December 27, Sam left New Haven on a coastal steamer for New York City.
To Joseph H. Twichell
28 December 1869 • New York, N.Y.
(MS: CtY-BR, UCCL 00395)
New York, Dec. 28
Dear J. H.—
I hasten to enclose to you my R R ticket from New Haven to New York, before I forget to recollect it. You see, when I found, last night, that there was a boat at 11 P.M., & that a man would have to get up as early as day before yesterday to [catsh ]any train that would leave before noon, I of course sent down & engaged a stateroom—& as I haven’t any earthly use for this R R ticket, my soul swells with a boundless generosity, & I send it to you.1 If it shall be the means of making one year small year of your sad this ‸your‸ sad earthly pilgrimage seem happier, & brighter, & bullyer, it is all I ask. Pax Vobiscum! (I don’t know what Pax Vobiscum means, but it is the correct thing to say in the way of a benediction, I believe.) Good-bye. Great love to the wife & the boys.
Yrs always
Sam Mark.
Clemens had taken one of the coastal steamers that made daily trips between New Haven and New York City (“Steamboats,” New York Times, 27 Dec 69, 7). He was on his way to keep a 28 December lecture engagement in Trenton, New Jersey, where he was “invited to be the guest of Mr Alfred Reed” and was promised “a big house & cordial welcome both publicly & in private: also, the fee here has increased to $100” (James Redpath to SLC, 30 Nov 69, Redpath Letterpress Book, 531, IaU).
SLC to Joseph H. Twichell, 28 Dec 1869, New York, N.Y. (UCCL 00395), n. 1.
The Continental, the active steamboat of the New Haven Steamboat Company, likely docked at Peck Slip, Sam would take an omnibus to Liberty Street Terminal and cross the Hudson River by ferry to Communipaw Terminal.
The railroads between New York and Trentron were the New Jersey Railroad and the Camden and Amboy Line.
December 28 - Taylor Hall, Trenton, New Jersey
Sam would likely have stayed on the New Jersey Railroad from Elizabeth to Newark, following his Trenton visit.
To George L. Hutchings
1 January 1870 • Elmira, N.Y.
(MS: CLSU, UCCL 11877)
Elmira, De Jan. 1.
Friend Hutchings—
I am in a desperate hurry, but I must take time to ask you to pardon me for showing such unmannerly temper the other morning about that synopsis. Those things always make me angry, & the fact that I had sat up until 5 AM talking,—then got up at 7, did not improve my temper. Still, it was shameful in me to intrude such a spirit upon you who had never done me any but the kindest offices—& so I have now [siezed] upon the very first opportunity to apologize—I have had no earlier chance than this.1
Truly Yrs.
Samℓ. L. Clemens.
————
Happy N. Y.’s to you!
On the morning of 30 December 1869 Hutchings may have shown Clemens a copy of that day’s Trenton True American, which published a lengthy synopsis of his Sandwich Islands lecture in Trenton on 28 December (“Mark Twain,” 3, reprinted in Lane). (On the afternoon of 30 December the Newark Journal printed a long excerpt from his 29 December Clayonian Society lecture, but by then he had left for his next engagement, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania [“Mark Twain on the Sandwich Islanders,” 30 Dec 69, 2].) Clemens again lectured for the Clayonian Society on 29 November 1871 (L3, 485; L4, 515 n. 5).
SLC to George L. Hutchings, 1 Jan 1870, Elmira, N.Y. (UCCL 11877), n. 1.
December 29 - Opera House, Newark, New Jersey
A possible route to Wilkes-Barre begins with the New Jersey Central to Hampton; the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western to Delaware Water Gap, Pocono and Scranton. From Scranton Twain could take the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg to Kingston and take local transportation across the river to Wilkes-Barre or the Delaware and Hudson Canal Co to Moosic; then the Lehigh and Susquehanna Division of the Central Railroad of New Jersey.
December 30 - Landmesser Hall, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Twain's most likely route to Williamsport would have been to cross the river and take the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg to Northumberland then the Pennsylvania and Erie to Williamsport or a series of coal trains to Sunbury.
December 31 - Opera House, Williamsport, Pennsylvania
After Williamsport, Twain returned to Elmira.