The Clemens party left Bendigo at 5 a.m. and arrived in Maryborough in the afternoon. In Chapter 31 of Following the Equator, Twain includes a bit of burlesque about a meeting with a man claiming to be studying for the ministry. This man warns him of the inadequacies of the Maryborough Hotel and of the Railroad from Maryborough to Melbourne.
...I changed for a while to a smoking-carriage. There were two gentlemen there; both riding backward, one at each end of the compartment. They were acquaintances of each other. I sat down facing the one that sat at the starboard window. He had a good face, and a friendly look, and I judged from his dress that he was a dissenting minister. He was along toward fifty. Of his own motion he struck a match, and shaded it with his hand for me to light my cigar. I take the rest from my diary: