April 19 Wednesday – “This morning struck into the region of full goatees—sometimes accompanied by a mustache, but only occasionally” [Ch. 22, LM].
Noon: Sam changed trains in Indianapolis.
Afternoon: “—At the railway-stations the loafers carry both hands in their breeches pockets; it was observable, heretofore, that one hand was sometimes out-of-doors—here, never. This is an important fact for geography.”
Sam wrote five minutes from Indianapolis to Livy,
“It is not easy to write on this joggling train. Slept better than I ever did before in a sleeping car. We are due at St. Louis at 8 to-night, where I hope to find a telegram from you saying you are a great deal better than when I left. With a world of love, sweetheart. / Sam” [MTP].
Sam’s notebook reveals he arrived in St. Louis at 8 PM [MTNJ 2: 436]. In Ch. 22 of Life on the Mississippi (hereafter abbreviated to LM) the time is given as 10 PM. The party checked into the Southern Hotel, one Sam called “ a good hotel…large and well conducted, and its decorations do not make one cry, as do those of the vast Palmer House, in Chicago” [Ch. 22 LM]. “Lawrence Barrett stumbled on us.” Barrett, the matinee idol was well known to both Osgood and Clemens. On this day he performed at the St. Louis Grand Opera House in a traveling production of Yorick’s Love, an adaptation by Howells. Osgood had published Barrett’s biography of Edwin Forrest in 1881 [MTNJ 2: 465].
Charles Robert Darwin died at around 4 PM at his home in Kent, England. His funeral was held on Apr. 26 at Westminster Abbey. Sam made a notebook entry about each of them being embarrassed at their only meeting at Grasmere on Aug. 19, 1879. “I am glad to have seen that mighty man,” Sam wrote. Darwin did not evolve after his death.
Jane “Jennie” Sevillee Walker (1870-1947) wrote from Flint, Mich.:
Mr. Mark Twain / I have read your Tom Sawyer and am very much interested in it. Wont you please tell me whether Tom and Huck Finn had the initiation that night. If you have the time. We have all your works. Papa said he knew you once, his name is Gorge L Walker. Tom must have had a hard time to keep still with the spirit of three boys in one, was Huck Finn composed of two or three boys. If you have time please answer my letter as soon as you can. You must be a ever so nice because you write such nice books. / Yours Truely/ …[MTP]. Note: in the preface to TS, Twain called Tom “a combination of the characteristics of three boys.” Jennie’s father was George L. Walker (1838-1909), Flint, Mich. businessman who helped set up Buick Motor Co. No connection between Walker and Twain was found.