September 16 Monday – Sydney was then a city of about 380,000. In Sydney Harbor, after breakfast aboard the Warrimoo and with a reporter for the Sydney Evening News, the Clemens party disembarked and arrived at the Circular Quay, Sydney Harbor, at about 7 a.m. [Shillingsburg, “Down Under” 6]. Paine writes they “landed in a pouring rain the breaking up of a fierce drought. Clemens announced that he had brought Australia good-fortune, and should expect something in return” [MTB 1009]. (For Sam’s comments on the Max O’Rell controversy, including a duel challenged, see Shillingsburg’s At Home, etc. p.26-7).

At 11 a.m. Sam shared cocktails at the bar in the Australia Hotel with two friends, possibly R.S. Smythe and his son, Carlyle G. Smythe, and Herbert Low. The party then went on a sightseeing tour around Town Hall, the Domain, Mrs. MacQuarie’s Chair, and the Circular Quay with Herbert Low, other acquaintances, and a reporter from the Sydney Daily Telegraph. At 3 p.m. back at the Australia Hotel, Sam gave an interview to Herbert Low and others: unnamed reporters for the Melbourne Argus and Sydney Morning Herald, and the Sydney Daily Telegraph (widely reprinted) which were all published Sept. 17. On this day, the Australian Star, p.5 ran a notice this day of the Warrimoo docking; and the Daily Telegraph, p.4 ran a promotional sketch [Shillingsburg, “Down Under” 6].

Around noon Sam invited the Sydney Daily Telegraph reporter to go with him to be photographed at Falk’s Studio, owned by H. Walter Barnett. Shillingsburg writes that while at the studio Sam made “remarks on protectionism that would provoke an angry diatribe the next afternoon [Sept. 17] from a rival paper, the Australian Star.”

I don’t profess to be learned in matters of this kind…but my instinct teaches me that protection is wrong. Surely it is wrong that on the Pacific slope they should be compelled to bring their iron from the east when they might get it landed at a much lower price direct from foreign ships at their own door [At Home 29 ]. Note: the remarks landed Sam in the hot water of local politics. See source, p.29.

Clara and Livy were then sent for and also sat for photographs. Sam liked the outcome, judging the pictures as “a long way beyond any photographs he ever had made before.” Also, Sam may have attended Joseph of Canaan, an Australian pageant, performed at Her Majesty’s. Sam was also met at Cooper’s Wharf by “genteel cadgers” requesting a loan, as reported in The Sydney Worker Apr. 2, 1908, p.11.

The Clemens family took rooms at the Australia Hotel, Castlereagh St., Sydney [Shillingsburg, “Down Under” 6].