May 9 Thursday – Sam wrote from Cleveland to his baby daughter Susy.

We are enjoying our stay here to an extent not expressible save in words of syllables beyond your strength. Part of our enjoyment is derived from sleeping tranquilly right along, & never listening to see if you have got the snuffles afresh or the grand duke up stairs has wakened & wants a wet rag. And yet no doubt you, both of you, prospered just as well all night long as if you had had your father & mother’s usual anxious supervision. Many’s the night I’ve lain awake till 2 oclock in the morning reading Dumas & drinking beer, listening for the slightest sound you might make, my daughter, & suffering only as a father can suffer, with anxiety for his child. Some day you will thank me for this…. My child, be virtuous & you will be happy [MTL 5: 85].

Sam was quoting Benjamin Franklin in this last line, but would restate it as “Be virtuous and you will be eccentric,” then finally, “Be virtuous and you will be lonesome,” which became “Be good and you’ll be lonesome.”

May 9-14 Tuesday– While in Cleveland, Sam signed the visitor’s register for the Cleveland Club. No date is put to his entry [www.liveauctioneers.com/item/1279827; Oct. 15, 2005 auction].