October 25 Wednesday – Sam answered a letter from an unidentified woman (perhaps Miss Wood) who had been in Memphis to help the injured and dying from the Pennsylvania boiler explosion that killed Sam’s brother Henry. Sam could not recall the person and answered that he didn’t like to think about that week in Memphis for the horror of it. He remembered and was forever thankful for the help that the city gave to his brother and to the victims of the tragedy.

What I do remember, without the least trouble in the world, is, that when those sixty scalded & mutilated people were thrown upon her hands, Memphis came forward with a perfectly lavish outpouring of money & sympathy, & that this did not fail & die out, but lasted through to the end.

Do you remember how the physicians worked?—& the students—the ladies—& everybody? I do. If the rest of my wretched memory was taken away, I should still remember that. And I remember the names (& vaguely the faces) of the friends with whom I lodged, & two who watched with me—& you may well believe that I remember Dr. Peyton. What a magnificent man he was! What healing it was just to look at him & hear his voice! [MTLE 1: 134].

Sam added that he planned a trip down the river for the spring of 1878 and hoped to see the woman again, possibly as his guest in Hartford, to “break bread & eat salt with me.”