November 5 Thursday – In Redding, Conn. Sam sent a telegram to President of the Pilgrims, N.Y. chapter.
President of the Pilgrims:
New York
I am sorry indeed I cannot be at the Pilgrim dinner to Lord Northcliffe, whom I hold in high esteem & friendly regard. I ask him to forget for a moment that he is a legislator & join me in a health to the sacred memory of Guy Fawkes of that great Englishman who on this day three hundred & three years ago tried to blow up a Parliament that was meditating a limitation of copyright, but was defeated by the mistaken interference of a Providence more interested in spectacular mercy than in plain square justice [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Dorothy Quick in Atlantic City, N.J.
Dear heart, I said last night “I will write a letter in the morning & give a certain Dorothy a scolding & inquire what has become of her.” So you have spoken up just in time to save yourself!
Yes, No. 21 is rented & occupied. We shan’t leave Redding anymore, winter or summer. We like it here better & better all the time.
Dear, I haven’t heard of the second robbery. If it was only books of mine that were stolen & not Bibles, I am glad, for the robbers will read those books & become good citizens & valuable men—but they wouldn’t read Bibles.
It is a pity you lost the cat, but I can sympathise with you, for we have ourselves suffered a heavy loss in that line. Tammany is dead. Killed by a dog, we think, when she was out hunting.
She was the finest cat & the handsomest, in America. Morever, she was an officer of the Aquarium. I appointed her myself. She was the Aquarium’s Mascot, & brought it good luck as long as she lived. Miss Lyon buried her with the honors due her rank.
In token of respect for her memory & regret for her loss, it is requested that each M.A. shall wear black head-ribbons during one hour on the 30th of this month—Tammany’s birthday. See that you obey. / With lots of love, dear Dorothy/ … [MTP].
Sam’s notebook:
All schools, all colleges, have 2 great functions: to confer, & to conceal, valuable knowledge.
The theological knowledge which they conceal cannot justly be regarded as less valuable than that which they reveal. That is, if when a man is buying a basket of strawberries, it can profit him to know that the bottom half of it is rotten. / Nov. 5/08 [NB 48 TS 22].
Harper & Brothers per John F. Phayre wrote to Lyon, enclosing the reply from the Librarian of Congress listing copyrights which had been renewed within the past ten years, a list Sam had asked for [MTP]. Note: IVL: “Answered Nov. 5”
Annie Nathan Meyer, trustee of Barnard College, wrote to Sam to invite him to accept two box seats with Richard Watson Gilder for a trial performance of a play by her senior students, to be held at the Empire Theatre on Dec. 3 at 2:15 pm [MTP]. Note: “Ans. Nov. 6 08”
John B. Stanchfield wrote from NYC to Sam. “I notified by ‘phone Mrs. Coe of the most accessible way in which to reach you [from Danbury] by motor car, pursuant to your telegram. I trust you are well. We are expecting to move into the house 36 West 86th Street about Thanksgiving time. Don’t forget the promise I ‘extorted’ from you to send me an autograph edition of your works” [MTP].
C. Stuart wrote from Goldfield, Nev. to ask where he might obtain cheap editions of RI and IA. “I am writing to my home in England, as I find it difficult to learn where your books are published in cheap edition form here in US” [MTP]. Note: “Nov 16. ’08 MLH”
Clemens A.D. for this day is listed by MTP.