This part of the Fellow Savages tour began with the trip from Washington D.C. to Meriden, Connecticut. Reportedly, Twain did spend part of December 10 and 11 in New York City. He would have departed Washington D.C. on the Northern Central; from Baltimore to Philadelphia aboard the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore; Philadelphia and Reading through Philadelphia to the Philadelphia and Trenton line which would have taken him to Trenton. From Trenton to New York City there is a complicated series of line involving the Camden and Amboy, the New Jersey, and the New Jersey Central.
December 11 - Town Hall, West Meriden, Connecticut
From New York City to West Meriden: New York and New Haven to New Haven; then a short trip north on the New Haven, Hartford and Springfield.
December 13 - Union Hall, New Britain, Connecticut
I don'r know what Sam did between his West Meridian lecture and New Britain, December 12, a Sunday.
Afterward the New Britain lecture, Sam took a train for Springfield, Mass., where he spent the night. The train would have been the New Haven, Hartford and Springfield Railroad. He would then have taken the Western to Warren.
December 14 - Warren, Massachusetts
From Warren to Pawtucket the most likely route would have been to continue on the Western to Worcester and then on the Providence and Worcester to Pawtucket.
December 15 - Armory Hall, Pawtucket, Rhode Island
The route to Waltham would most likely have gone through Boston. This would involve the Providence and Worcester for a short distance then the Boston and Providence Railroad to Boston. From Boston on the Fitchburg Railroad, Watertown Branch to Waltham.
December 16 - Rumford Institute, Waltham, Massachusetts
December 17 Friday – Sam wrote from Boston to his sister, Pamela Moffett.
The Boston and Providence Railroad to Canton.
December 20 - Canton, Massachusetts
Twain would have returned to Boston and boarded the Fitchburg Railroad to Hudson.
December 21 - Hudson, Massachusetts
A return to Boston then on to Portland, Maine. The railroads in 1869 would have been the Boston and Maine, Manchester and Lawrence; and the Portland, Saco and Portsmouth. The USGS quads from the 1890's indicate the entire route as the Boston and Maine RR Western Division.
December 22 - Mercantile Library, Portland, Maine
Portland, Saco and Portsmouth ran from Portland to Dover. The Boston and Maine, from Dover to Lawrence; and the Manchester and Lawrence from Lawrence to near Ballardvale. There is then an unnamed line from Ballardvale to Gloucester not found on USGS quad maps. The USGS maps show the Boston and Maine Western Division line from Boston to Portland, as it had apparently absorbed the predecessor lines by this time. To get from the Western Division line to Rockport, the USGS maps show two possible routes, but I cannot tell if they existed in 1869. One is to take the Portsmouth and Dover, then the Boston and Maine Eastern Division from Portsmouth to Salem. At Beverly, Twain would have changed trains to the Gloucester Branch, which approximates the unamed line. A second possible route would be the Salem and Lawrence Railroad. Then changing to the Gloucester branch of the Boston and Maine.
From Rick Nowell, Archives Chairman Boston & Maine Railroad Historical Society: I think MT could have done it this way:
Portland, Me. to Portsmouth, N.H. via Portland, Saco & Portsmouth RR. At the time of the trip, 1869, PS&P was under lease jointly to the Boston and Maine and Eastern RRs, so I think it was still operating as PS&P. Later PS&P was leased to Eastern and operated under the latter name.
Portsmouth, N.H.. to Beverly, Mass. via Eastern RR. The trip from Portland to Beverly was likely made without change of train. Change trains at Beverly.
Beverly, Mass. to Rockport, Mass. via Eastern RR.
December 23 - Town Hall, Rockport, Massachusetts
From Rockport Twain would have back-tracked to Beverly and taken the Eastern RR to Boston. From Boston to Slatersville, RI the journey would have begun on the Norfolk County RR to Needham. The 1870 kml files have an unnamed line running to just north of Slatersville. The USGS maps indicate the New York, New Haven and Hartford Midland Divison and the Boston and Pascoag Lines to Woonsocket. Twain would have needed to have local transportation to Slatersville, maybe five miles from Woonsocket.
