January 14 Saturday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Charles Henry Webb.

“I dissent. I made up my mind solidly day before yesterday that I would draw out of the Galaxy with the April No. & write no more for any periodical—except, at long intervals a screed that I happened to dearly want to write” [MTL 4: 302].

Webb may have made a request of Sam to write for James R. Osgood (1826-1892) or George W. Carleton, his own publisher, but Sam had a long memory (if a sometimes flawed one) and once scorned he did not forget. No way was Carleton ever going to publish Sam after the Jumping Frog refusal.

John M. Hay wrote to Sam, enclosing his letter of Jan. 9, and turning down Sam’s offer of a partnership in the Buffalo Express, thanking him for kind words about his verses [MTL 4: 299-300n1].