March 16 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Charles Warren Stoddard, praising his latest work, The Lepers of Molokai (1885), which described the efforts of Joseph Damien de Veuster (1840-1889), known as “Father Damien” [MTP; Gribben 667]. Due to health problems, Stoddard had recently resigned his position as chair of English literature at the University of Notre Dame.

It is your best piece of work; & well nigh faultlessly done. And what a sublime hero is your priest the good father. His heroism is surpassed by that of Bill Ragsdale only…but Rasdale had nothing to gain by his sacrifice…a thing compared to which Christ’s sacrifice was poor [MTP]. See Nov. 21, 1883 entry for more on Ragsdale, a half-caste interpreter; Sam never finished “a serious work” about Ragsdale.

Jesse M. Leathers, wasting away of consumption in the National Soldiers Home in Virginia, wrote to Sam. He blamed “Too much bad whiskey and outdoor speaking” while running for Congress in New York City. This is a long, eight-page letter asking for about $150 in order to move from the Soldiers Home where the food would not allow him to regain his weight, from 100 to his normal 160 lbs. Sam wrote on the envelope, “From the American ‘Earl of Durham’ – No Answer” [MTP]. Note: postmarked Mar. 18 in Va. & Mar 19, N.Y.