December 9 Saturday – Sam lectured in Farrar Hall, Erie, Pennsylvania – “Artemus Ward.”

In a letter about this date to Redpath, Sam wrote, “I like this lecture first rate, —better than any I have ever had except the ‘Vandal’ —three years ago.” While revising the “Roughing It” lecture, Sam returned to the Artemus content. The Erie Observer called Sam’s lecture a “decided failure” and a “pitiful attempt to ape the style of Artemus Ward, in which he only succeeded in reaching the standard of a negro minstrel” [MTL 4: 513n1].