October 14 Friday – Sam and Joe Twichell walked out to Talcott’s Tower, a wooden structure about five miles outside of Hartford. Sam related their talk in a letter to Howells the next day:

[Twichell] mentioned that a Yale scientist believes we shall contrive a way to communicate with the people in other planets by & by—(by my system of Mental Telegraphy, maybe.)  No other way will be possible, because only thoughts could be transmitted—not language, since neither of us could understand the other. As for myself, I have no difficulty in believing that our newspapers will by & by contain news, not 24 hours old, from Jupiter et al—mainly astronomical corrections & weather indications; with now & then a sarcastic fling at the only true religion [MTHL 1: 376-7].

W.B. Gwyn wrote to Sam asking for publication advice [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Referred him to the publishers—my opinion no value