December 5 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to D.F. Appleton, head of the New England Society (see Dec. 22 entry). The society had invited Sam to attend their 72nd anniversary at Delmonico’s in New York on Dec. 22. Sam begged “an offensive business engagement that day in Hartford,” and so declined to attend. Sam announced he intended to have his private telephone connected with the banquet hall and, with a few friends:

“will smoke our pipes and sip our lemonade, applaud your speeches judiciously, and refresh ourselves with a fragrant sniff of each of your course as it comes on your table” [MTLE 2: 200].

Sam revealed that if any of the speakers went over their allotted ten minutes, “we will shut down the lid on him and wait for the next speaker,” using an invention of Sam’s he called the Olfactorium.

Sam also wrote to his mother-in-law, Olivia Lewis Langdon, saying the family was well and thanking her for the shaving stand, a birthday gift. Sam said he had not missed a day shaving since he’d received it, and that Livy was thus thankful too. Sam mentioned a visit by John Slee (Jervis Langdon’s past business partner) that they had enjoyed [MTLE 2: 201].