November 19 Thursday – Sam’s new guestbook:
Name Address Date Remarks
Judge Wm Scoville Case ) Danbury Nov. 19 Judge & state’s attorney
Stiles Judson ) who tried the burglars
Note: in the original guestbook one additional name is listed, Bettye D.G. Doubleday, Mill Neck, L.I.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Mr. D. went this morning. Mrs. Doubleday and Margery this afternoon. Judge Case and Mr. Styles [sic Stiles] Judson dined here this evening” [MTP: IVL TS 80]. Note: Judge and State’s Attorney in the burglary trial.
H.T. Carpenter for Bristol Co., Waterbury, Conn. wrote to ask Sam if he would “come down and give us a little informal talk at the Club” [MTP]. Note: “Ans. Nov. 25 MLH; and “Lecture form”
Madie F. Diggett wrote from Chicago to request an autograph [MTP]. Note: “Autog. sent Nov. 25 MLH”
John F. Frazer, Jr. wrote from Baltimore to ask for “a personal word…with signature” [MTP]. Note: IVL: “So many similar requests come impossible to grant but enclose autograph”; and “Ans. Nov. 25 MLH”
Zoheth S. Freeman wrote to thank Sam—his autograph letter of Monday reached him this day [MTP].
Helen Keller wrote to Sam.
“When a king sends an invitation, his subjects must obey. How fortunate it is for them if they can obey his summons with the delight that we feel in accepting your invitation to spend a week-end with you! We needed no consultation, we all said ‘Yes!’…we are coming on the eighth of January” [MTP].
Charles B. Staples wrote from Phila. to ask whether picture of illustration No. 102 in the first few copies of HF had been “vulgarly suggestive.” Could Sam verify? [MTP]. Note: “Ans. Dec 7 MLH”; the writer refers to the tampering of an engraving on p. 283, leaving Uncle Silas’ member hanging out of his pants, making it obscene. In Nov. 1884 the trick was discovered, delaying publication; see “A Note on the Text” by Robert Hirst, p. 41 of the after-materials in the 1996 Oxford facsimile edition of HF.
Lucy Wood wrote from Norwalk, Conn. to sell a book she prized highly—“one of the copys of the declaration of Independence,” which she’d obtained through her grandmother’s first cousin, President Fillmore; she wanted to show it to Clemens [MTP]. Note: “Ans. Nov. 20 MLH”