October 12 Saturday – The Clemens party was expected in Adelaide, Australia, but left the train at Aldgate, some 20 miles southeast of the city at 10:30 a.m. local time. They traveled twelve miles through the hilly countryside to Adelaide in an open carriage with C.A. Murphy, the American consul. In Adelaide, the Clemens party was welcomed by local gentlemen at the South Australian Club Hotel, and took rooms there. Livy and Clara received flower baskets from two little daughters of Murphy. Clara discussed horses and bicycles with a reporter from the South Australian Register, who, with another reporter from the Advertiser, interviewed Sam reclining on a sofa at the Club Hotel. The reporters, impressed with his drawl, called it “a constant protest against the hurry and worry of the nineteenth century,” and judged it as more pronounced in private than on the platform [Shillingsburg, At Home 75].

Sam gave his “Mark Twain At Home” (No. 1) performance at the Theatre Royal, with 40 people and a bouquet of flowers sitting on the stage with him, including Lt. Gov. Samuel J. Way. Ticket prices were 5, 3, and 2 shillings. After the lecture there was a social gathering late into the night “amongst friends with whom wit was rampant.” Shillingsburg writes: “This probably was at Fletcher’s Hotel, where the lights went out.” She also suggests this was when Sam received Christ, Christians, and Christianity from Edward Planta Nesbit (see Oct. 13 to Nesbit), and that he “probably visited with Windeyer again, possibly at his hotel” [14]. Reviews published on Oct. 14: Advertiser, South Australian Register [Shillingsburg, “Down Under” 14].