Vol 3 Section 1116
still so forlorn that Katy does not allow me to look in at the door; & as I desire no depressions of spirit, I obey. But I am getting impatient, for I am very tired of being homeless & living by myself [MTP].
Katharine Lampton Paxson wrote to Sam, enclosing a clipping of one of her poems from the Christian
Observer, titled “Sorrow”. “I was a little girl and used to sit on your knee and listen with such delight to you and Papa, arguing on every question under the sun.” She sent her “deepest sympathy” and love to his daughters [MTP]. Sam wrote on the env. “This is from a daughter of ‘Col. Sellers’ His name was James Lampton.”
November 24 Thursday – In Lee Mass. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Tabitha “Puss” Greening (Quarles) in Palmyra, Mo. that Sam was in New York but had said he was sorry for her “sad loss” and asked Lyon to send the enclosed check for $25 to help with funeral expenses [MTP]. Note: Greening had written on Nov. 19, letter in the Vassar collection, but not listed by MTPO.
November 25 Friday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Lee, Mass.
No, dear, they won’t let you see Clara; I wish they would but they won’t. We can go & see Bambino [Clara’s cat], but not the rest of Clara’s family. It is too bad, but it can’t be helped. However, Miss Gordon reports by telephone this morning, that Clara’s appetite improves, & that she is perceptibly making progress. That is pretty good news, I think. Mrs. Rogers, by my request, has postponed my birthday a couple of days—to Friday, Dec. 2. For several reasons: Wednesday Nov. 30 would be too soon for you, after your packing labors
your journey-fatigues, & you would need time in which to rest up & get a little wonted to your new & but half-settled nest, & begin to feel a little at home and reconciled. And goodness knows I don’t want my real birthday noticed—Dec. 2d is better.
I’ve got to get up, now, & receive Elsie Leslie Winter. I wonder what her errand is? I’ve no place to go; I wish I could stay in bed. “Dam!” as Mr. Rogers says when his cards don’t suit him.
Have the addresses of the periodicals been changed to New York? But, never mind answering that; you’ve a plenty to do for the present. / With heaps of love / Father [MTP]. Note: at this point the plan was for Jean to arrive on Nov. 29, judging from Sam’s Nov. 23 to Sue Crane and his estimation that Nov. 30 would be “too soon” for Jean to attend his birthday celebration.
November 26 Saturday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote thanks to an unidentified man.
“I hardly need to say that your letter has given me great pleasure—you would know that, yourself—& I thank you very very much” [MTP].
Harper’s Weekly in “A Constant Reader,” ran “The God of Battles,” p. 1814. Tenney: “Incorrectly ascribes to MT a letter in the previous issue. Also, p. 1820, a brief MT anecdote on an occasion when he missed his steamboat and made no excuse in his report: ‘My boat left at 7.20. I arrived at the wharf at 7.35 and could not catch it’” [39].
November 26?–December 10 – Sometime during this period Sam wrote to Katharine Lampton Paxson. The letter wound up in the Kansas City Star, Jan. 28, 1907.
I seem to see, through the dim vista of years, an adoring group, gathered around a beloved figure—Col. Mulberry Sellers. I must have drawn him winningly, attractively, engagingly, for within the past few years no less than six persons have presented their credentials to me as being the original Col. Mulberry Sellers. . . . . .
If I have ever said or written anything derogatory to that warm & noble heart, I am not aware of it. I seem now to feel the breezy uplift of his indestructible optimism.
November 27 Sunday – In N.Y.C. Sam inscribed Hillcrest Edition sets of his books to daughters Clara and Jean. Only two volumes to Jean are given by MTP. The set to Clara was sold by Sotheby’s auction, Apr. 13, 2004, Lot 27, for $96,000. Like the two sets with aphorisms given on Oct. 29, 1904 to William
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.