July 19 Thursday – Sam wrote from New York to Clara “Bay” Clemens, telling her that he’d purchased two dolls and two bath tubs and sent them by express for her and her sister Susy. Clara’s doll (Sam named “Hosannah Maria”) was in “quite delicate health,” and had caught a “very severe cold.”

“She was out driving & got rained on….It settled on her mind…paralyzed the sounding-board of her ears & the wobbling nerve of her tongue…I have consulted the best physicians. They say constant & complicated bathing will fetch her. Papa” [MTLE 2: 107].

Sam wrote a corresponding letter to Susy Clemens.

“Susie dear, Your doll is named Hallelujah Jennings. She early suffered a stroke of some sort, & since that day all efforts of the best physicians have failed to take the stiffening out of her legs. They say incessant bathing is the only thing that can give her eventual relief.”

It seems each daughter’s doll also had a child doll; Sam named them “Glory Ann Jennings” and “Whoop-Jamboree” [MTLE 2: 108].