December 31 Wednesday – George Cable wrote from Dayton, Ohio to his wife Lucy:
“I told you in last night’s letter that we had a good time in Pittsburgh; & so we did. Not the best sort, however. We pleased our audience thoroughly & it was a large & cultivated audience. The newspapers, however, must have taken some grudge against us; for they made offensive reports of the affair” [Turner, MT & GWC 77].
Sam and Cable traveled south and gave a reading in Court House, Paris, Kentucky. This from the Paris Kentuckian on Jan. 3, 1885:
The Twain-Cable entertainment at the Court House on New Year’s night was not in the nature of lectures, but consisted chiefly of recitations. Interspersed with these were anecdotes, Creole songs, incidents of travel, and personal experiences under circumstances of embarrassment, the most perplexing, ludicrous, and convulsively amusing. Humor, at once genuine and refined, is a rare gift. It is better than physic. It dispels gloom, sheds sunshine into the care-worn heart, and like a touch of kindness, “makes the whole world kin.”
The house was handsomely filled, and we never saw a more highly amused, or better pleased audience.
Mark Twain in appearance is a sort of living and moving anecdote. In manner, quaint, easy and unctious; his voice, deep bass and drawling, like an old fashioned country preacher, wearing a benevolent, but solemn countenance, he creates the impression that he would make sinners howl if he got after them in evangelistic style.
Cable is somewhat younger in appearance; is spruce and polished, a fine reader and delineator of character, and a good actor with splendid voice in song. He would be classed by Zack Chandler as one of “them litterary fellers.”
Each, is accomplished in his part, and to be appreciated must be seen.
Note: This newspaper article refers to “New Years’ night” which may be interpreted as Jan. 1 not Dec. 31. However, listings on Railton and Schmidt put this reading to Dec. 31. To complicate matters, Cable’s letter to his wife on Jan. 1 speaks of the “gay time last night” in Hamilton, Ohio.
Charles Webster wrote to Clemens about bank accounts and misc. business matters [MTP].