May 6 Monday – Upon his return to New York, Sam had been presented with an invitation (a “call”) by 200 Californians living in New York to give his Sandwich Islands lecture. Frank Fuller, a Comstock mining pal of Sam’s and later governor of Utah for a day, headed the California committee. Sam and Fuller set this as the date of the lecture and hired Cooper Institute’s Hall, one of the largest in the city. Nevada Senator and former Territorial Governor James Warren Nye was to introduce Sam.

May 7 Tuesday –The New York newspapers were complimentary, if brief, about Sam’s May 6 lecture at the Cooper Institute. Lorch says “The most extensive and perceptive” review was by Edward H. House of the New York Tribune [66]. Fatout says there were “ten lines in the Sun, twenty in the Herald, thirty-eight in the Times, a quarter of a column in the World” [Circuit 80]. Sam met “Ned” House shortly after arriving in New York; It was House who had accompanied Sam to sign up for the Quaker City excursion.

May 8 Wednesday – Charles Webb published a special railway edition of Jumping Frog with paper wrappers. It was only available at railway stations in New York City and was quickly discontinued [Slotta 20]. (See Dec.22, 1870 entry; Also A.D. notes AMT 2: 487 showing 4,076 books printed.)

May 10 Friday – Sam repeated his successful “Sandwich Islands” lecture at the Athenæum in Brooklyn [MTL 2: 40]. From the Brooklyn Eagle of May 11:

May 11 Saturday – John Stanton (Corry O’Lanus) (1826-1871) was a reporter for the Brooklyn Eagle, and likely the reviewer of Sam’s May 10 lecture at the Brooklyn Athenaeum. Shortly thereafter, Sam inscribed (no date written) a copy of The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and Other Sketches: “To Cory [sic] O’Lanus, the compt’s of Mark Twain” [Sotheby’s Apr. 4, 2004 auction, Lot 18].

May 13 Monday – Alta California printed Sam’s article “HAPPY,” dated Mar. 15 [Schmidt].
Camfield lists this as “Letter from Mark Twain” Number XII [bibliog.].

May 14 Tuesday – Sam wrote to John Stanton (Corry O’Lanus) city editor of the Eagle, asking if “a brother member of the press” might introduce him at his fourth lecture, which was later canceled [MTL 2: 44].

May 15 Wednesday – Sam repeated his successful “Sandwich Islands” lecture at Irving Hall in New York. He planned a fourth New York lecture in Brooklyn at the Academy of Music but canceled [MTL 2: 40]. Note: Several authorities have misdated this lecture as May 16. The New York Times, May 14 & 15 ads, p.7, confirms 15 th . Lorch points out the “enormous” importance of these three New York area lectures—they provided him with added celebrity for the Holy Land excursion, but most of all “his fear of the greater sophistication of eastern audiences greatly diminished” [67].