April 14 Wednesday – In Brooklyn, Sam and Twichell sat in on a session of the Henry Ward Beecher trial. Dean’s father, Henry W. Sage, had been a trustee of Beecher’s church for nearly 20 years and employed Beecher’s son in his lumber business. Dean Sage came at noon and the trio lunched at some club, then all three went back to watch the trial. Sam met the judge in the trial but wouldn’t take the seat on the bench offered to him [MTL 6: 446-8]. Joe’s journal: “Mr. Shank of the New York Tribune” saw MT and JT come in and took them to seats “in the very centre of the court…just under the judges desk” [Yale, copy at MTP].

0.11 inches of rain fell on the NYC area [NOAA.gov].

In Cambridge, Mass., Howells wrote Sam, hoping that when the Clemenses came “up to attend the Lexington Centennial,” they might “come to our house.” Howells wrote he had just telegraphed for Sam’s sixth installment of “Old Times,”  which was to run in the June issue of Atlantic. The Howellses had just returned from a trip to Bethlehem, Penn. [MTHL 1: 72].