December 30 Tuesday – Sam wrote from the Langham in London to George Fitzgibbon. Sam’s required business of gaining copyright in England was completed. There was nothing keeping Sam in England. He wrote that he would lecture:

“only 3 more times on British soil, & 3 nights in New York, & then I retire from the platform permanently….if there is a fool in the world, I think I am that person. A sensible man lectures only when butter & bread are scarce” [MTL 5: 539].

Sam also wrote to Charles Dudley Warner. Sam had made three attempts to meet Tom Taylor the playwright. Sam planned to accompany George Dolby, his lecture manager, on New Year’s Day to Taylor’s on the outskirts of London. Sam corrected sailing date: Jan. 13 to Boston, in the Cunard ship Parthia [MTL 5: 541]