Sam rose at 6 AM and took a train to Louisville, Kentucky (Cardwell says 8:15 AM train [34] ). They stayed at the Galt House At 4:30 they went to a reception at the Louisville Press Club, and a stop at the Pendennis Club [Cardwell 34]. In the evening, Sam and Cable gave a reading at Leiderkranz Hall. En route, Cable wrote to his wife Lucy about distractions in the audience during performances:
"The other night, in Hamilton, O., a man with creaking shoes stalked out of the hall in the midst of one of Mark’s numbers. You know I told you we had decided to give any such person’s a shot across his bows. So Mark calls out in the most benevolent & persuasive tone, “Take your shoes off, please; take your shoes off” — to the great delight of the applauding audience [Turner, MT & GWC 82].
"Mark Twain's humor is indescribable, as it is inimitable. His "Tragic Tale of a Fishwife," in its wild absurdities and extravagant incongruities, was greeted with continuous laughter, the appreciation of the situation, no doubt, being heightened by the recollection that last winter there was in Louisville a professor who promised to teach the German language in six weeks, and in the audience there were several score who once thought they had learned it in that time. Mark Twain promises to-night, in addition to regular programme, to tell the story of the "Jumping Frog." There should be to-night even a larger audience than on last night, and it is to be hoped those who secure seats in advance will obtain them, and the annoyance experienced last night be avoided." The Louisville Courier-Journal 1885: January 6, courtesy Touring with Cable and Huck
Tuesday, January 6, 1885:
After the readings, Sam and Cable went again to the Pendennis Club with Sam’s second cousin by marriage, Colonel Henry Watterson, and editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal. Sam enjoyed a “2-hour supper which was full of delightful conversation, & also full of tropic enthusiasm over the readings” [Jan. 7 to Livy, MTP]. Cable wrote home that Watterson “didn’t please” him, “Talks shamelessly about getting drunk &c &c.” In a discussion of the “negro question” at the Press Club, Cable observed, “Freedom of speech has yet to come to us of the South” [Turner, MT & GWC 83].