Sam and Cable rose at 4:30 A.M . and took the train [from Utica?] to Rochester, New York, arriving at 10 A.M . They gave a 2 PM matinee reading in Rochester at the Academy of Music for a small, but “appreciative to a degree” audience, who fought a downpour to hear the two men. The evening performance was to “a large house and great fun.” Cable wrote his wife that neither of them had ever done so well [Turner, MT & GWC 66].
"The very unique and happy entertainment afforded by Mark Twain and Mr. Cable in their joint recitations deserves the warmest praise the press can give it. The former's manner and speech on the platform, which are clearly unaffected, admirably supplement the humor of his thought and language. His style is evidently an expression of himself. The gravity of his features while reciting his side-splitting productions, is equal to the apparent sincerity and frankness with which he guyed that interviewer, and even occasionally draws his audience into a trap and then inwardly laughs at them. The most of his hearers Saturday afternoon and evening endured all in the way of laughter to which it was safe for Mr. Clemens to expose them. But they will be ready to take a second dose whenever he can conveniently visit us again." The Rochester Morning Herald 1884: December 8 Touring with Cable and Huck
Cable persuaded Twain to buy a copy of Malory's Morte d' Arthur
Sam wrote two letters from Rochester to Livy. He’d promised to write twice to make up for days when his schedule prevented writing. The first included: “Been railroading since 4 oclock this morning. My hoarseness seems to be entirely gone, at last, & I feel fresh & splendid. But we got to talk here twice, to-day, & so I am going at once to bed & snatch a couple of hours’ sleep. I have acquired the blessed faculty of sleeping in the day time, in spite of clatter & racket.” Sam felt the trip was a “great thing” for his health, but was sorry it was a hardship for Livy. “Curse the matines! I have ordered that this be the last one for the present” [MTP].
In the second note, Sam noted that it had rained hard all day and spoke at a matinee performance.
“The houses were good but not crowded, & we made them shout. I wore that coat for the first time—& the last. It will go back to you by express. I shall never wear anything but evening dress again. I will not defer to fashion to the destruction of my comfort” [MTP].
Mark Twain and his manager James B. Pond were guests of the Rochester Elks Lodge. According to a report titled "The Elks' Social," in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, 8 December 1884, p. 6, "Mark Twain entertained the assemblage for some time by relating some of his personal experiences..." Text recovered by Leslie Myrick.
Cardwell reports that “Twain stayed in bed to rest, read, and write.” (pg 26 Cardwell)
Sam wrote two more letters from Rochester to Livy. In the first note, Sam admitted being homesick on a “sour, bleak, windy day...with trifling flurries of snow.” He’d stayed in bed all day reading and smoking. Except for the weather the houses would have been overflowing. The second note in the afternoon was a P.S. describing a “violent & absurd” performance of his “first sample of the Salvation Army” [MTP].
Cable wrote home that the hotel put Sam and him “on different floors, instead of adjoining rooms as usual. I am told the papers say he was to have enjoyed the hospitality of a club, The Elks, this evening” [Turner, MT & GWC 66].
...for the first time both Sam and Cable betrayed hints of an estrangement. Cable lamented to Louise that Sam was not “a man of prayer & worship’— suggesting that he had urged Sam to join him at church and his companion had declined, From Cable’s perspective, Sam desecrated the Sabbath when the next day, rather than attend Christian services, he was “handsomely entertained” by the Rochester Lodge of Elks. In fact, Sam sat for an interview with the Rochester Herald at his hotel on Sunday and the reporter was dismayed to discover his room “in an alarming state of disorder. Articles of clothing, books, letters and various other things were scattered about it in the most promiscuous fashion. The humorist’s capacious valise, which lay open upon a center table, looked as though it had been struck by a cyclone.” Sam was capable of committing the sin of sloth without so much as leaving the hotel. During the interview, moreover, Sam explained the reason he had invited Cable to join him on tour: “I'd Just as soon stand on a platform two hours as anywhere else but I prefer to have somebody to share the responsibility of entertaining an audience. One of us counteracts the other, you know. A counter-irritant often produces good results.” Soon enough Cable became just an irritant.
Their weekend in Rochester was memorable for another reason, While they were browsing in a bookstore, Cable bought a copy of Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur (1485) for Sam, apparently for his spiritual edification.
[From page 430-1 The Life of Mark Twain - The Middle Years 1871-1891]