December 11 Sunday – Sam wrote an obituary for Reuel Colt Gridley to the editor of the New York Tribune. Gridley was a Hannibal schoolmate, and the man who carried the “Sanitary flour sack” in Austin, Nevada. Gridley died on Nov. 24 [MTL 4: 270-1]. His obituary appeared in the Tribune on Dec. 13.

A dramatization of his Jumping Frog story took place at Dan Bryant’s new minstrel hall, and Sam may have seen it [MTL 4: 269].