December 30 Monday – Sam wrote from New York to the Brooklyn Eagle, responding to an article “Trouble among the Pilgrims,” which had appeared on Dec. 24.

In your issue of the 24 inst, you called upon me, as upon a sort of Fountain-head of Facts (an intimation which touched the very marrow of my ambition, and sent a thrill of ecstasy throughout my being), to pour out some truth upon the Quaker City muddle, which Captain Duncan and Mr. Griswold have lately stirred up between them, and thus so rectify and clarify that muddle, that the public can tell at a glance whether the Pilgrims behaved themselves properly or not during the progress of the recent excursion around the world [MTL 2: 139-143; Brooklyn Eagle p3]. Note: Stephen M. Griswold (1835-1916).

Sam then proceeded to masterfully illustrate how easily a lie can be spread by citing the opposite—to wit, how Captain Duncan repeatedly did not show up drunk at breakfast. Sam was terrific at making light of quarrels, and he loved to stir some people up. Plus, he’d held back about Duncan throughout the voyage and didn’t need much of an excuse to blast away. (See Jan. 2, 1868 entry for Duncan’s immediate reply.)