Mark Twain departed New York City October 14, 1871 traveling to Bethlehem, PA. The trip would be aboard the New Jersey Central and the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad, which was leased to the CNJ March 31, 1871 (New Jersey Central).
Reminiscences of Some Uncommon Characters I Have Chanced to Meet: featuring Artemus Ward; Dick Baker the quartz miner; Riley the journalist; then king of the Sandwich Islands; etc. "A reporter for the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Daily Times claimed that the lecture was made up almost entirely of humorous incidents from Innocents Abroad,..."
October 16 - Moravian Day School Hall, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. "Uncommonplace Characters"
To Olivia L. Clemens
15 October 1871 • Bethlehem, Pa
Bethlehem, Sunday
Livy darling, I got here at 4 oclock yesterday afternoon. It is now nearly noon, & still I don’t feel moved to begin studying my lecture—so the wisdom of coming here so soon, is apparent. It is better that this feeling should be on me today than tomorrow. By tomorrow I shall be rested up & brisk.
This is an old Dutch settlement, & I hear that tongue here as often as ours. All the clerks in the stores seem to talk both
languages. This is one of the old original Moravian Missionary settlements; & the Moravian college is still the feature of the place. .....
I entered an assumed name on the hotel register (learned from Redpath that a reception was intended & rooms sumptuous rooms provided for me,) & so, as simple “Samuel Langhorne, New York,” I occupy the shabbiest little den in the house & am left wholly & happily unnoticed. It is luxury. I talk to nobody.
The Moravian College and Theological Seminary was founded in Nazareth in 1807 and moved to Bethlehem in 1858, where, until 1892, it was located on Church Street. Possibly Clemens was referring to an even older institution, however: the Moravian Seminary and College for Women, the first female boarding school in America, was founded in 1742 and since 1815 had also been located on Church Street (Northampton County Guide, 170, 189, 232, and map inside back cover; Levering, 593 n. 1).
“In [the Burying Ground] are laid side by side, bishops of the Moravian church, converted Indians, missionaries, Moravian soldiers of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, and private citizens. . . . No stone is raised above the others, conforming with the sects’ tradition that all men are equal in the sight of God” (Northampton County Guide, 173, 52 illustration).
SLC to OLC, 15 Oct 1871, Bethlehem, Pa. (UCCL 00661), n. 3.
October 17 - Opera House, Allentown, Pennsylvania. "Uncommonplace Characters"
Livy darling, this lecture will never do. I hate it & won’t keep it. I can’t even handle these chuckle-headed Dutch with it.
Lehigh and Susquehanna RR (CNJ) to Wilkes-Barre.
October 18 - Music Hall, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. "Uncommonplace Characters"
To Olivia L. Clemens
18 October 1871 • Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Wilkesbarre, Oct. 18.
Livy darling, what a thin I am in a bother, & don’t know whether to be irritated or amused. I was mourning over my miserable lecture this afternoon, & saying I would give Reading & Easton a lecture for nothing in February & do it gladly, if I could get off from those engagements now & thus gain time to write a new lecture. I was thoroughly miserable and broken-hearted. An old Californian friend proposed various ways to accomplish the thing—none seemed to hit it—finally he said leave it to him & let him telegraph those people in my name & he would fix it. I said go it! The next I saw of him he told me he had telegraphed them that I was called away immediately by sickness in my family; & that they must advertise the postponement freely amply at my expense, & that I would come & lecture for them for nothing between the 5th & tenth of February! Horrible—but in spite of everything I could not keep from secretly rejoicing there was such a load taken from my breast. I am beginning to get really happy & light hearted & by morning shall be absolutely jubilant, I think. Reading & Easton promptly telegraphed acceptance of the proposition.
But don’t let this unhappy business get into the papers—I mean contradictions of it. If Warner speaks of it you can tell him all about it & stop the contradictions. I seem doomed to be always in the papers about private matters.
Bless your dear old heart, I shall reach Washington tomorrow night, & then for two days & nights I shall work like a beaver on my new lecture. How I ever came to get up such a mess of rubbish as this & imagine it good, is too many for me.
But good night, my best beloved darling for I must rise & 6.30 & start.
Ever & ever so lovingly
Samℓ.
