May 8 Monday – Sam’s room was over the boilers and “some idiot had closed the transoms,” the heat waking him at 4 AM. He “went on watch”; it was foggy. He noted that George Ritchie steered by compass until the watch was over, using “his & Bixby’s patented chart for crossings & occasionally blowing the whistle” [MTNJ 2: 471]. The CBR arrived in Vicksburg, Miss at 8 AM [560].
We had a heavy thunder-storm at Natchez, another at Vicksburg, and still another about fifty miles below Memphis. They had an old-fashioned energy which had long been unfamiliar to me. The third storm was accompanied by a raging wind. We tied up to the bank when we saw the tempest coming, and everybody left the pilot-house but me…the pilot-house fell to rocking and straining and cracking and surging, and I went down in the hold to see what time it was [Ch 51 LM].
The CBR reached Greenville, Miss., at 8 PM. From Sam’s notebook on or about this day on the CBR:
Two colored cabin hands; one more colored than the other. One played banjo & both sang. Concert opened with “Golden Slippers” in Negro dialect, followed by “Old Black Joe” “Empty is the cradle” &c. Following are the words to “Mary’s Gone Wid de Coon” [words followed] [2: 562].
Aboard the City of Baton Rouge en route to St. Louis, Sam wrote to Livy.
We are moving along up the river pretty swiftly, Livy darling, & by Friday I expect to get a letter from you in St. Louis. It was a very genuine pleasure to receive such a nice long letter from you just before leaving New Orleans. I went to bed a trifle after midnight last night, & got up at 4 & was in the pilot house in a tolerable thick fog until breakfast….it’s as hot as hades—but, I love you & the kids [MTP].
Joe Twichell noted in his journal that “Mrs. S.L. Clemens (Mrs Mark Twain) to bear the cost of Julia’s going to Europe with me…” [Yale, copy at MTP]. Note: Julia Curtis Twichell was one of Twichell’s daughters; the three-month trip to Europe was offered by Twichell’s friend, Mr. Newton Case (1807-1890). For more on Case, see AMT 2: 488.
Joseph R. Hawley wrote from Wash. DC to relate a trip to Ft. Monroe, the party including President Hayes, who told several stories from Sam’s works. When asked if Hayes had met Twain, he said no but would like to. Hawley invited Sam to Washington to join a literary group that he led every fortnight. Sam could then meet President Hayes [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Gen.l Hawley. / Answered”