October 18 Friday – The Clemenses breakfasted in Horsham, Australia, with Sam commenting on weak coffee and poor accommodations [NB 34 TS 17]. They left Horsham around 11:30 a.m. by train, arriving in Stawell (40 miles from Horsham; population 5,300) about 3 p.m., thirty minutes late. Mayor Councilor H. Menzies and other councilors, met the Clemenses. Livy and Clara were taken immediately to their rooms at the Commercial Hotel, where they probably dined. Sam was welcomed at Town Hall by Harry Foster minister of mines for the colony, parliamentarian Burton, and private citizens of Stawell. Sam had met Foster at least twice in Melbourne. Toasts were made and Sam responded “with much feeling” that he “thought he had been coming to a nation of strangers, but found himself a nation of comrades” [Shillingsburg, At Home 96].

In the afternoon Clara took a walk and tried to rescue a prostrated sheep by ending its life with ether, but when the owner came along he laughed and put the sheep upright, showing her it only needed to be helped up [MFMT 146-8].

People came from up to 150 miles to hear Mark Twain. In the evening Sam gave his “At Home” lecture in the Stawell Town Hall. Welcome toasts were given at the Town Hall and Sam responded, complimenting “a nation of comrades.”

Reviews published Oct. 19: Stawell News and Pleasant Creek Chronicle; Oct. 21 Stawell Times and Wimmera Advertiser [Shillingsburg, “Down Under” 16].