SLC to OLC, 18 Oct 1871, Wiles-Barre, Pa. (UCCL 00664), n. 1.
From Wilkes-Barre Twain would return to Allentown. From there to DC: Lehigh and Susquehanna RR from Allentown to Bethlehem; North Pennsylvania from Bethlehem to Philadelphia; Philadelphia and Reading RR through the town of Philadelphia; Baltimore and Ohio from Philadelphia to Baltimore, then to Washington D.C.
Twain abandoned this lecture after only three performances. To his wife he confided - "This lecture will never do. I hate it and won't keep it." In Washington October 19 at the Arlington Hotel - "He spent the weekend furiously writing a new lecture, confining himself to only one of the uncommon characters he had met, Artemus Ward."
October 23 - Lincoln Hall, Washington, D. C. - "Artemus Ward"
Apparently spending the night at the Arlington Hotel then from Washington D.C aboard the Baltimore and Ohio to Wilmington. (The only hotel in this town) {WILLARD’S—O, my!—seventh-rate hash-house.}
October 24 - Institute Hall, Wilmington, Delaware - "Artemus Ward"
Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore to Philadelphia then the Philadelphia and Reading to Norristown.
October 25 - Odd Fellows Hall, Norristown, Pennsylvania - "Artemus Ward"
Mark Twain reportedly returned to Hartford on the 26th of October. Twain would then take the New Haven, Hartford and Springfield to Springfield; the Western Railroad to Pittsfield; and the New York, New Haven and Hartford (Berkshire Division) to Great Barrington.
Another option for the route between Hartford and Great Barrington would be the Central New England & Western to Canaan and the Berkshire Division of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad to Great Barrington.
The NH,H&S was known as the Hartford and New Haven until 1872 when it merged into the NYNH&H.
Connecticut Western, from Hartford to Canaan.
Housatonic RR, from Canaan to Great Barrington. On July 1, 1892, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad leased the Housatonic, forming the Berkshire Division; it was merged on March 29, 1898.
October 27 - Sumner Hall, Great Barrington, Massachusetts - "Artemus Ward"
After his Great Barrington lecture of Friday, 27 October, Clemens had a free weekend. Probably he spent it in Hartford, about sixty miles away, before keeping his engagements in Brattleboro, Vermont, and Milford, on 30 and 31 October, respectively. SLC to OLC, 31 Oct 1871, Milford, Mass. (UCCL 00668), n. 2.
Twain possibly spent the free weekend in Hartford, 60 miles from Great Barrington then take the New Haven, Hartford and Springfield to Springfield; the Connecticut River to Brattleboro.
October 30 - Brattleboro, Vermont - "Artemus Ward"
The route between Brattleboro and Milford is unknown. The 1870 kml files have an hypothetical line from Brattleboro to Athol, then the Vermont and Massachusetts line to Ayer; the Worcester and Nashua to near Pingryville; then the Fitchburg to West Concord. The kml files display the Marlborough Branch as an hypothetical line from West Acton to Marlborough and Southborough.
The USGS maps have the Vermont and Massachusetts, then known as the Fitchburg, running to just west of Athol, then along the same line as the Vermont and Massachusetts displayed on the kml maps. The Worcester and Nashua runs between Ayer and Pingryville, then the Fitchburg to West Concord. The USGS quads display the Marlborough Branch starting at South Acton and running to Marlborough Junction, where it branches with the Old Colony Railroad. The 1870 kml files have this as the Boston and Worcester, [see Boston and Albany] running to Milford.
I didn’t write last night. Felt kind of beat out. To-day I traveled the entire day in piddling [trains ] that stopped every four or five minutes. P Am lazy, but not a bit tired—hot bath fetched me around handsomely.
“SLC to OLC, 31 Oct 1871, Milford, Mass. (UCCL 00668).”
October 31 - Milford, Massachusetts - "Artemus Ward"
The very same lecture that convulsed Great Barrington was received with the gentlest & most well-bred smiles & rippling comfort by Milford. Now we’ll see what Boston is going to do. Boston must sit up & behave, & do right by me. As Boston goes, so goes New England
After Milford, Twain returned to Boston. This would involve the Milford Branch of the B&A to Framingham and the mainline of the B&A to Boston.