January 15 Thursday – At night in Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote a note to Livy:
Ship ahoy! helm-alee! hard aport!—There, steady! let her go off a point!—luff, & bring her to the wind! I’m reading before-the-mast sailor-yarns, dearest, & am full of the salt sea & the great winds & the wonders of the deep. They couldn’t understand me at dinner, they are land-lubbers & ignorant. Sleep well, dearest of the dear—I love you [MTP].
David A. Munro wrote to Sam.
“I had no exalted opinion of McCrackan, but I did not suppose that he could descend to that. But Christian Science—however much it may do for the physical health of the mass of its adherents—seems to have a queer effect on those who are charged with the task of fostering it through the press.” Munro enclosed a clipping, “which pretends to represent your views on the subject” (of Christian Science). “I have been retailing at large one sentence from your letter received yesterday, as an almost perfect illustration of the value of erasure as a literary device. The sentence is: ‘That old witch is getting mighty cautious.’ You could not have said it half as effectively if you had said or written it right out” [MTP].
Sam wrote check # 25 to American Plasmon Co. for $9,500, and noted “Endorsed, ‘The American Plasmon Co., R.W. Ashcroft, Treasurer” [NB 46 TS 5].
Sam’s notebook: Alludes to John Brougham’s adaptation of Dickens’ Dombey and Son, and mentions Dan Setchell’s characterization of Captain Cuttle [Gribben 189]. “Dan Setchel (Burton) / ‘Toodles—Cuttle. / Lost at sea. / I counted his house. / [Horiz. Line separator] / Artemus Ward—beloved in England. / [Horiz. Line separator] / Henry M. Stanley” [NB 46 TS 5-6].