July 5 Saturday – In Onteora Park, near Tannersville, New York, Sam wrote a poem and a sketch of two men passing each other, one with a halo and the other holding a fan, titled, “The Last Meeting, & Final Parting” in honor of Laurence Hutton, who was also visiting Onteora Club at the time.
When I meet you I shall know you,
By your halo I shall know you —
Thus shall know you, blameless man;
And you’ll know me also, Larry,
When we meet but may not tarry —
Yes, alas, alas, you’ll know me by my fan [MTP].
Note: this may be the date the famous photograph was made of Sam, the red-haired, big mustachioed Hutton, and James M. Dodge (“Jamie”) sitting on the stoop of a cabin at Onteora, all holding the same type of straw hat (See Lawton after p.254). Dodge was the son of Mary Mapes Dodge (see Nov. 19, 1880), one of the first to build at Onteora. James was an inventor and mechanical engineer, known as a raconteur. Sam called him “the greatest story-teller in America” [MTNJ 3: 582n34].