Vol 3 Section 0713
then to New York. So it looks now as if we can hardly fail to be home by the 12th—& I do hope there won’t be any failure.
I have telegraphed you to-day to write to Charleston; slow as the mails are, that gives time enough for a letter to arrive before we get there. I have written Havana to send my letters to Riverdale.
I hope you are well of your cold; I wanted to ask you to telegraph me, to-day, but I couldn’t, as we were likely to leave here before night. It is a long time since I got those letters from you & Jean—it seems weeks.
It is cool & pleasant tonight, & we are wearing our coats & vests once more; the heat has been very oppressive ever since we were here before [LLMT 336-7].
April 3 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “2.30 p.m. called on Sir Gilbert & Miss Carter. / Sailed for Jacksonville at 3.
/ Appointed Rice to distribute the tips: six of us, $50 apiece, $300” [NB 45 TS 8].
Sam’s ship log: “A flying-fish 30 feet long. It was Rice that saw it. / At 2.30 called on the Government & Miss Carter. Sailed at 3. for Jacksonville” [MTP].
In his Apr. 4 to Livy Sam relates the repose in Nassau (Apr. 2 and 3):
We did nothing at Nassau, except to pay a brief & formal visit to the Governor [Carter] & his daughter just before sailing. All the rest of the time we sat on the after-deck & gazed at the water. It may be that Lake Annecy is its equal, but it is doubtful. The colors are not earthly, they belong only in heaven. The little harbor is like a small lake; & & upon its surface are spread all the enchantments that can be gotten out of a sliding scale of dissolving shades of greens, blues, purples & bronzes, burning with interior fires, & changing to new miracles of variety & splendor with every change of wind & slant of sun—it is enough to make a person drunk with joy & enthusiasm. The effects are all helped by the perfect limpidity of the water & the white coral bottom; the bottom is quite plainly visible in 40 feet of water, & the boat seems floating in the air. I am sure Annecy hadn’t a white bottom—& that makes all the difference in the world. The final show was the best, & we had to leave in the midst of it. We were anchored in a green field of exceedingly pale blue water, whose interior brilliancy suggested dissolved diamonds; the wind broke the surface into waves; one side of each wave was pallid blue, & the shaded side was a deep (but transparent) blue, & this was faintly filmed over with a most delicate bronze—the general effect resulting, was a tossed & restless mottling or splotching of broken blues & pale blues, spiritualized by that divine faint wash of bronze [MTP].
April 4 Friday – On board the Kanawha en route from Nassau, Bahamas to Jacksonville, Fla., Sam wrote to Livy.
We are off the coast of Florida, Livy darling, & shall reach Jacksonville this evening about 8. Dr. Rice expects to catch a train there before midnight & go home, for he has learned by telegraph that Mrs. Rice & one of the girls will leave for a vacation in Italy pretty soon. He says he will call you up on the telephone & give you such news as he can about the yacht & her purposes. He can’t well go to Riverdale. I shall miss his pleasant society. Also his helpfulness; he prepares my bath almost every morning. I prepare his—when I am up first, which is not very often [MTP].
Sam’s notebook: “Off coast of Florida, 8 a m Col. Payne [sic Paine] & Reed (in a.m.) played poker & Reed won 23 pots in succession. Payne won no pot. Last hand: Reed had ace-King, & drew 2 aces. Payne had 2 queens & drew another. / Landbird,—no land” [NB 45 TS 8-9].
Sam’s ship log : “Off coast of Florida—morning. Paine & Reed played poker, & Reed won 23 pots in succession. This without prayer or other unfair advantage. Paine won not a single pot during the conflict— Reed got the first & the last, & all between; then Paine jumped the game & went below to replenish his vocabulary. …” [MTP]. Note: last hand same as in above NB entry.
The Kanawha reached Charleston, S.C. and the men visited the World’s Fair, spending about six hours ashore. “It resembled a funeral; nobody there; it is a dead failure.” Dr. Clarence C. Rice left for home on the
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.