July 22 Monday – In Duluth, Minn. Sam finished his July 20 to H.H. Rogers by adding a PS:
Had a satisfactory time at Petoskey. Crammed the house and turned away a crowd. We had $548 in the house, which was $300 more than it had ever had in it before. I believe I don’t care to have a talk go better than that one did.
Shall get to Duluth just in time to go on the platform. I shall dress before leaving the boat, then go straight to the train after the lecture [MTHHR 173].
Fatout writes of the lecture which was delayed ship’s difficulties:
“The ship was delayed, and when she reached port well after lecture time, there was a great bustle of scrambling into carriages and galloping to the First Methodist Church. ‘I am glad,’ said Mark Twain as he ambled in an hour late, ‘that my strenuous efforts did succeed in getting me here just in time.’ The crowd laughed, and kept on laughing at the jumping frog, the dead man story, the christening story, and others. The Duluth Commonwealth of the 23rd remarked that ‘The lecturer was especially popular with the women,’ an interesting observation in view of his distrust of a feminine audience. On the disconcerting mop of gray hair, the paper said”:
It…seems to be only in the way and of no use except to stamp its owner as a crank with a peculiar right to something nobody wants. …his most ardent admirers wouldn’t call it becoming.
The Evening Herald said that the hair “makes one believe Twain is trying to rival Paderewski” [Lecture Circuit 245].
The Clemens party took rooms at the Spalding Hotel in Duluth, Minn. This was the end of their lake travels; the remainder to the Pacific Coast would be on the rails.
From J.B. Pond’s diary for this date:
On Lake Superior; S. S. Northwest. I was on deck early and found the smoke all gone. In its place was bright sunshine, but it has been so cold all day that few of the other passengers are on deck. Captain Brown and Purser Pierce are doing all they can to hurry us on, for we are eight hours late.
We landed in Duluth at just 9 p.m. Mr. Briggs, our correspondent, met us at the wharf with a carriage. As our boat neared land Briggs shouted:
“Hello, Major Pond!”
“Hello, Briggs!”
“Is Mark Twain all right?”
“Yes; he is ready to go to the hall; he will be the first passenger off the ship.”
“Good. We have a big audience waiting for him,” said Mr. Briggs.
“We’ll have them convulsed in ten minutes,” said I.
“Mark” was the first passenger to land. Mr. Briggs hurried him to the church, which was packed with twelve hundred and fifty warm friends (100 degrees in the shade) to meet and greet him. It was a big audience. He got through at 10:50 and we were all on board the train for Minneapolis at 11:20.
It was my busy night. The train for Minneapolis was to start at twelve o’clock. The agents in New York who had fitted me out with transportation and promised that everything should be in readiness on our arrival in Duluth, had forgotten us, and no arrangements for sleeper or transfer of baggage had been made. I had all this to attend to, besides looking after the business part of the lecture, which was on sharing terms with a church society. Everything was mixed up, as the door-tender and finance committee were bound to hear the lecture. I could get no statement, but took all the money in sight, and was on board the train as it was starting for Minneapolis [Eccentricities of Genius 205].