January 16 Thursday – Sam began his new position on Orion’s newspaper; he wrote a comic piece, “A Gallant Fireman,” lampooning Jim Wolfe, their new apprentice and his dim-witted reaction to a minor fire at a shop next door to the Western Union [ET&S 1: 61]. (Note: Dempsey cites this article as the first known authored by Sam [158].) Sam tried to add vigor to the paper by using local color and frontier language, while Orion filled the paper with moralistic pieces, dull compositions and summaries of national news. The brothers, so different in temperament and style, created conflict which doomed collaboration on the newspaper. As the man of the family, Orion tried to exert control over Sam, but was feckless in the face of the challenge; Sam was bound not to accept any such control.