Sam and Cable left Philadelphia and traveled to Brooklyn, where they gave two performances at the Academy of Music. The Brooklyn Eagle called it “The Literary Event of the Season” [p.5]. Henry Ward Beecher and Dean Sage and wife were in the audience. A Miss Copelin from St. Louis sent Sam a note and he went to see her. She was the daughter of a young girl he once knew. Miss Copelin was 21 and her mother was only fifteen when Sam knew her. “It made things seem a long time ago, & also made me feel very old & useless” [Nov. 23 to Clara Clemens, MTP].
2 Shows. Huge houses.
"...and I will read instead a scene from my new play, in which Colonel Mulberry Sellers having failed in everything else tackles science as a last resort, and proposes to utilize the wasted energies of the present race of human beings in rehabilitating those who had gone over to the majority. His friend Lafayette Hawkins, of Missouri, thinks that there is no money in it, but the colonel takes policemen and shows that model and best of all immortal patrolmen can be furnished at nine cents apiece, and an exceptionally good article at $120 a gross. A permanent set of dead Congressmen was suggested, and it was said that Europe could be furnished with kings who could actually eat dynamite. Charlemagne and Solomon could be sold at auction, and the dead heroes of Greece and Rome would be worth millions. "We will make a good sale," the colonel continued, "but I must insist on no higgling about a million or two either way." The Brooklyn Daily Eagle 1884: November 23
23 November 1884 • New York, N.Y.
N.Y., Nov. ’84.
Saturday, after midnight.
Livy dear, only a line to say we finished the eighth performance for this week in Brooklyn Academy of Music at 10 this evening, & then came over the Bridge & home. Tired to death, & hungry. Disposed of two great chops, 3 eggs, fried potatoes, & a bottle of ale. I eat a big breakfast every morning & a big supper every night, & am growing fat. We got up at 6 this morning, & have talked to two huge houses in Brooklyn today. Mr. Beecher & the Sages were there tonight, & Dean came behind the scenes.
Thank those dear sweet children for me, for their welcome letters.
I love them & their mother.
Saml