December 13 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Champ Clark (James Beauchamp Clark):

I thank you ever so much for your kind offer, but I want to get an extension on it until some later day—indefinitely later—so that I may finish a dialogue which I began last September, & which I may not take up again for a good while.

The purpose of the dialogue is to instruct Congress in copyright, &   explain the reasonableness of what the bill asks. Of course the usual method—a deluge of printed documents—could instruct Congress if Congress would (& could) read them, but Congress can’t and won’t commit suicide in any such way. But Congress will read real literature, for the pastime of it & the love of it, & it will read that dialogue.

And so by & by I will finish it. / Thanking you again, … [MTP].

Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam to Emma Gertrude Quick. “Thank you so much for your good news about that comfortable box.. Mr. Clemens asks me to tell you that he is glad you have secured it & that it was lovely to see Dorothy to whom he sends much love as do I, & regards to you” [MTP]. Note: this may have been Dorothy and her mother seeing the play Peter Pan, as Sam promised Dorothy in his Dec. 10.

Dorothy Butes wrote from London to wish Sam a “Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!” She related exams in college being forced to stay the full two hours whether finished or not, and making verses about her professors to fill out the time. “Lady Northclife gives a large party at her country place in Surrey every year, just a few days before Christmas to all the children of the countryside, and I am going down to help her. / The snapshot will be ready to send you by Wednesday, I think” [MTP].

George Haven Putnam for G.P. Putnam’s Sons, NYC wrote to Sam that they had just published An Analysis of Christian Science by Rev. Lyman Powell, and were sending a complimentary copy. The author would appreciate any word Sam might offer [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Glad to have that book no doubt a long time before he reads it for he is at work and no doubt it will be a long time before he can find time to read it”