August 22 Thursday – The Clemens party was still in Victoria, B.C. From J.B. Pond’s diary:

We are in Victoria yet. The blessed “tie that binds” seems to be drawing tighter and tighter as the time for our final separation approaches. We shall never be happier in any combination, and Mrs. Clemens is the great magnet. What a noble woman she is! It is “Mark Twain’s” wife who makes his works so great. She edits everything and brings purity, dignity, and sweetness to his writings. In “Joan of Arc” I see Mrs. Clemens as much as “Mark Twain” [Eccentricities of Genius 223].

Before sailing from Victoria, Sam inscribed two copies of Roughing It to James B. Pond: Here ends one of the smoothest and pleasantest trips across the continent that any group of five has ever made [Eccentricities of Genius, 220]. Also: In memory of the pleasant platform-campaign of July & August, 1895 / Victoria, B.C., Aug. 22/95 [MTP].

Sam also inscribed a photograph of himself: to my old friend Pond — / Sincerely his’n / Mark Twain. / Victoria B.C. Aug. 22/95 [MTP].

Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers:

It is midnight, & we sail at 8 to-morrow morning. Big house & a good time last night. No more talking to do for a week; then — possibly — a talk in Honolulu.

Sam also had a new carbuncle but he didn’t feel it was a “strong threat” and had “laid in materials for a war upon it” [MTP, not in MTHHR].