May 9 Thursday – At 9 a.m. [May 14 to Jean] Sam and Isabel Lyon took a train for Baltimore, Maryland, where he would be a guest of Governor Edwin Warfield (1848-1920) and deliver a benefit lecture in Annapolis. Warfield had been mentioned as a future presidential candidate. It had been in Sam’s plans at least since Apr. 22, when he wrote of it to Jean. Though she did not know him, Emma Warfield (Mrs. Edwin Warfield), a member of the First Presbyterian Church, had written asking Mark Twain to speak for a church benefit. In his May 14 to Jean, he referred to his trip as “wiping out a debt on a Presbyterian church.” The Baltimore Sun, May 10, p.14 “Mark Twain in Clover” reported his arrival:
A suit of light gray flannels, surrounding a man with heavy, wavy hair, almost white, and a beaming smile that took in everybody, emerged from the train that arrived from New York at Camden Station a little while before 3 o’clock yesterday [May 9] afternoon.
The man with the gray flannels and the sunny smile did not have to wait more than 20 seconds on the platform before he was met by a man of the real Maryland type—heavy, but not fat; dressed in good taste and his face bearing a short-clipped mustache and goatee.
He of the wavy hair was Mark Twain and he of Maryland’s own type was Governor Warfield. The Governor will be the host of the premier humorist of the civilized world for the next few days.
Tonight [May 10] the humorist will deliver a lecture at the Executive Mansion in Annapolis for the benefit of the Presbyterian Church there. Mrs. Warfield is a member of the church, and the lecture given by the only real, quadruple-plate American funny man will help the good cause.
While he is speaking everybody will know him as Mark Twain and at the same time think of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. But after the lecture, when he begins to shake hands, nobody will think of calling him anything except Mr. Clemens.
[….]
The Governor and the first, last and all the time American humorist shook hands like two men who meet on a Mexican ranch years after they have separated. Their greeting was more than cordial. It did one’s heart good to see it.
When the Governor and the humorist started from the station for the Annapolis train, they drew toward themselves as many cameras as a magnet would draw steel shavings. It seemed to have been a strange coincidence that such a large proportion of the waiting passengers in the station were armed with kodaks. All eyes seemed to be turned toward the distinguished pair as they walked arm in arm across the platform toward the train. […]
Before the train pulled out Mark was interviewed by a reporter of THE SUN about his recent “drowning” and other topics [Note: See more of the article in MTFWE p.6-8; the Baltimore News gave 2:47 p.m. as Sam’s time of arrival and noted Isabel Lyon accompanied him. On the platform waiting for a train for Washington was Senator from Maryland Isador Rayner (1850-1912) and Colonel E.L. Woodside: Scharnhorst 587-592. The Annapolis Short Line train was a thirty-mile trip].
Nolan and Tomlinson write of Sam’s arrival at the Governor’s mansion:
In Annapolis, Twain went to the Governor’s mansion, where he had a cup of tea and a rest before the dinner given in his honor. That evening, the table, decorated in white lilies, had Governor Warfield presiding over it at one end and Samuel Clemens at the other. Twenty-six others filled the spaces in between. Among them were representatives of the schools in the area: Basil Gildersleeve from the Johns Hopkins University, Thomas Fell from St. John’s College, and Capt. George P. Colvocoresses, representing the Naval Academy. The Baltimore contingent at the affair was large enough to journey to Annapolis in a special railroad car which, the papers report, returned at 11 p.m. [4]. Note: in his May 14 to Jean he told of the gathering running till midnight.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “We started for and arrived at Annapolis” [MTP TS 56].
Chatto & Windus wrote to Sam asking if JA, More Tramps Abroad (FE), and The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg could be lowered from 6/ to 3/6 each, since they’d been published at the higher price for “a considerable period” [MTP].
Robert Fulton Cutting for the Robert Fulton Monument wrote to acknowledge Sam’s plans to be present at the Jamestown Expo on Sept. 23; he discussed persons who would be there [MTP].
John Mead Howells wrote to Sam that they had rec’d his of May 8 and were by his instructions notifying William Webb Sunderland, contractor to build the Redding house for $27,236. They were preparing a formal contract for the work [MTP].
John A. Kirlicks wrote to Sam, enclosing a chapbook of poems in Twain’s honor, bound by a red ribbon (in file) [MTP].