January 29 Thursday – Sam and Cable gave a second reading at the Academy of Music, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Sentinel reported on Jan. 30: “The audience was much larger than on the previous night and appeared to heartily enjoy the readings” [Railton].

During the performance off stage, George Cable wrote to his wife, Lucy, of the struggle:

Now here is the strangest thing! A house full of people, seemingly highly entertained but feeble in their final applauses. Mark was not called back & I, following, was so feebly encored that I did not feel justified in doing more than bowing. Fact is Mark is under a cloud tonight — feels it, confesses it, but cannot explain it. He doesn’t take hold of his hearers and swing them as usual. There! he gets it at last. Even now it came as a kind of after thought from the audience after they had entirely ceased clapping. But it came good and heartily.

Strongest, heartiest kind of a reception to “Mary’s Ride.” Now Mark is on to finish; but I know he is going to come off wringing his hands with vexation. Fact is our hard railroad travel is telling on us — has let out — slackened — our nerves. Queerly, but truly, we feel it most after a partial resting spell… The clock strikes ten. The end is only a few moments away. Finis. Mark explains it all. He had a warm bath an hour before the reading. He’ll never take another [Turner, MT & GWC 92-3].

The Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, p. 2: “Talk with Mark Twain.” Sam discussed Canadian copyright, the faulty illustrations in HF, and his nom de plume [Scharnhorst, Interviews 79-81].