Submitted by scott on

January 30 Tuesday  Sam lectured in The Tabernacle, Jersey City, New Jersey  “Roughing It.” Sam had become used to introducing himself, and played it up for all the humor it offered. He often related the true story about a man out West who’d been forced to introduce him: “I don’t know anything about this man except two things, one is, he has never been in the penitentiary, and the other is, I don’t know the reason why” [MTL 5: 38].

After the lecture Sam took the ferry back to New York and spent the night at the St. Nicholas. He purchased 200 Figaro cigars, Cuban, from Case & Rathbun, shirt manufacturers & cigars wholesale, New York, for $24 [MTP]. Note: Sam was famous for loving the cheapest cigars, but as this purchase shows, not always the cheapest.

The first copies of Roughing It arrived from the American Publishing Co. [MTL 5: 45n4].

Day By Day Acknowledgment

Mark Twain Day By Day was originally a print reference, meticulously created by David Fears, who has generously made this work available, via the Center for Mark Twain Studies, as a digital edition.   

Contact Us