February 1 Sunday – Sam wrote from Chicago, Illinois to Livy, giving her the future reading dates and reviewing the past few days.

…last night we made a great triumph before a great Davenport audience. At 7.45 I was old & seedy & wretched from traveling all night & getting no sleep; but then I drank a big cup of black coffee & went on the stage as fine as a fiddle; answered an encore; was uproariously encored again, immediately; was encored again, straightway, & went on & made a happy excuse, & did the same after another encore at 9.45. I guess we sent that multitude home feeling jolly. It was the only big audience that has assembled in that town since 1875.

Took the train half an hour after midnight—had then been mainly without sleep for 2 days & nights—so we got a stateroom & I slept the night through. When I am in such trim as I was last night, I would rather be on the platform than anywhere in the world [MTP].

Sam did not forget that “tomorrow is the great day”—their fifteenth wedding anniversary.

Myra L. Fuller wrote from Northampton, Mass.—a begging letter for money [MTP].

Sam also wrote from to Charles Webster, directing him to see a “fine notice” in the London Saturday Review. He sent a list of people who should get books, and wanted a half dozen sent to him in Hartford [MTP]. Note: Webster’s of Feb. 4 places Sam’s letter at this date.

Cardwell refers to a “scorching telegram from Twain” to James B. Pond, demanding he return and manage the rest of the tour as provided in the contract. Such a telegram, not in the current MTP files, would have been on or just after the first of February; shortly thereafter, Pond rejoined the group in Chicago [Cardwell, 53].