June 19 Friday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick:

Oh, this will never do! You are having altogether too good a time, you little rascal (because I am not in it.) Still, I’m glad. I mustn’t break into it now, but I’ll have to do it before long; you & your mother will have to pay me a visit here. I want you; & I want my other angel-fishes. I must have a couple of them under this roof all the time, from now until January. There will be 2 under it to-morrow, to stay a week, I hope.

The billiard room, downstairs, is the Aquarium Official head-quarters. Their framed photographs are being hung around its walls.

“Innocence at Home” is the right name for this house, because it describes me, & describes the Aquarium Club. What do you think, dear?

I was never in this beautiful region until yesterday evening. Miss Lyon & the architect built & furnished the house without any help or advice from me, & the result is entirely to my satisfaction. It is charmingly quiet here. The house stands alone, with nothing in sight but woodsy hills, & rolling country.

We brought Tammany along. / With lots & lots of love / SLC [MTP; MTAq 179].

Notes: Cooley claims this letter was written in the wee hours of June 19, after a long billiard game with Ashcroft. Nothing in the letter or the MTP notes makes this claim. The following letter to Mary Rogers, however, states he had been in the house “several hours” and is a much more likely candidate for a note written after midnight. The two Angelfish arriving the next day were Dorothy Harvey and Louise Paine, though in the first page of the guestbook, Sam wrote next to these two Angelfish names, “first week in July” and “8 days”.  The discrepancy is explained in that he added these entries on or after Dec. 28, upon receiving the new Guestbook from Mary B. Rogers. 

Sam also wrote to daughter Jean at Eastern Point, Gloucester, Mass.  

Dear Jean, I like the house ever so much, & I like the deep quiet, after tumultuous New York. I arrived at 6 p.m., yesterday, & Paine & Ashcroft & I played billiards until midnight & had a good time.

Certainly it is a pity that I can’t stay all night in your house, but your health is the important thing, & I must help Dr, Peterson in his good work, not mar it & hinder it by going counter to his judgment & commands. I am very grateful to him for the wonderful work he has done for you, & I feel that you & I ought to testify our thankfulness by honoring his lightest desire. Your mother would say this too, out of her grateful heart.

Mr. Cleveland? Yes, he was a drinker in Buffalo, & loose morally. But since then? I have to doubt it. And of course I want to doubt it, for he has been a most noble public servant—& in that capacity he has been utterly without blemish. Of all our public men of today he stands first in my reverence & admiration, & the next one stands two-hundred-&-twenty-fifth. He is the only statesman we have, now. We had two, but Senator Hoar is dead. Drinks? No, I hope it is a mistake. However, Cleveland drunk is a more valuable asset to this country than the whole batch of the rest of our public men sober. He is high-minded; all his impulses are great & pure & fine. I wish we had another of this sort.

Yes-indeedy, it was just too bad that there wasn’t a solitary junior member of the family here to help me christen the house. But you know the adage: Man proposes, but God blocks the game. With lots & lots of love— / Father [MTP]. Note: a reply to a letter not extant.

Sam also wrote to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.) in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.

Dear Lazy: I looked in at Gessford’s, & realized that the London picture is much the best; so I wrote to London for it. As I shall be away all summer, I asked that it be sent to Harry, at 26 Broadway. Then, even if he should be in the Yellowstone Park there’ll be someone to receive it.

I was told yesterday, in the Grand Central that the other Rogerses & the Broughtons are gone to Bermuda & have secured houses there. I should have doubted it if it hadn’t been told me by a Bermudian.

I have been in this house several hours, now, & I like it ever so much.

There—from your very loving / Uncle Mark

I am very very sorry I am not to be with you the 23rd. Do give my love to Father Fitz Simon, & my best good wishes to the bride, if I may take that liberty, on the plea that I know all her people, even if I be a stranger to her / P.S. the London man writes that he has sent the picture to the office [MTP]. Note: Miss Ursula Juliet Morgan (niece of J. Pierpont Morgan) was Fitz- Simon’s bride.