January 3 Saturday – Ozias Pond recorded in his diary that Sam was examined by a phrenologist (reading bumps on the head). Cardwell writes that Ozias, “infected with the humor of the two writers and amazed at Twain’s extravagance punned feebly: ‘There was nothing in it’” [33].
Sam and Cable gave two more readings at Odeon Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio, a matinee and an evening performance. Ozias Pond stood in as manager for his brother, James B. Pond. The Cincinnati Enquirer reviewed both evening performances separately, and concluded on Jan. 4 with the following:
They must have felt flattered by the audience that greeted them, for, in addition to being of goodly size, it was made up of the best of society people.
The lecturers’ engagement in this city has been a success financially, and the entertainments have been highly satisfactory to all who attended [Railton].
Sam wrote from Cincinnati to Livy:
“Livy darling, we finished one of those awful days, where you talk twice in the same day. It is a dreadful pull on a body’s muscle.”
Sam told of a young college girl from the music college where the hall was, asking him if the readings were over and if Mark Twain was going to read again, and would “he read something good?” Sam answered affirmatively and took the girl back stage, giving her a seat off-stage. When other girls came looking for her he gave them seats with the first girl.
“Then I went on the stage & shouted away, for the delectation of 1200 women in front, & this little group in the rear. Take it all around, we had a mighty rousing time, & a most pleasant afternoon” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Charles Allen Thorndike Rice (1851-1889) editor of the North American Review, who had evidently sought a submission from Mark Twain. Sam answered he hadn’t time to write anything, but suggested Rice contact Webster, who “no doubt” would “furnish …a chapter from my new book” [MTP].
The Cincinnati Enquirer, p. 4: “Twain and Cable / The Humorists Interviewed.” Sam discussed his stint on the Territorial Enterprise, Bret Harte, and the sketch (unnamed in the interview) “Typographical Howitzer” [Scharnhorst, Interviews 65-8]. Note: The sketch was by Sam P. Davis and is included in The Sagebrush Anthology, Lawrence I. Berkove, ed., 2006.