Sam wrote from Syracuse, New York to Thomas Nast, thanking him for the Nast family’s recent hospitality in Morristown, N.J.

“...do all your praying now, for a time is coming when you will have to go railroading & platforming, & then you will find you cannot pray any more because you will have only just time to swear enough” [MTP].

Cardwell states that they were in Muskegon, MI on December 4. (pg26 Cardwell) and Touring with Cable and Huck.  Fears has Twain and Cable in Muskegon December 14, 1884.  The letter to Chatto, mention by Cardwell is cataloged by The Mark Twain Project as written December 14, not December 4.

At this point in Cardwell's commentary he remarks on Twain's mixed feelings about the lecture circuit. “...usually enjoyed himself when he was actually on the platform before an appreciative audience”. “..he chafed when away from his family, [but] he was chronically restless”. “Twain particularly disliked the ennui of traveling alone. Pond offered companionship, of a sort; and Cable was expected to supply a more intellectual stimulous.” “Unfortunately, he was not in other ways exactly the kind of good company that Twain preferred. He did not drink, he did not tell bawdy stories, he did not play billiards, and he would not travel on Sundays.” (pg 26 Cardwell)

The Syracuse Standard, Friday Morning, December 5, 1884

At the Opera House

An Innocent and His Partner.

"Samuel H. Clemens [sic] (Mark Twain) and George W. Cable, who appeared at the Grand last evening in readings, proved themselves a combination fully equal to entertaining an audience, each in his own particular way. While Mark Twain has a wonderfully happy way of telling his unequalled [sic] humorous stories, Mr. Cable throws into his readings a versatility of talent which is necessarily pleasing. He displays an excellent command of five different and difficult dialects and coupled with this sings with a musical voice many of the Creole songs the words of which mark his popular novels. They were intently listened to by a large and appreciative audience."

Railroads:  Syracuse, Binghamton and New York, New York and Erie