June 13 Friday – In the afternoon, Sam and Joe Goodman took the six-hour train trip to Washington, D.C., arriving at night. The pair ate “an enormous supper & went right to bed & to sleep.” Sam wrote to Livy the next day about the trip:

We had a delightful journey down. The water & the woods & the grass employed the eye untiringly for 6 hours, the general smoking car was cool & comfortable, the train was swift & the movement exhilarating, & I didn’t read a line on the way. Once we cut a horse in two, slightly injured the driver’s arm, & whirled the carriage entirely around without damaging it in the least. When we got to the next station, men appeared with stretchers, ready to be conveyed back, with physicians to care to the wounded — for the telephone had been at work [MTP].

Alexander Badlam wrote to Sam on advertising stationery for his book, The Wonders of Alaska. “I send you to-day by mail a copy of my first effort in book making on what I know about Alaska” [MTP]. Note: Badlam’s inscription: Samuel L. Clemens, Esq., / Complements of/ Alex [Gribben 38]