March 3 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Willard M. White (1843-1923) who had asked for help in promoting the invention of a mosquito net frame that attached to a bed.

There is nothing that a just & right feeling man rejoices in more than to see a mosquito imposed on & put down, & brow-beaten & aggravated,—& this ingenious contrivance will do it. And it is a rare thing to worry a fly with, too. A fly will stand off & curse this invention till language utterly fails him. I have seen them do it hundreds of times…We shall see the summer day come when we shall all sit under our nets in church & slumber peacefully, while the discomfited flies club together & take it out of the minister [MTL 5: 307].