March 2 Monday ­– Sam wrote from Washington, D.C. to J. Chipchase, who evidently solicited information on Feb. 23 from Sam about the American Bank Note & Co. stock, and called Sam “shrewd.” The stock was down, no doubt, as Sam answered he was:

…too shrewd to ever again invest in anything put on the market by George P. Bissell & Co., of Hartford, Conn…He sold me $10,000 worth of another rose-tinted stock about the same time. I have got that yet, also…A financial scheme advertised in any religious paper is a thing which any living person ought to know enough to avoid; & when the factor is added that a Mallory runs that religious paper, a dead person ought to know enough to avoid it [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Livy about the uniqueness of Washington:

Similarity between Washington and other cities probably doesn’t exist. The differences are almost innumerable. The city is big; it is also small; it is broad it is narrow; sometimes it is wet, sometimes it is clouded with dust. The sun rises early, without a smile, thinly veiled and cold; later it burns like Hell; still later the clouds rise up, and suddenly you find yourself engulfed in darkness, wet through with rain—and, as a consequence—your moral state quite probably upset. Before you can open your umbrella, the bad weather has again vanished and everything lies in bright sunshine. You shut your eyes, deliver a solemn “Thank God,” open your eyes again, and Holy Moses, its snowing! [MTP].

Fox, Brusselars & Co., Hartford billed Sam $205.44 for Feb. 7 work: “upholstery mtls and labor, carpet lining; labor decorating ceiling and on woodwork; 130 yds materials”; paid; Fox & Co. “fine groceries, teas, wines & segars” billed $12.57 “to Mdse as per pass book” [MTP].