February 9 Sunday – Sam wrote to Alfred P. Burbank in Hot Springs, Ark., a letter which has been lost, (see Sam to Howells Jan. 31), advising him that he was recommending Burbank to Howard P. Taylor for the part of Hank Morgan in return for Burbank releasing rights to the Colonel Sellers play (The American Claimant) [MTHL 2: 629n1].
February 8 Saturday – C. Harry Eaton, secretary for the American Water Color Society, sent Sam a printed invitation to a St. Valentine’s night dinner at the Academy of Design, New York. Sam wrote on the env., “Brer Please decline it. SLC” [MTP]. See Feb. 9.
Karl Gerhardt sent Sam an insurance policy assignment valued at $1,000 for investment in the Paige typesetter [MTP] See Feb. 10.
February 7 Friday – In Boston, William Dean Howells wrote to Sam of James A. Herne being “immensely pleased with the main points of” the play, The American Claimant (Colonel Sellers as a Scientist).
February 6 Thursday – From New York, Charles Scribner’s & Sons wrote to Sam thanking him for his photograph and signature, and asking the name of someone who was “competent” to write a 800 to 1,000 word biographical sketch they might put in the April issue of The Book Buyer [MTP].
Daniel Whitford wrote one-sentence to Sam that he’d just received the papers and Sam’s letter [MTP].
February 5 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam answered Dean Sage’s Feb. 2 letter and wrote a long narrative of the misdeeds of Edward H. House.
February 4 Tuesday – Mrs. H.W. Beall wrote from Mayesville, S.C. to thank Sam for books sent [MTP].
Webster & Co. wrote a short note to Sam with weekly reports (not extant): “Not hearing from you in regard to the last cable we received from Mr. Hall saying that trade house had offered $30,000 in cash and 50% and that he would sail on the 5th” [MTP].
BETHLEHEM. — In sacred interest this village, though it be “little among the thousands of Judah,” is only second to Jerusalem itself. Few will climb the terraced acclivities that lead up to it from the Mar Saba road, or pass along the winding path that approaches it from the Holy City, without calling to mind that wondrous event which has given its name to our era. But independent of all associations its appearance is striking.
Mar Sâba to Bethlehem. — By making an early start from the convent and crossing the mountain to Bethlehem, the traveller will have sufficient time to visit all the places of interest there, and to return to Jerusalem in the evening. Thus a day may be saved. The road leads for ½ hr. back again along the S. bank of the Kidron, and then turning to the l, passes a low ridge, and crosses a succession of naked plateaus.
Convent of Mar Sâba.—In the wild grandeur of its situation Mar Sâba is the most extraordinary building in Palestine. Just at the place where it stands, a small side ravine tumbles down into the Kidron, and the buildings cover both sides of the former, and the projecting cliff between the two, the irregular masses of walls, towers, chambers, and chapels, here perched upon narrow rock terraces, and there clinging to the sides of precipices.
The Dead Sea to Mar Sâba.—The direct road from the little peninsula at the north-western corner of the Dead Sea to Mar Sâba can be ridden in about 4 ½ hrs. It first leads for 1 h. across the plain, passing to the right of a jungle of canes and thorn-bushes, nourished by a brackish fountain called ’Ain Jehâir, and winding among a succession of deep furrows and pits, wrought by winter torrents in the white chalk strata, not inaptly compared by Maundrell to a collection of gigantic lime-kilns.