June 1 Saturday – Sam wrote from New York to his mother and family in St. Louis, irritated about the wait, and uncertain if the Quaker City would even sail. He was no doubt down about the withdrawal of General Sherman and Henry Ward Beecher, and pressed to finish his writing duties All I do know or feel, is, that I am wild with impatience to move—move—Move! …Curse the endless delays! They always kill me—make me neglect every duty & then I have a conscience that tears me like a wild beast. I wish I never had to stop anywhere a month.” Sam had scouted some of the passengers and looked forward to the company of one, Daniel Slote: “I have got a splendid, immoral, tobacco-smoking, wine-drinking, godless room-mate who is as good & true & right-minded as man as ever lived—a man whose blameless conduct & example will always be an eloquent sermon to all who shall come within their influence. But send on the professional preachers—there are none I like better to converse with—if they ain’t narrow minded & bigoted they make good companions. Sam closed by saying he had not made arrangements for letters with any other New York papers but he would see about doing so “Monday or Tuesday” [MTL 2: 50].
Sam started a letter (finished June 8) before the steamer left port to Frank Fuller, asking him to “take charge of my affairs while I am gone to Europe,” which included collecting monies from Webb for sales of his Jumping Frog book and forwarding the amounts to his mother [MTL 2: 53, 62].