May 9 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Karl and Hattie Gerhardt. After going on about how he liked the way they kept their finances, Sam admitted, “I am not as business-like, myself, as I ought to be—consequently I peculiarly detest the like thing in others.” Sam told of plans to go to the “Sound-side near New Haven about June 1st” and his hope that Paris would not be as “wintry & hideous as it was at this time in ‘79” [MTP]. 

It is not known if Sam went to South Manchester, Conn. as he wrote Webster on May 7, or what his business was there (see note in May 7 entry.)

Sam also telegraphed Herbert M. Laurence in Venice, Italy asking, “WHAT IS EARLIEST DATE YOU CAN BEGIN DECORATING OUR HOUSE” [MTP].