December 19 Tuesday – In New York, Sam went to the Standard Oil office at noon to arrange the Chicago trip they’d planned. While waiting he met Wayne MacVeagh, now Minister to Italy, and father to Margaretta, friend of Susy’s. When told they hadn’t heard from Susy, Sam filled him in. Rogers had sent MacVeigh down to “find candy & cigars & things for” Sam, who was “irascible & impatient…& likely to get violent if …kept waiting.” Or so Sam wrote to Livy.

MacVeigh is very yellow & thin & little, & has a bald circle the size of a Boston cracker on the crown of his head, but he is wonderfully spry & lively.

Mr. R & I arranged to leave for Chicago Thursday morning [Dec. 21]; then went up to the ninth floor & took luncheon with fifty others. There was another table in the next room that seated twelve or fifteen. Evidently there are people at these tables all the time from noon till as late as 4. There must be a good many employès in that Oil Co.

Sam also wrote about dining with the Laurence Huttons the evening before (Dec. 18) and of Richard Harding Davis (1864-1916), fiction writer, journalist, whom Sam had “come to like very much,” offering the idea of an author signing a random page of MS to be framed and sent to a library or university. Sam thought Jean could make such a collection. Sam PS’d that Mrs. Bunner made the silhouette (probably of him, enclosed) [MTP].

Note: Davis was later one of the most popular writers of his time. With dashing good looks he was thought to be the model for illustrator Charles Dana Gibson’s Gibson Man, the male equivalent of his famous Gibson Girl. Sinclair Lewis referred to him in Dodsworth as the example of an exciting, adventure-seeking legitimate hero. Davis would also become a good friend of Theodore Roosevelt and helped to establish the legend surrounding the Rough Riders.

Livy wrote to Sam. He received the letter (not extant) on Dec. 30 with two others from her, postmarked Dec. 16 and 18 [Dec. 30 to Livy].

Henry H. Rogers wrote on a mourning bordered page, headed 26 East 57th Street, to Sam sending him homeopathic powders for his cold, and advised if he’d “observe faithfully the rules laid down,” he’d soon be “a better man.”

Wayne MacVeagh came in after you left–but he no longer looked like the Coffee-Cooler; having taken on a fine Italian bake, at the hands of the President, and looked like a scorched gunny-bag. How graceful he sits. He must have practiced at a harem.

Rogers also noted he’d “hit the P.R.R. for passes” [Penn. R.R.] and would know the next day; he advised Sam to take “heavier shoes. You’ll need them in Chicago” [MTHHR 28;MTP]. Note: Wayne MacVeagh was President Cleveland’s Ambassador to Italy (1893-1897); “Coffee-Cooler” was the Negro boxer Frank Craig; the Penn. R.R. gave the pair president Frank Thompson’s private car. See n.1-3 and MTB 982.

Sam’s notebook: “Dec. 19/93. Depos $650 and Reichmarks 250” [NB 33 TS 44].