Vol 3 Section 0685

Very many thanks for the Fairhaven Highschool jubilee reports. (I will squeeze that hen-composition out of you on the yacht-trip.)

Last night a neighbor—Mr. Kingsley of the New York life—was in & said that he would not be positive but believed Mr. Perkins (the Perkins) got the Woods place, which is next to us, for $70,000 last week, furniture

      all, & 10 acres. Says the house must have cost $100,000 to build [MTHHR 481].. Note: the source gives George Walbridge Perkins, Sr. (1862-1920) partner of J.P. Morgan & Co. In 1903 Perkins would purchase the house the Clemenses had rented, known as the Wave Hill House.

Frederic Remington wrote on a Players Club note card to ask for “the name and place of publication of the oldest newspaper published on the Missouri River, which is now in existence” [MTP]. Note: Feb. 8 reply.

         Rogers wrote to Sam (envelope only; letter enclosed from A.C. Bedford on the Riverdale-on-the Hudson house owned by the Appleton estate, valued at $150,000) [MTP].

February 8 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to Frederic Remington’s query of Feb. 7. Sam did not remember the names, but he knew there had been newspapers at St. Joseph and Independence, Mo. some 50 years before. He recommended Remington check the Mercantile Library in St. Louis [MTP].

Sam went into N.Y.C. where he spoke to the Vassar Alumnae [Feb. 10 to Marbury].

Elisabeth Marbury wrote to Sam, enclosing a check for $59.43 as Sam’s net royalties on the PW play for week ending Dec. 28, 1901 to week ending Jan. 18, 1902 [MTP].

The New York Times¸ Feb. 7, reported that on Feb. 8 the child actress Beatrice Abbey (later, aka Mrs. Ethel Foster Hollearn) would play the lead role in the Children’s Theatre play at Carnegie Hall: “Little Lady and Lord Cromwell,” based on Sam’s story, “The Death Disk” (aka “The Death Wafer”) which first appeared in the Dec. 1901 Harper’s Monthly Magazine.

Sam’s notebook gives on this date a list of seemingly unrelated items followed by: “Delmoni go at 2/15 / Mrs. Trask, 140 W. 46th” [NB 45 TS 3].

February 9 Sunday – The New York Times, p.8, “Society at Baltimore,” reported:

Miss Lelia Gittings of Baltimore is visiting Mrs. Samuel L. Clemens (the wife of Mark Twain) at her home at Riverdale-on-the-Hudson. [Note: see inscription to Gittings Apr. 29, 1898 entry].

February 10 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to Elisabeth Marbury’s Feb. 8.

The reason I have been trying to get you on the telephone is this:

Do you know the PROPRIETOR of the theatre where “A Gentleman of France” was being matinèed last Saturday week? [Feb. 1]

For you know how to do things. Mrs. Clemens lost a valuable emerald-&-diamond ring there, that day, & wrote the box-office about it to-day a week ago, & has received no reply. Won’t you get that ring for me? I can’t get away from here for several days. I went to town Saturday to get your advice & assistance, but was kept speechifying to the Vassar Alumnae until it was too late. God will bless you, for He takes an interest in jewelry [MTP]. Note: see Feb. 1 entry.

February 11 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam added to the Feb. 5, 7 letter to Francis H. Skrine.

Feb. 11. I am sorry it [Skrine’s book] is finished. I made it last as long as I could. It was a noble life & most nobly lived. The beauty & cheer & pathos of it move hand in hand together through it all. The passage

SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.