The Clemens family had been living in Europe since June of 1891 in an attempt to economize. Mark Twain had not escaped the wrath of the “Panic of 1893”, a period of economic depression in the United States. Five hundred banks closed, 15,000 businesses failed, and numerous farms ceased operation. The unemployment rate reached 25% in Pennsylvania, 35% in New York, and 43% in Michigan. Soup kitchens were opened to help feed the destitute. Facing starvation, people chopped wood, broke rocks, and sewed by hand with needle and thread in exchange for food. In some cases, women resorted to prostitution to feed their families.
Lawrence Howe writes of this period: In this context, the fact that Samuel Clemens’s publishing company succumbed to bankruptcy in 1894 is hardly a surprise. With national unemployment as high as 19 percent — 35 percent in a populous state like New York — is it any surprise that new books, unthinkable extravagances for people scrambling for necessities, might not be in high demand?
Granted, not all publishing houses failed during this period. And hardly anyone other than Sam Clemens invested a fortune in an ill-fated printing invention, the Paige typesetter. Over the course of several years, Clemens pumped no less than $150,000 into the typesetter, an amount equivalent to about $3.8 million dollars in today’s value.
As early as February. 3, 1895, Sam was planning and discussing a world tour. The plans evolved over the spring and were not finalized until late May, with J.B. Pond acting as manager for the North American leg and Robert Sparrow Smythe of Melbourne handling the down-under leg. After the death of Susy, Clara Clemens recalled her father saying to her mother:
The hellish struggle it was to settle on making that lecture trip around the world? How we fought the idea, the horrible idea, the heart-torturing idea. I, almost an old man, with ill health, carbuncles, bronchitis and rheumatism…with patience worn to rags, I was to pack my bag and be jolted around the devil’s universe for what? To pay debts that were not even of my making. And you were worried at the thought of facing such hardships of travel, and SHE [Susy] was unhappy to be left alone. But once the idea of that infernal trip struck us we couldn’t shake it.
Fears notes that this sentiment is drenched in guilt and remorse, and contrasts sharply with the enthusiasm and planning made between Jan. and May, 1895.
In a letter to Rogers (February 12) , Sam writes: I expect to sail in the New York the 23d of this present month. To consult with you first and then arrange a contract to issue Joan next December and follow it with the Uniform Edition.
Also to consult with you about another project, which is — (take a breath and stand by for a surge) — to go around the world on a lecture trip.
This is not for money, but to get Mrs. Clemens and myself away from the phantoms and out of the heavy nervous strain for a few months. By the urgent help of the doctor I have got her more than half persuaded — provided Susy or Clara will go with us. Also, it will be a rest for you and Mrs. Duff and Harry. You all need just such a trip. I suppose I can hire myself out to Mrs. Clemens as a platform-reader and thus escape trouble from my creditors. I must ask Colby about that. For my scheme is, to start west in September, read twice in Kansas City, four times in Chicago, four times in San Francisco, two or three times around about there, and sail for Australia about Oct. 1. Read 60 times in Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania; once in Columbo, Ceylon; 4 times in Bombay; maybe read also in Calcutta or around there somewhere; then go on to the gold and diamond mines of South Africa and put in 20 or 25 readings there; then to Great Britain and read in London, Dublin, Edinburgh, and so on, 20 or 30 times; then home and read a few times in Boston, New York, Phila, Baltimore, Washington and Richmond.
On April 23, 1895 while in Paris, Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper: To-day I shall sign a contract which has just arrived from Melbourne, for a six to nine months’ reading tour next fall & winter in the Sandwich Islands, New Zealand, Australia, Ceylon, Madras, Calcutta, Bombay & other Indian cities, then South Africa & the Mauritius. After which I shall probably read in England a spell, then talk across America to Pacific coast & then back again through the Southern States.
And then die, I reckon. …
Fears notes of these plans: of interest is the evolution of plans for the world tour; several times Sam had mentioned San Francisco on the outward leg; here he planned an American leg at the end of the tour with return through the South.
On May 10, the Clemens family, not together in America since 1891, left Paris for Southampton.
On May 11 they departed Southampton for New York on the S.S. New York. The voyage would take seven days
On May 18.the S.S. New York arrived in New York. The family went immediately to Elmira.”
On May 26 Sam wrote to Orion from Elmira.
We are all in good health, & Livy looks young & fresh & spry. I have very little time in which to select and prepare my readings, but I will make up by working double tides till I start west. We shall start about mid-summer. We sail for Australia from the Pacific Coast in August. Livy and Clara go with me around the world, but Susie refuses because she hates the sea, & Jean refuses because she can’t spare the time from school.
On June 3, at Quarry Farm, Dr. Theron Augustus Wales lanced Sam’s thigh carbuncle. Sam wrote to Rogers that his boil turned out to be a carbuncle, which “furnished” him “a week of admirable pain.” The carbuncle had been lanced and he’d “squelched three others in their infancy,” and was “discouraging another.” He also had one on the back of his right hand. He didn’t expect to get out of bed for three or four more days, and bemoaned the time lost. Instead of preparing and familiarizing himself with three readings, one would be the most he might do. At this point he wanted to drastically abbreviate the U.S. leg of the tour:
On June 26 , Sam was served with a subpoena brought by Thomas Russell & Son, printers and bookbinders, a creditor of Webster & Co. ; the debt was $5,046.
Another subpoena ordered Mrs. Clemens to appear on 19 July 1895 before the Honorable M.L. Stover, one of the justices on the Supreme Court of New York. Clemens’s eagerness to settle the matter resulted in an arrangement which was worked out before the case was taken to court.
On July 10 Sam left Elmira without Livy for New York to be examined by attorneys for Thomas Russell the next day.
On July 12 Sam gave a reading to 700 boys at the House of Refuge, Randall’s Island, New York as a rehearsal for his tour to kick off in Cleveland on July 15. The House of Refuge was a reformatory for incorrigible boys.
On July 14, at Quarry Farm, A few minutes before leaving for town, Sam also wrote to his sister Pamela Moffett.
I have not been able to write. I have been in bed ever since we arrived here May 25th, until four days ago when I put on my clothes for the first time in 45 days to go to New York — barely capable of the exertion — to undergo the shame born of the mistake I made in establishing a publishing house. I can’t make any more financial mistakes; I’ve nothing left to make them with. If Webster had paid me my dividend on the Grant book when he paid himself & Mrs. Grant, I should have been spared the humiliations of these days. However I am still clean of dishonesty toward any man, and — but never mind, it would profit nothing to say it.
Livy & Clara have gone down in the valley to take the train toward the Pacific Coast, & I follow in five minutes. We leave Susy & Jean here at the farm. They will join us in London next year.
Livy and Clara left first, but only for the depot, where Sam caught up with them. Sam’s indelible picture of the train pulling out from Elmira with Susy waving tearful good-byes on the platform was the last time they would see her alive.
See Mark Twain Crosses the U.S. in 1895