March 12 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Livy.
I am not all afraid of the Hookers, now—dine there tonight. Woe! WOE! WOE! you blessed little rascal!….P.S.—I go to Boston to-morrow, at Nasby’s request, to spend two days with him & the literary lions of the “Hub.” Monday night I leave there for New York—lecture Tuesday in Newtown, & the—very—next—evening, I spurn the U.S. Mail & bring my kisses to my darling myself! [MTL 3: 161-5].
Sam’s portrait on porcelain (called an opalotype) was taken on this date. In the case well is an inscription in pencil, “Hartford. March / 12, 1869. / I xxxx you Livy! / And I xxxxx you, Livy! DON’T TELL!” Note: the inscription denotes this portrait measuring 4.9 x 3.9 cm. set in a lavender, oval-hinged case, was a gift to Sam’s wife to be [Online Guide to the Cased photographs from the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley]. The portrait may have been enclosed in the above letter.