June 3 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Mary Mason Fairbanks that he had decided to “remain away from the Centennial [in Philadelphia] altogether, for an interruption of my work is disastrous to it.”

Sam had received copies of the Cleveland Herald and read about the death of George A. Benedict, partner to Abel Fairbanks on the Herald. Sam waxed philosophical:

What a curious thing life is. We delve away, through years of hardship, wasting toil, despondency; then comes a little butterfly season of wealth, ease, & clustering honors. Presto! the wife dies, a daughter marries a spendthrift villain, the heir & hope of the house commits suicide, the laurels fade & fall away. Grand result of a hard-fought, successful career & a blameless life: Piles of money, tottering age, & a broken heart [MTLE 1: 64].