April 23 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Mary Mason Fairbanks who chided him for not writing. Sam gave it back in spades for her not visiting when she was “3 or 4 hours” by train from them. Sam was still talking about a Mississippi River trip, now he hoped in May or June, and then he’d “try to stop a night in Cleveland en route.” He told of going to Boston to see the Concord Centennial but not seeing it; and the Beecher trial. Sam also bragged of the children [MTL 6: 454-5].

Sam also wrote to Howells, relating Twichell’s travels to the Concord Centennial. Sam felt “spring laziness” about writing and so was putting it off. He invited the Howellses to come up next Saturday, since they’d said they could visit “nearly any Saturday” [MTL 6: 457].