April 5 Saturday – On board the Kanawha off Cape Hatteras, N.C., Sam wrote to Livy.

Livy darling it is too bad, I forgot all about Frau von Versen. I hasten at this late day to send a couple of mottoes for you to choose from. I will mail them at Norfolk this evening, & they will beat me home, whether we get delayed or don’t. We are always subject to delays. …

We are off Hatteras, but it is not stormy.

With tons & tons of love.

Sam’s notebook: “Charleston. At noon met at Hotel & went to the Exposition. Funereal. Pasteboard ‘palaces.’ About 200 people / Moultrie & Sumter / Rice left 5.20 / We sailed at 5. / Publish my Battle Hymn?” [NB 45 TS 9]. Note: though Sam put the Charleston excursion under Apr. 5 in his NB, he wrote Livy on this day that they went to the fair on the previous day, Apr. 4.

Sam’s ship log: “At Charleston. At noon gathered at the hotel & went out to the Exposition; 200 people wandering about the vast vacancies. Engaged some wheel-chairs. I was last, & had to wait a while. The boss said, ‘The gentleman is away that pushes your chair—be back soon.’ It is a good Exposition, but not well attended. / Rice went north by rail at 5 p.m. / Sailed, about 6” [MTP].

Sam enclosed two mottos for Frau von Versen: “ The man who is a pessimist before 48, knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little,”and “On the whole it is better to deserve honors & not have them, than have them & not deserve them” [MTP].