June 26 Friday – In Grahamstown, S. Africa, Sam and Carlyle Smythe were admitted to the Grahamstown Club, and entered in the visitor’s book along with their two proposers (sponsors):

1896, June 26 S Clemens (Mark Twain) U.S.A. [proposed and seconded by:] W.A.H. Holland B.L.W. Kitching [Parsons, “Clubman in S.A.” 251]. Note: Holland was the Town Clerk and Treasurer of the Club; Kitching was Rev. [Parsons, “Traveler in S.A.” 30-1].

In the evening at the Albany Drill Hall, Sam gave his “At Home” (No. 1) talk. No table had been provided on stage for his watch. Wagonloads of people came to hear Mark Twain. Grocott’s Penny Mail and the Port Elizabeth Looker-On ran articles about his Grahamstown appearance [Philippon 22]. 

Sam’s notebook carries a subsequent note of his visit with the Trappists he visited on May 11:

For the Trappists draw on Louis Stephenson’s [sic] Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes [Gribben 664; NB 38 TS 54]. Note: Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1879) by Robert Louis Stevenson.