September 2 Tuesday – The Cunard liner S.S.Gallia steamed into New York. Fatout:
“At Quarantine on September 2, 1879, reporters swarmed aboard and crowded around him in the main saloon. They observed that he had aged somewhat, his hair having become gray, but that the drawl was unchanged….Newsmen fired many questions, although Mark Twain, as usual in his encounters with the press, did not need much priming to keep him talking” [Fatout, Mark Twain Speaks 118]. Journalists from the New York Times and the New York Sun were among those on board.
Powers gives Sept. 3 as the date the Clemens family arrived in New York: “They brought twenty-two freight packages—not counting the crockery, carved furniture, and other goods they’d shipped to America” [MT A Life 426]. Sam was the last passenger to clear customs, at 8 PM [MTLE 4: 89]. Livy was expecting. The press was quite interested in Sam’s return:
The New York Herald, on page 4, ran an article where Sam discussed his ideas about the British aristocracy [Scharnhorst, Interviews 28].
The New York World, on page 1, ran “Mr. Twain Again with Us / A Wonderful Book in His Luggage and Much Wonderful Sea-Lore in His Head” [Scharnhorst, Interviews 29-31].
The New York Sun ran “Mark Twain Back Again / Freely Expresses His Opinion about Various Things / His Views on the English Language, the Danger of the Elevated Railroads, Prunes as a Sea-Going Diet, and Lord Dunraven” on page one [Scharnhorst, Interviews 22-24].
The New York Times ran “Mark Twain Home Again / What He Says about the New Book He Has Written” page 8. [Scharnhorst, Interviews 25-27].
Fatout in Mark Twain Speaks [118-22] offers a composite of these last two interviews:
On Bayard Taylor:
“He got out at Plymouth, and I never saw him again. While he was at Berlin I corresponded with him, and we made an appointment to meet in the fall. His death was a great surprise to me.”
On Murat Halstead (boarding late from a party and not packing properly)—did Sam loan him any clothes?
“He could not get into mine; and, besides, I didn’t have any more than I wanted for myself.”
How far have you got in Ollendorf? (A method of learning languages without a teacher):
“Oh, I don’t speak German. It’s enough that I’ve endured the agony of learning to read it.”
Sam confessed his book from the trip was only half done. He was anxious to ride on the new elevated trains, and told a tale about Dan Slote being grazed by a woman who fell to her death from washing windows. He had good things to say about the Cunard line and the improved food. A Times reporter asked whether a cocktail left standing on the shelf at night would be there in the morning. Sam answered that the ship was hardly steady enough for that. He ended the interview with good things to say about Lord Dunraven.