January 18 Thursday – Sam lectured in Court House, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania – “Roughing It.” Once again, Sam received mixed reviews:

The Harrisburgh Telegraph: “the roughest excuse for a lecture we ever heard.” The Harrisburg Evening Mercury: “a grand success oratorically and facetiously.” The Harrisburg Patriot: “much agreeable amusement…The only vacant space left when the lecturer commenced was his mouth, and that nobody crowded down his throat was astonishing” [MTL 5: 29-30n1].

Notes: Sam no doubt loved this last line. The reasons for such mixed reviews? Many expected lectures to be as they’d always been—a bit of showmanship perhaps, but mostly education. A humorist lecture was not unheard of (Ward, Nasby, etc.) but uncommon. It seems Sam’s best lecture successes came when he mixed information and description with humor, as in his “Sandwich Islands”  presentation.

James Redpath wrote to Sam, explaining the dispute over the Paterson, N.J. lecture which had gone on since August 1871. “Dear Mark— When you reach Paterson, N. J., you will find, possibly,—probably—an indignant Secretary, who threatens, I think—for his language seems to smell of gunpowder—to complain to you of our course in refusing to give him February 1.” Redpath then related the timeline for the dispute [MTP].