Vol 3 Section 0948

August 9 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “A P H / As concerns Christ there are some uncertainties but for our solace we know one thing for sure—He was not a Christian” [NB 46 TS 23].

August 10 Monday

August 11 Tuesday

August 12 Wednesday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to daughter Jean at Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y.

I have just received your letter, dear Jean, & am very sorry for that stupid & entirely inexcusable botch which Mr. Smith has made in the Papiniano matter. Clara broke it to me yesterday, & I won’t deny that it did certainly add a ton or two to the load which Bliss is furnishing me to carry. I proposed to send a cable saying “Take your Papiniano & go to hell with it,” but Clara & I could not agree. She wanted to insert “dam” in front of Papiniano, but I felt that your mother would not approve of that; & so we split upon that trifle & sent no cable at all. Explain it to your mother, so that she will see that although Clara tried to get me to do wrong, I stood out & done right.

I believe the thing I should recommend would be that we keep Papiniano, put up with the swindle, & live in the hotel until we can get the house—but we will do whatever your mother prefers.

Mr. Poor has a villa there which he is not using, and Harry Harper wants to speak to him about it. I will now call Harry up on the telephone & ask him to call up Mr. Poor & let’s talk & make inquiries.

So I will cut this letter short, & attend to it.

After saying good-bye to Clara I ran up to see Reeves & ask questions; then ran to Helmer’s (his dam shop is shut up till Sept. 7); then down here, expecting an appointment with Doubleday—& got it—for noon-

        I don’t suppose Clara took the right railroad, but I done the best I could—I needed to be within telephone call, & to be at the hotel, here before 10. Cheer your mother up, & tell her we’ll try & pull through, all right, as regards Florence—which will begin to smell like Tarrytown, presently.

…

Telephone from Harry Harper tells me Mr. Poor has rented his villa [MTP]. Note: lined out text shows Sam’s prior intentions.

August 13 Thursday – One of Sam’s notes to his invalid wife inform us of his activities this day at the funeral of William E. Dodge, Jr. (1832-1903), Riverdale neighbor, who died at age 71 on Aug. 9 in Bar Harbor, Maine. The funeral was held at the Presbyterian Church in Riverside at 10:30 a.m. Sam’s note, on or just after this day:

Dearheart, in accordance with orders, I drove in state in John’s ambulance at 4 p.m. & left cards at the Perkinses which were not to home, then visited an hour at William E.’s house—half an hour with Mrs. Dodge, then half an hour with Mr. Dodge & Miss Grace when they came from somewheres—& as Mrs. Wm E. was present all the time, it makes an hour & a half altogether; which is curious, because I was not gone from home as long as that. I can’t understand it, but it is so. I love you my darling, & you are booming along splendidly. / Y [MTP; NY Times Aug. 10, “William E. Dodge Dead,” p.1; Aug.11, “Funeral of William E. Dodge” p.7]. Note: George Walbridge Perkins, Sr. family.

August 14 Friday

August 15 Saturday – Margaret M. (not further identified), an 11-year-old girl wrote from Portland, Ore to Sam, a letter of admiration for his works [MTP].

August 16 Sunday – In N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Samuel Merwin. “Dear Mr. Merwin,—What you have said has given me deep pleasure—indeed I think no words could be said that could give me more” [MTP: MTLP 744].

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