September 19 Monday – James A. Garfield lost his long struggle. He was the second U.S. President to be assassinated. Chester A. Arthur would be sworn in as the new President on Sept. 20.

Sam wrote from Elmira to his mother, that it “took me two days to get rested again” from the trip to Fredonia, the return trip through Buffalo, and home. He was glad Livy and the children had not been along, but:

“…by & by they will finish that new road, & the time-tables will improve, & then Livy & the children will come with me” [MTP]. 

Samuel Webster writes that years later, anybody who Sam disliked he claimed came from Dunkirk; this due to a three and a half hour wait there once at the train station [MTBus 170].

Sam also wrote to Thomas Aldrich enclosing an article about “one of the most horrible episodes” Sam had ever read about. “I thought I would cut it out & send it to you for the C. Club.” [MTP]. Most probably this would have been the Correspondent’s Club. The “episode” is unidentified.

Sam also wrote a spoof on a Ralph Waldo Emerson aphorism above his fireplace (The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it) to an unidentified person:

“Mr. Emerson would say, ‘The curse of a house is the mumps who frequent it—especially if they is malarious’ ” [MTP].