November 7 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Thomas Bailey Aldrich. After some playful prose and jabbing at Aldrich, Sam wrote of the impending trip to Chicago:

I jumped into that Chicago business without sufficient reflection, & now that formidable winter-trip is before me & has to be taken; moreover, I have to start tomorrow, in order to be ahead of the prodigious railway crowds. Charley Clark is just from there & says the hotels & boarding houses have already received 50,000 more applications than they can possibly accommodate. Yes, it’s a good deal of a journey, but I would rather make two like it than miss the excitement there’s going to be, there [MTLE 4: 130].

Sam also sent a note to Charles Perkins enclosing a copy of the contract with Frank Bliss, transferring to the American Publishing Co. [MTLE 4: 133].

Sam also wrote to Joseph Blackburn Jones, of his engaging a room at Chicago’s Palmer House and his “8 or 9 o’clock” arrival the following Monday. “You drop in & see me.” Sam insisted on speaking sixth or seventh on the program, regardless of printing already made.

“Darn it, I want to have a good time; & how can I have a good time if I have to sit there two or three hours in the family way with my Babies & not knowing whether I’m going to miscarry or not?” [MTLE 4: 132]. [Meaning, his “Babies” toast.]