November 13 Monday – In New York City in the afternoon, a memorial service was held for the late Edwin Booth, who died on June 7. Sam was in attendance (according to his Nov. 6 to Susy he went with Mrs. Rice). As reported in the N.Y. Times of Nov. 12 and 14, p.3 and 8, “The Booth Memorial” and “In Memory of Edwin Booth”:
Nov. 12: The memorial services in honor of the late Edwin Booth will be held in the Madison Square Garden Concert Hall to-morrow afternoon. The doors will open at 2:45 o’clock, and as no seats will be reserved, holders of tickets will consult their own interests by being on hand promptly. Thirteen hundred cards of invitation have been issued…
Nov. 14: Simple but impressive services in memory of Edwin Booth were held, under the auspices of The Players, in the concert hall of the Madison Square Garden yesterday afternoon.
Only those who had been personally invited by the club were present. They were mainly members of the dramatic profession, and not an actor or actress of note playing in New-York was absent. The moistened eyes of those who listened to the words of Joseph Jefferson and other close personal friends of Mr. Booth testified to the universal and loving esteem in which the tragedian was held by his fellow-players. …
Except upon the stage , there were no emblems of mourning in the hall. The footlights were draped in black, and long black curtains hung from the wings. The rear of the platform was banked high with palms and ferns.
In the centre of the stage, at the rear, on a pedestal which elevated it above the ferns, was a bust of the great tragedian, with a wreath of white flowers at its base.
The New-York Symphony Orchestra, under the leadership of Walter Domrosch, occupied the stage and furnished the musical part of the services. The selections were appropriately chosen with reference to the music used by Mr. Booth in his plays. The opening piece was the Dead March from “Saul,” which was performed in Mr. Booth’s presentations of “Hamlet.” Tschaikowsky’s fanaisie, “Hamlet,” and Mendelssohn’s nocturne, “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” were played during the services, and at the close Gounod’s slumber music from “Romeo and Juliet.”
Joseph Jefferson, the lifelong friend of Mr. Booth presided….George E. Woodberry read an elegy from The Players on Edwin Booth….Parke Godwin delivered a commemorative address. …Tommaso Salvini, the Italian tragedian, who is on his way home from the World’s Fair, then came forward and paid a glowing tribute, in his native tongue, to the memory of Edwin Booth. He was greeted with a great outburst of applause. …Henry Miller read the translation of Salvini’s address….
Members of Mr. Booth’s family occupied a box. Ellen Terry and several members of the Irving company were in another box.
Among those present were Gen. Horace Porter, the Rev. Theodore C. Williams, Nat C. Goodwin, Elihu Vedder, Richard Watson Gilder, Charles Dudley Warner, A.M. Palmer, E.C. Benedict, R.H. Stoddard, ex-Mayor A.S. Hewitt, Mary Mapes Dodge, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Edmund Clarence Stedman, H.C. Bunner, John D. Crimmins, and Laurence Hutton.
Sam signed an invitation, along with fifteen other Players Club members, to Henry Irving, to “dine, sup, or lunch, or breakfast, with your fellow kinsmen here in New York at any time most convenient to you after your return to town in the coming spring” [MTP].
In the evening Sam dined at Laurence Hutton’s (See Nov. 6). The Charles Dudley Warners, Henry Irving, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Mary Mapes Dodge and possibly others were in attendance. In his Nov. 14 to Livy he related the dinner engagement:
Several instances of Mr. Booth’s fine & generous nature were mentioned, but the prettiest one was told by Hutton at his own dinner table last night [Nov. 13].
The story went that Booth deigned seeing several important personages while resting in his hotel room with Hutton. Finally and “old colored nurse” sent up her card and he allowed her up and offered as many orchestra stalls as she wanted, but she would only take places in the gallery, “Because they won’t let niggers set in the orchestra chairs.” Upon which Booth then gave her stage-box A, which belonged to him, and over which they had no authority.”
Sam thought of Livy at the gathering:
…Aldrich was just as killing as ever at Hutton’s last night. Yes, & lovely; for he is that. Charley Warner was lovely, too, & Susy, & Mrs. Hutton & Mary Mapes Dodge. It was a charming gang, & would have been perfect if you had been there. Every time Aldrich let go his lightning, I saw you in the glare of it; & I knew how you would have enjoyed it. It was a delightful evening, & it didn’t stop its happy pow-wow till nearly midnight. Such evenings are only possible in America [MTP].