October 2 Friday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Berlin, Germany (she would have arrived about this day after leaving Sept. 26). [in left margin: Clara is to send us your address to-day, by telephone or letter.]
Oct. 2’08. Jean dear, it was delightful to hear from you from mid-ocean. Wonderful times we live in!
As I understand it, Clara has completed the arranging of her little flat in Stuyvesant Square, & is moving in, to-day. There is a small extra room for a guest.
Martin W. Littleton has bought a house in east 57th street near Park avenue, & will allow me to lend him my New York billiard table if there is a place for it. There’s a bedroom for me, & so, between Clara & the Littletons (and the Stanchfields) I am at last well fixed in the matter of accommodations, & shan’t ever have to go to a hotel. The Stanchfields got their house for $85,000 (in the panic days) & it is worth a great deal more.
I think Clara has so strong a desire that this house shall be called, not “Innocence at Home” but “Stormfield,” that you & I will let her have her way. Stormfield is the best name anyway—in two ways: 1, It is set so high, that all the storms that come will beat upon it, there being no obstruction; 2, the whole loggia-end of the house was built with money received for a magazine article entitled “Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven.”
We have 6 cats, now, & they are all beautiful: Tammany & her 2 children & her 3 grandchildren. We crowd one of the grandchildren into a pocket of the billiard table (which he fits as snugly as a hand fits a glove), & he sits there by the hour & watches the game—& sometimes obstructing it: for when a ball passes near him he puts out a dainty paw & changes its direction & spoils the shot.
Dear heart I am so glad you are under the care of the great & good Geheimrath —unto whom I offer salutation & homage. / With lots of love & kisses, / Father [MTP]. Note: see several entries on Martin Wiley Littleton. “Geheimrath” may have been Sam’s nickname for Professor Hofrath von Reuvers, who took Jean under his care.
Sam also wrote to Mabel L. Patterson.
Dear Mrs. Patterson,—The contents of your letter are very pleasant & very welcome, & I thank you for them, sincerely. If I can find a photograph of my “Tammany” & her kittens, I will enclose it in this. One of them likes to be crammed into a corner-pocket of the billiard table— which he fits as snugly as does a finger in a glove & then he watches the game (& obstructs it) by the hour, & spoils many a shot by putting out his paw & changing the direction of a passing ball. Whenever a ball is in his arms, or so close to him that it cannot be played without risk of hurting him, the player is privileged to remove it to anyone of the 3 spots that chances to be vacant.
Ah no, my lecturing days are over for good & all. / Sincerely yours, … [MTP].
Sam’s new guestbook:
Name Address Date Remarks
Helen K Blackmer New York City October 3-5
Her daughter Margaret, M.A. (at school) Briarcliffe October 2-5 à [*]
* Sam wrote next to this entry as he transcribed it on Dec. 28: “This is ‘Margaret of a sea shell.’ Note. Dec. 28. In 3 more days she will be 13 years old. She & her mother are in Bermuda now for a month. A New Year’s gift was Margaret. A pretty rare one, too.”
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Claude left and Benares arrived with Margaret Blackmer—a darling, grave yet gay child” [MTP: IVL TS 67-68].
Katharine Boland Clemens (Mrs. James Ross Clemens) wrote from Somerset, Virginia to Sam.
“I am distressed to find myself on my way home without having seen you, but it was impossible to manage a little visit to you. Jim enjoyed his so very much and has great admiration for your beautiful new place, and he liked Miss Lyon so much. We are now visiting your other cousin, Minnie Clemens Anderson, of Richmond.” Katharine spent the rest of her letter describing her hosts and the area. She added that she’d written Alice von Versen (her aunt) and told her that Jean was in Berlin [MTP].
John McComb, (Jr.) wrote from Denver, Colo. to Sam, “presuming on the friendship that existed between” his father and Clemens to ask for either a loan or an investment in a new mining pump, the “Starrett.” [MTP]. Note: IVL: “Mr. Clemens directs me to write for him & say that he regrets not being able to grant your request.” John McComb, Sr. proprietor of the S.F. Alta California, had been instrumental in encouraging Clemens to give his first lecture at Maguire’s Academy of Music in San Francisco in 1866. See MTL 1: 361, MTL 2: 12n1, etc.
N.Y. Association for the Blind wrote to Sam enclosing an issue of Everybody’s Magazine for October, which contained an article by John Albert Macy, husband of Helen Keller’s former teacher Anne Sullivan Macy [MTP]. Note: IVL: “Ans’d”
Mrs. Georgia C. Taylor wrote from Taunton, Mass. to Sam after reading of the old Whittier birthday speech, and thinking it “one of the best things” he’d ever read [MTP].