January 9 Friday – The party left Springfield for St. Louis at 6:35 AM. A train accident delayed them; the engine and baggage car derailed at the bridge over the Big Muddy. Sam joked that he would have been all right if he’d made it into the River, because he knew it well. The party walked across the bridge, took a car to the Southern Hotel, and were set for the evening’s performance [Cardwell 37].
Sam wrote from St. Louis to Rebecca Pavey Boas. The Paveys were from Hannibal and also lived in St. Louis. Sam had stayed with the family a couple of times while working there (see Aug. 7, 1854 and Feb. 13, 1855 entries.) No doubt Rebecca was a daughter of Napoleon “Pole” W. Pavey (see MTNJ 1: 37n45). Sam’s expressed hope of visiting and dining with his old friend.
“I shall certainly not fail to come if I get the time, but the chances are against me…Sincerely your old friend S.L. Clemens” [MTP]. Note: On the reverse of this note, written and signed by Becky Pavey (now Boas) she wrote on Apr. 14, 1919: “It was with sincere regret that my childhood friend Samuel Clemens did not dine with us” [AbeBooks.com by Raab Collection #9034].
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch announced the pair’s arrival and printed a humorous “interview” (see Railton for the full account, or Scharnhorst, Interviews 70-72).
CABLE AND TWAIN. The Author and the Humorist Arrive in the City To-Day.
While Mr. J. B. Pond was this morning standing in the rotunda of the Southern Hotel with Samuel C. Clemens (Mark Twain) standing upon one side of him and George W. Cable upon the other, the POST-DISPATCH reporter present was struck by the touching likeness which the group bore to that beautiful legend which provides a human being with two attendant spirits, one of them of diabolical mien always urging them on to commit felonies and misdemeanors, the other, of angelic aspect, constantly coaxing him to give up his criminal ways. Mark Twain’s features, familiarized to the public by several brands of chewing tobacco, cigars and cigarettes, are so well known that it only becomes necessary to describe the appearance of his less Mephistophelian companion [Railton].
The St. Louis Chronicle , p1: “Two of a Kind / Samuel L. Clemens and George W. Cable.” Sam compared audiences, Northern, Southern, Canadian, British [Scharnhorst, Interviews 72-4].
In the evening, Sam and Cable gave a reading in Mercantile Library Hall , St. Louis. Clemens included: “Tragic Tale of the Fishwife,” “A Trying Situation,” “A Ghost Story,” and “King Sollermun” [MTPO].
Edith Cockburn Kerr wrote from Oxford, England for an autograph [MTP].
James B. Pond wrote to Clemens; letter not found at MTP though catalogued as UCLC 42381.
Charles Webster wrote various business matters [MTP].