December 24 - Slatersville, Rhode Island
December 24 Friday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in New Hall, Slatersville, Rhode Island. Sam had been scheduled to lecture in Salem on this Christmas Eve, but changed to Slatersville to fill in for his sick friend, Josh Billings [MTL 3: 438n3].
I had a delightful time of it last night, with the lecture (in Slatersville—the place was changed,) & was really hospitably entertained in a private family—a rare thing in New England. The night before, the dog at whose house I staid took advantage of his hospitality (I was undressing & could not leave) to ask me to abate ten dollars on my lecture price.—asked it as a charity to his society. I told him I wouldn’t—that I hated the dishonored name of charity in the questionable shape it usually comes in. He said they had liked the lecture, & they wanted to keep the society all alive so that they could hear me next winter. I said that when I jammed their hall full of people & then they had the cheek to ask me to abate my price, they hadn’t money enough to hire me to talk in such a place again. In the morning he called me to breakfast, but I said it as it was only 7 o’clock I would manage to do without breakfast until I could get it in some other town. And, when I went down stairs I said, “Doctor Sanborn, here are ten dollars for my night’s lodging.” He said he was much obliged, & would hand it to the committee. I said he would do nothing of the kind—I would not abate one cent on my price, & he must accept the ten dollars for his New England hospitality, or not take it at all. He took it with a world of servile thanks. (He was the chief physician of Rockport & a very prominent citizen.)
“SLC to Olivia L. Langdon, 25 Dec 1869, Boston, Mass. (UCCL 00393).”
Clemens’s hosts in Slatersville, Rhode Island, have not been identified. He had been scheduled to lecture in Salem, Massachusetts, on Christmas Eve, but instead substituted in Slatersville for his friend Josh Billings, who was ill (“Slatersville,” Woonsocket [R.I.] Patriot and Rhode Island State Register, 24 Dec 69, 2; Henry Wheeler Shaw [Josh Billings] to James Redpath and George L. Fall, 18 Dec 69, CtHMTH).
In Rockport, Massachusetts, Clemens “was housed at the home of temperate Dr. [John E.] Sanborn on Broadway, next to the town hall. Despite the packed auditorium [eight to twelve hundred people at twenty-five cents a ticket], the committee asked Twain to cut his fee by ten dollars. His refusal to do so and his brusque manner, especially at being called for breakfast too early, so angered his hosts that the children of the family were forbidden to read later Twain books, however diverting they were” (Swan, 190). According to a local reviewer, Clemens’s 23 December lecture also made an unfavorable impression:
Mark Twain perpetrated his talk here last Friday [actually Thursday] evening. His performance was according to appointment, and still it was a disappointment. A good many of the ticket holders wanted a humorous lecture, and they all know now just what a humorous lecture is, and the Rockport market is supplied with that style of goods for the present. The regular lectures are not always weekly; but this one was very weakly. He is accused of being a humorist, but his hearers here will generally vote for a verdict of not guilty of the charge. He showed at least exceeding ingenuity, for he contrived to conceal his wit and humor so adroitly, that his audience found it very difficult to detect it. In short, his lecture was remarkably satisfactory, only with an emphatic dis- before it. (“Rockport,” Gloucester [Mass.] Cape Ann Advertiser, 31 Dec 69, 2, TS in CU-MARK)
December 25 Saturday – Christmas – Sam wrote from Boston to Livy wishing her a happy Christmas.
The trip to New Haven would likely have taken the Boston and Albany to Worcester and Springfield then the New Haven, Hartford and Springfield to New Haven. Twain stopped in Hartford on his way to New Haven and "bummed around" with Joe Twichell.
December 27 - Music Hall, New Haven, Connecticut
Twain departed New Haven for New York on a coastal steamer. It is possible this was on the steamer Continental which belonged to the New Haven Steamboat Company. According to an announcement in the New York Daily Herald, Saturday July 3, 1869, the Steamer Continental used the Peck Slip.
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.