January 16 Tuesday – In the wee hours, Sam wrote again to Livy, this time good news.

Livy darling, when I came in, an hour ago, & found this letter, it did not move me or produce any quickening of the blood, because I was days & days ago prepared for such news & reasonably confident that it was coming. I at once wrote a telegram to you & dispatched it by messenger, so that it would be delivered to you as soon as you were up in the morning: “Look out for good news.” I played billiards till 1.15 — it is really 2 a.m. now though I have headed this “Midnight” — you see I wanted to preserve the date, Jan. 15, it being the date I had appointed ten days before for “good news.”

I came up to my room & began to undress, & then, suddenly & without warning the realization burst upon me & overwhelmed me: I and mine who were paupers an hour ago, are rich now & our troubles are over! [LLMT 293]. Note: The letter conveyed the fact that Paige had signed the new contract. But Sam’s jubilation was premature. This letter labeled Jan. 15 by MTP.

In New York Sam told stories (“spin yarns”) at Mrs. Carroll Beckwith’s lunch at 1 p.,m. [NB 33 TS 49]., one which Sam forecasted as a “large company” in his Jan. 12 (2nd) letter to Livy. Fatout puts this as Jan. 13 (he probably did not have access to the above Jan. 12 to Livy). Mr. Carroll Beckwith was the artist who did Sam’s portrait at Onteora (see July 1-3, 1890).