October 20 Sunday – In Ballarat, Australia, Sam gave two interviews, one with J.W. Graham and the other possibly with Mr. Nivens. Sam stretched out on a hotel couch smoking both cigar and pipe, and complimented Australians as “more American than English.” The Ballarat Courier interview, “Interview with Mark Twain” Oct. 21 may be found in Scharnhorst, 240. The Ballarat Star interview, “A Chat with ‘Mark Twain,’ Impressions of Australia, also Oct. 21 is not in Scharnhorst. Were there two interviews or one this day?

Carlyle G. Smythe arrived with news that his father R.S. Smythe was in quarantine aboard the Cuzco in Sydney; thus Carlyle became the Clemenses tour guide a bit earlier than planned [Shillingsburg: “Down Under” 17; At Home 99]. From Sam’s notebook on the quarantine:

Oct. 20. Smythe Sr. is quarantined on the Cuzco — because of one case of smallpox! — a man who didn’t have it bad, & has now had it 20 days. The ship was not molested at Adelaide & another port, but Melb quarantines her. It is very curious to see enlightened communities quarantining for small pox in this day. It may be that N.Y. does it, but I don’t believe it [NB 34 TS 18].

Livy wrote to daughter Susy: “Last evening we rec’d our first letters from you all….It is Sunday evening and Clara and I are sitting just now in her room in rather a dim gas light. Papa has a reporter with him. This is the second one that he has had today.” Livy related the good time at Horsham, writing “Tuesday” instead of the correct “Thursday” [MTP].

Gavin J. Reilly wrote to Sam from Creswill Australia, seeing himself not as a stranger but “in common with every Australian, look upon you as an old friend.” Reilly enclosed “a few cards” [not extant] including one, the Chief Secretary of Victoria, Mr. A.J. Peacock, and likening the gold fields and old pioneers in Australia to Sam’s Nevada days. Reilly told of a journalist gathering this night in Ballarat to “hear the music of [Sam’s] voice and to carry back remembrances of the idol of America” [MTP].