Tell him that Dihdwo Twe that darkey has got a saner head on him than any missionary that ever went to that country or any other.”
Frederic Whyte wrote from London to Sam. “Accept my best thanks for your kindness in complying so promptly with my request for a contribution to the Daily Graphic. I have much pleasure in sending you a copy of the issue in which it appeared” [MTP]. Note: see Sam’s protest (Jan. 29) of Whyte’s use of what was thought to be a private communication.
Chapters from “My Autobiography—X” ran in the N.A.R. p.113-19.