April 10 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Elisha Bliss about Edward House’s book on Japan’s incursion into Formosa (House had published it in Tokyo in 1875). Sam called the affair a “small & entirely uninteresting riot out there,” uninteresting to Americans, and told Bliss he’d suggested a better type of book to write. He also told Bliss to keep William F. Gill’s letter of refusal for Sam to use the story he’d done for Lotos Leaves. “That ‘whirligig of time’ will bring round another revenge by & by I suspect” [MTL 6: 444-5]. Note: Once burned, Sam would never lay himself open to abuse of his work by the offending party.