January 22 Friday – Sam returned to Cleveland, staying with the Fairbankses. He gave his “Vandals” lecture for the Protestant Orphan Asylum Benefit, Case Hall, Cleveland, Ohio.
The Cleveland Leader reported Sam’s remarks that prefaced his lecture:
Ladies and Gentlemen: I am well aware of the fact that it would be a most gigantic fraud for you to pay a dollar each to hear my lecture. But you pay your dollar to the orphan asylum and have the lecture thrown in! So if it is not worth anything it does not cost you anything! [Laughter.]…I understand that there are to be other entertainments given week after next for the same object, the asylum being several thousand dollars in debt, and I earnestly recommend you all to attend them and not let your benevolence stop with this lecture. There will be eating to be done. Go there and eat, and eat, and keep on eating and pay as you go [Great laughter]. The proprietors of the skating rink have generously offered to donate to the asylum the proceeds of one evening, to the amount of a thousand dollars, and when that evening comes, go and skate. I do not know whether you can all skate or not, but go and try! If you break your necks it will be no matter; it will be to help the orphans. Don’t be afraid of giving too much to the orphans, for however much you give you have the easiest end of the bargain. Some persons have to take care of those sixty orphans and they have to wash them [Prolonged laughter]. Orphans have to be washed! And it’s no small job either for they have only one wash tub and it’s slow business. They can’t wash but one orphan at a time! They have to be washed in the most elaborate detail, and by the time they get through with the sixty, the original orphan has to be washed again. Orphans won’t stay washed! I’ve been an orphan myself for twenty-five years and I know this to be true [Great laughter].

Sam was now writing daily letters to Livy. Her letter arrived in Cleveland with a porcelain type photo of herself. He wrote his effusive thanks: “Oh, Livy darling, I could just worship that picture…” [MTL 3: 61-5]. Note: Sam did indeed idealize and “worship” Olivia Louise Langdon. The long absences, the lonely hotel rooms, the exchange of letters made Sam’s heart and reverence for Livy grow fonder. Sam was often anxious about her parents’ approval, fearful Livy might change her mind, and desperate for intimacy.