August 30 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Orion, who was anxious about agents taking books from Webster & Co., and not paying for them. Sam explained that “Books are not delivered to General Agents till we get the money; if they fail to get it back again out of their canvassers, it is their misfortune, not ours.” Sam added a note to the letter that since Orion had sent “Puss” Quarles Greening $150, that “if she needs the other $50” to let him know and he would send it [MTP].

Sam also wrote to an unidentified person, declining, as Grant’s publisher, to write on the subject of Grant’s “burial place.”

“I could not write upon the subject which you propose without experiencing that uncomfortable sensation again…When a man deliberately offends other folk, he invites sorrow; when he deliberately offends himself, he insures it. I should strike the latter snag if I complied with your very kind & most complimentary request” [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Candace Wheeler, their host at Onteora, New York in the Catskills. Wheeler and her wealthy brother established Onteora Park.

“It was the perfection of a visit; just enough rain, just enough sunshine; just enough people, & just the right kind; just enough exercise, just enough lazying around; just enough of everything desirable, & no lack of anything usual to the details of a lark away from home…” [MTP].