June 17 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Warren Stoddard, who evidently had asked if Sam’s inquiry about where an article appeared meant that he was angry.

“Now what the hell should I get mad about? Am I become an ass in mine old age? Don’t talk such nonsense. I had a curiosity to know whose album it was—not a solitary damn did I care else about the matter” [MTLE 5: 128].

Sam added: “Lord, but I would like to see San Francisco once more!” (Of course, he never did.)

Sam also wrote to Susan Warner and Lilly Warner about the ease of having “an entire car to ourselves.” He told of the play they’d seen the night they arrived in New York (Hazel Kirke–see June 15 entry) and also speculated about the good chances of William Hooker Gillette’s (1853-1937) play, The Professor [MTLE 5: 129]. The play opened June 1, 1881 and had a run of 151 performances in New York. Gillette’s theatrical career started in 1874 when Sam loaned him $3,000 and arranged for him to have a small part in the 1875 Hartford production of Colonel Sellers [MTNJ 2: 380n72]. See June 26, 1881 letter to the Gerhardts. Note: William Gillette was Francis Gillette’s youngest son; he became one of America’s great actors.