December 9 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Walter E. Dacrow, who evidently had asked for a small article. Sam’s answer deserves space here:

If anything in the world could tempt me, this letter of yours could certainly do it. But I give myself only five years longer to live, and in that time I must furnish certain books for the betterment of the human race; if I should stop to peddle miscellaneous articles, it would leave the human race insecure [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Rollin M. Daggett, letter not extant but referred to in Daggett’s Dec. 19 reply. Evidently Sam was trying to locate John Mackay, along with any other rich men who might subscribe to Paige Co. stock.

Jeannette L. Gilder for The Critic wrote, sending Oliver Wendell Holme’s poem for Sam’s 50th [MTP].

William Howard (1834-1902), wrote from Bethlehem, Penn., referring to earlier correspondence, not extant. His wife had read “The Private History of a Campaign That Failed” to the family the night before, from the Century. Howard praised the article as well as IA, “the best abused of our books” [MTP].