Vol 3 Section 0884

February 16 Monday – Sam wrote to Henry Elias Howland, former Supreme Court Justice, president of the University Club, popular and witty speaker, declining an unspecified invitation due to his wife’s health. [MTP; Bauman Rare Books, Jan. 23, 2009 online].

Sam sent his butler to the Oppenheimer Institute to take the cure for his problems with alcohol. He would return inebriated a week later with the bill for the Institute’s services [Nov. 1905 to Oppenheimer Inst.]

Note: the UC Berkeley 1973 edition of Christian Science, p. 567, n. 302 gives: “perhaps his butler Claude”. See Feb. 23 entry.

Sam’s notebook: “Reitz, Secretary of State, S.A. Republic / 4 p.m. (?)” [NB 46 TS 11]. Note: Francis William Reitz (1844-1934), at this time State Secretary of the South African Republic. Lawyer, politician, statesman and poet, he had also been the fifth President of the Orange Free State (1889-1895). He was a popular leading Afrikaner during the Second Boer War, and went into voluntary exile after the war. He would be the first President of the Senate of the Union of South Africa (1910-1921).

February 17 Tuesday

February 18 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mrs. Edward M. McCook, in Old Point Comfort, Virginia, where Jean Clemens had been recuperating from her bout with pneumonia.

Jean has told me all about her life down there, & how much she owed to you & General McCook, & how grateful she feels for your many & thoughtful kindnesses to her; and certainly I also am grateful, & I wish to thank you on both my own & Mrs. Clemens’s account—for Mrs. Clemens will know, some day, that Jean made a journey South; then she will be glad to learn that I joined her thanks to mine. Oh, she will find out many things, by & by! She does not know that Jean has been sick, & absent. But she will get well, some day, & then she will learn much news. She sat up a few minutes in a chair, to-day.

Jean begs to send her love to you, & her kindest regards to the General, & I beg permission to reverse the order & deliver the same over again on my account [MTP].

J. Leroy Smith wrote to Sam on City and State letterhead (a Phila. weekly).

Mr. E.H. Clement, editor of the Boston TRANSCRIPT has written Mr. [Herbert] Welsh that you are going to write an article on the Father Augustine case entitled “Brownell’s Conscience.” In view of this fact Mr. Welsh thought you would be interested in the enclosed copy of a letter he recently wrote on this subject, which was written in a personal way to Mr. Crosby…he just thought it might be of service to you in writing your article [MTP].

Note: Early in 1902 there appeared newspaper stories of US Army abuses in the Philippines. The first specific incident which aroused outrage and horror was the “Father Augustine” case, the wanton killing by torture of a Filipino Catholic priest who refused to be a traitor to his people’s cause. Interest in the case was first aroused by a letter appearing in the Boston Evening Transcript on April 13, 1902. It was alleged that Captain Brownell had used torture to force a defenseless prisoner to incriminate himself, in violation of Gen. MacArthur’s rules of engagement. J. Leroy Smith also enclosed a pamphlet Herbert Welsh published on the case.

February 19 Thursday

February 20 Friday

February 21 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow.

Forgive me! Great Scott, I was dreadfully busy and I thought I asked Mrs. Clemens secretary to answer your letter for me, but she says I changed my mind and carried it to my study to answer it myself. Well I

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