Submitted by scott on

Sam and Cable arrived at Albany, New York at noon. Governor and President-elect Cleveland requested an audience. Writing to Livy the next day about the meeting: ...we had a quite jolly & pleasant brief chat with the President-elect. He remembered me easily, have seen me often in Buffalo, but I didn’t remember him, of course, & I didn’t say I did. He had to meet the electors at a banquet in the evening, & expressed great regret that that must debar him from coming to the lecture; so I said if he would take my place on the platform I would run the banquet for him; but he said that that would only be a one-sided affair, because the lecture audience would be so disappointed. Then I sat down on four electrical bells at once (as the cats used to do at the farm,) & summoned four pages whom nobody had any use for [Note: See MTA 2: 165-6 for another account]. 

We were all over the Capitol, which is a palace, & got acquainted with a lot of the State officers; then to the Senate chamber & saw the beginning of the solemn ceremony of the casting of the electoral vote of the State of New York for President of the U.S. [MTP].

Later, Sam and Cable gave a reading to “an enormous audience” in Music Hall, Troy, New York.

December 2nd they visited Grover Cleveland's office in Albany. “Cable, impressed with the moral strength that he saw in Cleveland's face, came away convinced that the stories of his immoralities were slanders.”. Cardwell mentions that Twain sat on buzzers on Cleveland's desk and summoned four pages. (pg 25 Cardwell)

"Mark Twain, though laboring under a severe cold, managed to make himself heard by the large audience, which showed a disposition to laugh whether he spoke or was silent. There was nothing remarkably witty in his remarks, but his manner and the humorous expression of his mouth and eyes would create laughter if he should read an act of congress to an audience." The Troy (New York) Daily Times 1884: December 3 Touring with Cable and Huck


 

George W. Cable wrote en route between Troy and Ithaca to his wife, Lucy:

"We had 1400 hearers at Troy. Mark was half sick with a cold—hoarse and weak-voiced, and compared with Balt/o & Wash/n the evening’s success was feeble; but the audience thought it was great. Mary’s Night Ride had to go without an encore at last. But it wasn’t my fault and it was the hit of the evening. The Ghost Story (Mark’s) fell almost flat by reason of persons (2 or 3) rising in the audience just at the critical moment. It was outrageous & I don’t wonder M.T. came off the platform angry. . . . We were given a nice little supper & got to bed at the neat hour of two o’clock, with Mark at peace under the influence of our solemn pledge to each other henceforth to stop our reading and poke unmerciful fun at any one who dares to rise in the audience while we are speaking. It is our only defense against this double imposition on the audience and us [Turner, MT & GWC 64-5]."

 

Railroads:  Albany and Vermont, Troy and Greenbush, Pittsfield and North Adams

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