October 3 Tuesday – In the morning, Sam was back in New York and wrote to daughter Clara:

Well, dear Ben, that little glimpse of you has done me a power of good. Was I indiscreet in talking as I did about my firm’s condition? I guess not; you will keep still & say nothing. It would hurt if any thing of our embarrassments got into print.

Thus far I haven’t felt any fatigue from my double journey [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Livy, with no news other than his trip to Elmira:

October 2 Monday – Sam was in Elmira for a quick visit with his daughter Clara, Sue Crane and perhaps others. He returned to New York on this day or overnight.

John Brisben Walker for Cosmopolitan wrote a rather strongly worded note to Sam, that the “chief feature of my Christmas edition will be absent if you fail me. Don’t, for heavens sake, unless you wish me the worst sort of luck” [MTP].

October 1 Sunday – As evidenced by Oct. 3 letters to Clara and Livy, Sam made a quick round trip to Elmira on Oct. 1 and 2. Each way was nine to ten hours by rail, so his visit there was brief. Evidently he changed his mind about his clothes not being suitable, as expressed to Clara on Sept. 30. Sam’s notebook:

Erie Road. Parlor Car Hebrides, Sunday Oct 1 — left Jersey City 10.15 a.m. / Darkey porter with impudent manners [NB 33 TS 33].

October – Sam’s notebook makes reference to Sanford Fillmore Bennett’s 1868 hymn, “The Sweet By and By” [Gribben 59; NB33 TS 35]. Note: Sam first joked about this hymn in a Dec. 5, 1877 letter to D.F. Appleton.

September 30 Saturday – In New York, Sam finished his Sept. 28 letter to Livy. He wrote he’d forgotten to mail his letters of Sept. 28 and 29.

By Jackson a body forgets pretty much everything, these days, except his visions of the poor-house [LLMT 276].

September 29 Friday – In New York, Clarence C. Rice left for Chicago, leaving Sam alone in his “bachelor quarters.” Finding it too lonesome, Sam took a room at The Players Club at 16 Grammercy Park [Sept. 30 to Clara].

On Players Club letterhead, Sam wrote to Francis D. Millet, his old artist friend, responding to an unspecified gift.

September 28 Thursday – In New York on Webster & Co. letterhead, Sam wrote to Livy. Evidently, Livy was in transit to Paris, because Sam sent the letter in care of Drexel Harjes & Co. there, and wrote that he wondered where she was, “at Botzen, I suppose.” He pulled no punches about Webster & Co. or the economic conditions of the country:

September 26 Tuesday – In New York on Webster & Co. letterhead, Sam wrote to daughter Clara.

Benny dear, this is Hulda’s wedding-day. I’ll send a congratulatory cablegram.

Dearheart, I don’t expect to be able to sail before the middle or end of November. I’m in a business fog which every now & then promises to clear, but shuts down next day as thick as ever. So I have come to the conclusion that my release from New York is ‘way off, yet.

September 23 Saturday – In New York on Webster & Co. letterhead, Sam wrote to daughter Clara.

September 21 Thursday – In New York Sam wrote a short note on Webster & Co. letterhead to daughter Clara in Elmira. The letter is a response to Clara’s (not extant) need for a saddle.

Clara dear, why don’t you write Patrick [McAleer]…& tell him to send you your saddle? If he has taken proper care of it, it is in good condition yet.