December 28 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Charles Webster about the hiring of W.E. Dibble. Sam had jotted in his notebook a desire to return Webster’s salary back to $3,000 from the $3,800 that had been agreed to for the settling of $4,000, which was caused by the Scott embezzlement. Now he took the reins to the situation and suggested that Webster could donate the $800 toward Dibble’s salary:

I am quite willing, since it commends itself to you as a good move. If you wish to relinquish & sacrifice toward this new salary the extra $800 a year added to your own salary to make up your private loss by Scott’s defalcation, good — otherwise never mind it. I gave my word at the time, & will not retreat from it, of course; though reflection, later, convinced me that I already had a heavy enough load left on my by Scot.

I suppose the larger the local General Agency can now be made, the better it will be for us all, so long as it isn’t made too large for Dibble to handle effectively.

I shall be down Saturday noon to attend another troublesome dinner & will drop in at the office [MTBus 389-90; MTLP 241]. Note: Samuel Webster writes that this was the last letter Sam wrote to his father, that “The rest of his correspondence was with my mother [Annie Moffett Webster]”