December 17 Thursday – In Redding, Conn. Sam sent a telegram to daughter Jean in Berlin, Germany.

[typed on form of Western Union Telegraph Company:]

Dec. 17, 1908.

TO       Jean Clemens

Vanderheydtstrasse one, Berlin

You sail January ninth steamer Pennsylvania passage prepaid. Send Marguerite home. Dont cable. / Father [MTP; Hill 214].

Hill writes of Jean being called home:

Why Jean was recalled from the only pleasant life she had known since the summer of 1905—to be sequestered at Unkeway Farm on Babylon, Long Island—why she was taken from the care of Professor von Reuvers, who appeared to be making successful efforts for her, and why she was suddenly separated from the teenage girl Marguerite Schmidt who was her closest friend remain mysteries. Nowhere in the extant documents or correspondence does Clemens mention a decision to bring Jean home after three months in Berlin rather than the six or eight that Dr. Peterson had recommended [214]. Note: see source for speculations.

Mrs. H.H. Hankins for Tuesday Study Club, Braymer, Mo. wrote to ask Sam to clear up a controversy there—was he born in Hannibal or Florida, Mo.? [MTP]. Note: “Ans Dec 21 MLH”