August 29 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to William Dean Howells. Sam had received Howells’ letter the day before and didn’t care for one of his Bermuda articles in proof. Sam wrote that Boucicault said his new play (Simon Wheeler) was “ever so much better than Ah Sin,” and that an actor (unnamed) was “chawing over the play in New York.” Sam expected to leave Quarry Farm and Elmira on Sept. 4, reaching their Hartford home on Sept. 8, but admitted they might be delayed a week. Sam had been reading Ticknor’s Diary, about a man traveling through the mountains of Spain, rife with outlaws [MTLE 2: 146].