January 16 Sunday – The Brooklyn Eagle, p.9 ran an article from a Toledo, Ohio newspaper about a rags to riches in reverse story, and a connection with Sam that has yet to be verified:

FROM WEALTH TO A WORKHOUSE

A Man Distinguished in War and in Journalism Sentenced as a Tramp

Cincinnati, O., January 15

A special from Toledo to the Times-Star says: “There was incarcerated in the Toledo workhouse to-day a man whose history is a peculiar one. His name is Frank C. Gordon, and he was captured in a saloon while engaged in a drunken disturbance. The name of Frank C. Gordon will stir up the recollection of a great many persons in various large cities where he is remembered as a shining example of a good man gone wrong. Gordon was originally from one of the first families of Boston and during the war distinguished himself by his bravery and daring deeds as captain in a Massachusetts regiment. At the close of the war he went to California and edited the San Jose Mercury, where he got into a dissipated rut. He drifted around the mining camp until he ran across Samuel M. Clemens [sic] (Mark Twain), and through him became associated with some of the leading papers on the Pacific coast. Then he became an actor and did well, finally controlling a theater in Rochester, N.Y. Then his old habits of dissipation returned, and he has run down at the heel sadly within a few years. He became a tramp, and as such will serve a term in a workhouse cell when he might be a leader among men.”

Webster & Co. Telegrammed Sam: “Books were sent off before your note reached us” [MTP].