January 14 Friday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Mechanic’s Hall, Utica, New York [MTPO].

Sam wrote from Troy, New York to Livy. Neither poor weather nor a fire in the lecture hall stopped Sam from his lecture. He was upset that the Troy Daily Times had published his Cambridge lecture of the night before. At 7 a fire broke out in the lecture hall.

“…I felt that all I needed to be entirely happy was to see the Troy Times editors & this chairman locked up in that burning building” [MTL 4: 25-6]. Note: The fire was quickly put out and Sam lectured in a damp, singed, smelly hall.