January 25 Saturday – Sam returned to New York and stayed at the Slote house, where he wrote his old Hannibal friend, Will Bowen. “I have just come down from Hartford, Conn., where I have made a tip-top contract for a 600-page book, & I feel perfectly jolly.” Sam told Will about his newspaper deal with the Herald, and sent best wishes for Will’s brother Bart, scalded in a steamboat accident [MTL 2: 167-8].