January 14 Tuesday – After giving several luncheons for his close male friends earlier in the “season,” Sam gave the first of his “Doe Luncheons” on this day, at the suggestion (perhaps urging) of Kate Douglas Riggs. Twelve ladies plus Twain were included in the luncheon, including Riggs, daughter Clara, Isabel Lyon, Geraldine Farrar, Henrietta Barnes Farrar (Mrs. Sidney Farrar), Mrs. Harleston Deacon, Mrs. Frank N. Doubleday, Mrs. Robert Collier, Miss Emily W. Burbank, Dorothea Gilder, Geraldine Farrar, Mrs. Farrar, Ethel Barrymore and Clara Stanchfield [Jan. 16 to Julia Olivia Langdon; MTP: IVL TS 8].]. Note: Thanks to Victor Fischer for supplying some missing names.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The King, Mrs. Riggs, Mrs. Deacon, Mrs. Stanchfield, Mrs. Doubleday, Mrs. Collier, Miss Burbank, Dorothy Gilder, Geraldine Farrar, Mrs. Farrar (who is impossible) Santa [Clara Clemens] & I at the ‘doe luncheon’ today. The King drew pictures of deer for the dinner cards” [MTP]. Note: Isabel did not mention Barrymore. Geraldine Farrar (1882-1967), soprano opera star noted for her beauty. She had a large following with younger women, who were called “Gerry-flappers.”
Sam then inscribed his photograph to Kate Douglas Riggs (aka Wiggin): “To Mrs. Kate D. Riggs, with the love of / Mark Twain Jan. 14/08” [MTP: Profiles in History catalogs, No. 31, Item 165]. Note: the 8×10 photograph was of himself with a kitten, and sold on eBay by Frogtown on Feb. 5, 2010, item # 330400331578.
Sam also inscribed his photograph to another guest of the “Doe Luncheon,” Mrs. Farrar: “To Mrs. Farrar, with kind remembrances of hers very truly—/ Mark Twain / Jan. 14/08” [MTP].
Note: Farrar was included in the above “Doe Luncheon.” This photo’s inscription is sometimes seen as “1905,” but Victor Fischer reports that “the ink on the photo inscription is so faded that it looks very much like 1905 rather than 1908, but it closely matches the 1908 on the photo signed to Kate Douglas Riggs the same day.” Other photos were likely signed at this luncheon.
Winifred Holt for Assoc. for the Blind wrote to ask permission to use Sam’s name on a list of those interested in a French Fete to be held in benefit for the Assoc. [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Answd. Jan. 20, ‘08”
John Mead Howells wrote to lobby Sam for the annual dinner of the Architectural League [MTP].
Julia Langdon Loomis wrote to Sam hoping to be in NYC in three weeks and “wanting a long, satisfying gossip with you” [MTP].
Samuel E. Moffett wrote to Sam.
I called to see you to-day, but missed you, The other day I received a bunch of manuscript from Champ Clark, offered as a series of articles for Colliers. I am having it examined by the editors, but I don’t think it will be possible for Collier’s to use it, and it will be up to me to tell Clark so. Consequently it would probably have a better effect for you to write to him about the copyright bill than for me to do it. You don’t need to know anything about this manuscript, but if I wrote he might not be able to separate the two subjects in his mind. / Affectionately… [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote for Sam on the letter, “That copyright bill doesn’t need to be meddled with by me, nor by anybody else at present. Therefore I shant write to Champ Clark at this time. The Supreme Court decision may be slow, but it will not be as slow as the Copyright bill in Congress”
Carlotta Welles wrote from Paris to Sam.
My Dear Mr. Clemens:— / I was very happy to hear from you. I should certainly have written you long ago if I had thought that you cared to hear from me, but you must have so many friends, so many people to remember you affectionately, that I didn’t think you very much wanted me to tell you that I hav’nt forgotten you. I’m afraid you’re joking when you say that, anyway!
Of course I remember Frances Nunnally. We exchanged Xmas cards. If I go to College next fall we shall be in the same class—and I hope you’ll come to Bryn Mawr then, and see the whole bunch of us, the three “doangiva-dams” and Frances and me, and, incidentally, the College.
I am getting on all right now. The lake in the “bois de Boulogne” right near us, has actually frozen up so that you could skate on it and I have been improving my opportunities, so you see I’m not very sick. Yesterday they had a sort of band there and you had to pay to get in, so it was quite stylish. I paid and went in and staggered around (not to mention the tumbles) and had a good time watching the fancy skating.
I have been reading a book called “Fraulein Schmidt and Mr. Pustender” by the author of “Elizabeth & her German Garden” which I like ever so much. I hope your radishes still agree with you, and keep you in perfect health. / Very affectionately / Charley [MTP; MTAq 96-7]. Note: in her entry for Jan. 2, 1908, Miss Lyon wrote that Sam had a “big dish of radishes… every night for dinner,” to alleviate heartburn.