May 22 Friday – Sam typed a letter from Hartford to Orion in Keokuk, Iowa, admonishing him not to send “any letter from the Gogginses or anybody else,” that he had no “interest in relatives born to me,” due to the fact that such interest required correspondence.

CORRESPONDENCE IS THE CURSE AND BANE OF MY LIFE, AND I CAN’T BEAR THE THOUGHT OF YOUR DIGGING UP RELATIVES GRATUITOUSLY TO ADD TO IT.

DON’T IMAGINE THAT I HAVE LOST MY TEMPER, FOR THAT WOULD BE ANOTHER ERROR. I AM MERELY PREPARING TO LOSE IT IN CASE YOU FRIGHTEN ME AGAIN WITH A LOT OF POSSIBLE CORRESPONDENTS. ALL WELL HERE AND SEND OUR LOVE. S.L.C. [MTP].

Sam also dictated for his Autobiography, and gave this date in connection with a bust made by Gerhardt of General Grant:

“Up to the present day, May 22, 1885, no later likeness of General Grant, of any kind, has been made from life, and if it shall chance to remain the last ever made of him from life, coming generations can properly be grateful that one so nearly perfect of him was made after the world learned his name” [1: 68].