June 6 Friday – In the afternoon, Sam played billiards with Sam Dunham, Franklin Whitmore, Henry Robinson, Charles Perkins, and Edward Bunce, while George Griffin, the butler, received telephone updates and announced ballots from the Chicago Republican convention. In mid-afternoon, James G. Blaine won the nomination on the fourth ballot. Connecticut’s twelve delegates cast their votes for favorite son, Joseph R. Hawley [NY Times p.1, June 7, 1884]. Note: The convention’s selection stimulated an interesting discussion in Sam’s billiard room. See MTA 15-18 for a full account.

Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, that he’d given up on the bicycle article, not liking what he’d written; he needed to get to Quarry Farm and get busy on his “regular work.” Don’t give Dana of the N.Y. Sun any indication that he’d write something for the paper, and please get the drawing room car on the Lackawanna train for June 18 [MTP].