September 18 Wednesday – In Sydney, Australia, Sam gave an interview at 2 p.m. with Louis Becke whose book By Reef and Palm (1895) was a gift (See Sept. 11 entry). Another interviewer waited. Becke inscribed the title page of his book for Sam: To S.L. Clemens / from Louis Becke / Sydney Sept. 1895 [Gribben 54]. See Sept. 24 to Becke. Shillingsburg writes “The young man, who had discovered a few days ago that Twain had read the book he had once written, was probably Australian writer Louis Becke, not formally affiliated with any newspaper at that time. In other newspapers Twain repeatedly praised Becke’s volume By Reef and Palm…[At Home 38].

Sam, Livy and Clara, as guests of Admiral Cyprian Bridge, attended a tea aboard the H.M.S. Orlando. They met Lt. Gov. Madden’s party from Melbourne and Miss Carter, Captain Fisher and others.

In the evening Sam dined at the Athenæum Club, with 100 members and guests, including Irish politician Michael Davitt, Edmund Barton, QC (to become first prime minister of Austr.), Justice William Windeyer, Atty.. Gen. J.H. Want, QC. Sam responded to the toast of “Our Guest” in an “extremely felicitous speech”; exchanged toasts with Windeyer, Barton and with the “Great Hi Ham,” Sir Henry Parkes. Parks presented Sam with a copy of Sonnets and Other Verse while at the Club. Parkes was 80 years old, and “His biography sounds enough like Twain’s to leave little wonder the two found instant companionship” [Shillingsburg, “Down Under” 7; At Home 38-9]. 

About the best humorous speeches I have yet heard were a couple that were made in Australia at club suppers — one of them by an Englishman, the other by an Australian [FE ch. XI, 131]. Note: Shillingsburg suggests, “Most likely the Australian was J.L. Dow…” [19].

In St. Louis, Elizabeth R. Webber Lampton, 75-year-old widow of James J. Lampton (inspiration for Col. Sellers) followed him in death, bronchitis the cause [Lampton, MTJ (Fall 1989) p37].