August 30 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Eliot Norton. He related his decision not to honor his engagement in Ashfield at Norton’s Annual Dinner, due to President Garfield’s critical and hopeless condition; Livy’s objection to Sam not going to Ashfield but going to Boston for business; Sam’s trip by rail, and the “dreadful news” about Garfield worsening on Friday, Aug. 26.

“I was inexpressibly glad that I had held to my purpose & broken my engagement. Howells & I often spoke of it as we moved along the streets breaking our hearts over these ghastly bulletin boards & watching the domes & pinnacles for that dreaded sign, the flag at half-mast” [MTP].