November 11 Tuesday – Sam wrote two letters from the Palmer House in Chicago to Livy. The first letter recounted activities of the prior day (Nov. 10). The second letter told of meeting…
“…an elderly German gentleman named Raster, who said his wife owed her life to me—hurt in the Chicago fire & lay menaced with death a long time, but the Innocents Abroad kept her mind in a cheerful attitude.”
Sam visited the woman for a “cordial fifteen-minute visit” with “a pipe & a bottle of Rhein wine.” Then he was driven to Dr. A. Reeves Jackson’s and had an hour visit with Mrs. Jackson.
As Sam walked down Michigan Avenue, a “soldierly looking young gentleman” offered his hand, the son of Ulysses S. Grant, Colonel Frederick Dent Grant (1850-1912) Sam accompanied Fred to his home and met his family.
His wife is very gentle & intelligent & pretty, & they have a cunning little girl nearly as big as Bay but only 3 years old. They wanted me to come in & spend an evening, after the banquet, with them & Gen. Grant after this grand pow-wow is over, but I said I was going home Friday. Then they asked me to come Friday afternoon, when they & the General will receive a few friends, & I said I would. Col. Grant said he & Gen. Sherman used the Innocents Abroad as their guide book when they were on their travels.
I stepped in next door & took Dr Jackson to the hotel & we played billiards from 7 till 11.30 PM & then went to a beer mill to meet some twenty Chicago journalists—talked, sang songs & made speeches till 6 o’clock this morning. Nobody got in the least degree “under the influence,” & we had a pleasant time. Read a while in bed, slept till 11, shaved, went to breakfast at noon, & by mistake got into the servants’ hall. However, I remained there & breakfasted with twenty or thirty male & female servants, though I had a table to myself [MTLE 4: 136-7].
Fred Grant secured Sam a ticket to join him and fifteen others on a canopied structure covered with flags and bunting in front of the hotel, where General Grant would stand and review the procession. After meeting Grant on the platform, being joined by General Sherman, and listening to the cheers of the crowd below, Sam borrowed General Deems’ overcoat until 5:45 PM, after which he borrowed General Willard’s overcoat.
“I have a seat on the stage at Haverley’s Theatre, to-night, where the Army of the Tennessee will receive Gen. Grant, & where Gen. Sherman will make a speech. At midnight I am to attend a meeting of the Owl Club” [MTLE 4: 137].