February 17 Wednesday – In Titusville, late after the lecture, Sam wrote letters to Livy, Joe Goodman, and Mary Mason Fairbanks. To Mary, Sam wrote teasingly:
“I haven’t got nothing more to write, I believe, because there ain’t no topics of interest here to write about, except that Beech was here & the angel of the coal mine went down in an oil well. No damage to either. Oils well that ends well” [MTL 3: 107-8].
In 1859 Titusville had been the scene of the first spouting oil well in the country. Later in the day he wrote from Franklin, Pennsylvania to Mary Mason Fairbanks. The Titusville Morning Herald gave Sam’s lecture a good review. Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture in Franklin, Pennsylvania.