September 29 Monday – Sam sent a note and letter from the Langham to Louisa P. MacDonald, wife of George MacDonald and mother of eleven children. The communications were about invitations and missing Louisa when they called.
“…we just barely missed you both, & were so disappointed! And out of eleven children we couldn’t scare up even one” [MTL 5: 444-5].
September 30 Tuesday – Sam and Livy left baby Susy with nurse Nellie Bermingham and traveled to Paris with Henry Lee for a week’s stay. Nothing is known about their time in Paris, but it would be Sam’s second visit there, so he probably knew where to take Livy [MTL 5: 446].
October 6 Monday – Dr. John Brown wrote to thank Sam and Livy for their letters and asked what they were doing in Paris. “That is a delightful Susie letter…give her my love” [MTP].
October 7 Tuesday – Sam and Livy returned to London. Sam, probably still anxious of his suspended bank funds, agreed to lecture—a solution he’d often turned to when feeling pinched in the pocketbook. His lecture schedule was to begin on Oct. 13 and was arranged by George Dolby. Six London dates were booked for Sam’s “Sandwich Islands” talk, and one final lecture in Liverpool for Oct. 20.
October 8 Wednesday – Sam autographed a post card about tickets and an invitation to dinner for Henry Lee, who it is assumed responded at once to Sam’s notice about lecturing. Sam then sent two notes that he was writing to Dolby asking for tickets for Lee [MTL 5: 450-1].
October 9 Thursday – Sam’s letter of Oct. 7 to the London Standard was published in that paper [MTL 5: 448].
The Daily Graphic featured a front page arrangement of nine oval engraved portraits, with Mark Twain in the middle [eBay Sept. 23, 2009, Item 370249824620].
October 11 Saturday – A brief notice in the Court Journal (London), in full:
October 12 Sunday – Sam wrote a short note from London to Olivia Lewis Langdon agreeing that they would stop at the “new hotel” (The Windsor) in New York rather than the St. Nicholas. Sam wrote he was resting for his first lecture the following night [MTL 5: 452].
Shirley Brooks wrote to Sam (transcript of clipping enclosed) [MTP].
October 13 Monday – Sam gave his “Our Fellow Savages of the Sandwich Islands” lecture at Queen’s Concert Rooms, Hanover Square, London at 8 PM [Baetzhold 17]. Lorch points out that this was “the most fashionable [hall] in London, instead of the more popular Egyptian Hall where Artemus Ward had lectured…unquestionably made at Mark Twain’s request” [139].
October 14 Tuesday – Sam repeated his “Sandwich Islands” lecture at Queen’s Concert Rooms, Hanover Square, London at 8 PM [Baetzhold 17]. “Judging by the attendance, applause, and laughter, the lecture was a great success,” wrote George H. Fitzgibbon, the London correspondent for the Darlington Northern Echo [MTL 5: 453].
October 15 Wednesday – Sam repeated his “Sandwich Islands” lecture at Queen’s Concert Rooms, Hanover Square, London at 8 PM [Baetzhold 17]. Sam again wrote to George Bentley about the French Frog sketch, but held the letter until he was in route on the Batavia, where he completed the note on Oct. 30 [MTL 5: 455].
October 16 Thursday – In London Sam wrote to Charles Warren Stoddard:
Please pass the bearer to a good stall.
Oct. 16.
My Dear Old Boy—
Can’t you take this note as your authority & run in to the lecture (Hanover Square Rooms) tomorrow evening or Saturday afternoon? Or mail this to Geo. Dolby, (if you prefer,) 52 New Bond street, & he will send you ticket.
October 17 Friday – Sam repeated his “Sandwich Islands” lecture at Queen’s Concert Rooms, Hanover Square, London at 8 PM [Baetzhold 17].
October 18 Saturday – Sam repeated his “Sandwich Islands” lecture at Queen’s Concert Rooms, Hanover Square, London at 3 PM [Baetzhold 17]. The London Graphic reported:
Description of the manners and customs of the natives were interspersed with various witticisms, which were heartily appreciated and loudly applauded. Mr. Twain evidently has “the art of putting things.” The lecture, which lasted rather more than an hour, …was listened to throughout with great interest.
October 19 Sunday – Sam wrote from Room 113 at the Langham in London to Charles Warren Stoddard, who had arrived in England on Oct. 13 as a roving-reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle.
October 20 Monday – Sam repeated his “Sandwich Islands” lecture at Liverpool Institute, Liverpool, England [MTPO]. The review by the Liverpool Mercury was effusive. It was also positive [MTL 5: 458n1].
October 21 Tuesday – Sam, family and party sailed from Liverpool for New York on the SS. Batavia [MTL 5: 451n1]. Sam had not received any proofs of The Gilded Age, but Livy’s homesickness (she was also pregnant again) led Sam to escort the family home and then to return for more lectures and to await the proofs in order to claim copyright.
October 22 Wednesday – Sam sent a note of thanks for books to an unidentified person. Sam dispatched the letter at Queenstown, Ireland [MTL 5: 458].
October 30 Thursday – Sam wrote on board the Batavia to Dr. John Brown. Everyone in Sam’s party save himself had been seasick for the first three days, but now it had been:
“…smoothe, & balmy, & sunny & altogether lovely for a day or two now, & at night there is a broad luminous highway stretching over the sea to the moon, over which the spirits of the sea are traveling up & down all through the secret night & having a genuine good time, I make no doubt.”
November 2 Sunday – The Batavia reached port in New York City at dusk. Livy’s mother and brother, and also Orion (who was in the city looking for work) met the Clemens family at the pier. Charles Langdon had reserved rooms at the new Windsor Hotel, where the party spent the night.