August 17 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Horace Greeley, asking him to confirm or deny the famous Hank Monk story about the hair-raising stagecoach ride Monk supposedly gave Greeley. This anecdote is in chapter 20 of Roughing It. A reply from Greeley to this letter was lost, but at the end of this chapter Sam wrote with asterisk: “And what makes this worn anecdote the more aggravating is that the adventure it celebrates never occurred.”