February 4 and 6 Thursday – Sam wrote from Washington to Elisha Bliss, asking for a thousand dollar advance on the new book, in order to cut down on his newspaper articles and focus on the book, which was to become Innocents Abroad. He had turned down the Postmaster of San Francisco job, and explained the loss of income to Bliss. Paine writes that Sam obtained an advance before he left for California, but the amount is unknown [MTB 362]. Sam also wrote his mother and family reasons for not taking the postmastership of San Francisco [MTL 2: 178-80].