September 25 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to William Seaver, answering his note of Sept. 17.

“I knew you’d be glad the play was commended, & I hope that before this you & John Hay have been there & wept….Remember that darkey yarn I told you & Hay? Well, it has gone to the “Atlantic” & so you boys can’t gobble it, you see” [MTL 6: 245-6].

On or about this day Sam also wrote to James Redpath:

“Your offer of $30,000 to lecture fifty nights does not tempt me. I have run about the world long enough. I mean to live & die at home, now, if I starve at it. I love you, but I cannot lecture any more” [MTL 6: 246].