December 2 Wednesday – Sam wrote from New York to Jervis Langdon, including between pleasantries his progress at buying an interest in a newspaper [MTL 2: 297-9]. Sam left New York on the 11:30 AM Hudson River Railroad express To Albany and Troy, where he crossed the river to Rondout, New York. Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture in the evening [MTL 2: 300n5].

Joe Twichell wrote to Sam, quoted in Sam’s Dec. 4 to Livy:

Receive my benediction, Mark—my very choicest! I breathe it toward you—that particular doxalogic & hallelujah formula thereof which I use on occasions which but for the sake of propriety I should celebrate by smiting of my thigh, and grand pas seul & three cheers with a tiger!…I do congratulate you, dear friend, with all the power of congratulation that is in me…I don’t care very much about your past, but I do care very much about your future…Your heart, with this new, sacred love in it is a more precious thing to offer God than it was without it [MTP]. Note: grand pas seul = great not only.