April 9 Thursday – In Philadelphia Clemens inscribed a drawing to the Clover Club, where he was to speak in the evening. “Ys Truly / Mark Twain” [MTP].

Sam read “The Tragic Tale of the Fishwife” at the Actors Fund Fair, Academy of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Fatout’s introduction in Mark Twain Speaking, p.194:

An Actors Fund Fair was a philanthropic project, assisted by the gratis services of actors, musicians, writers, and socialites, who manned bazaars and put on vaudeville acts. Mark Twain, attending the Philadelphia Fair, praise…

At 5:30 PM Sam wrote from Philadelphia to Livy, about the day’s event. He was just “starting for the Clover Club dinner.” He planned to leave for “New York in the morning & expect to leave for Hartford at 4.30 p.m., arriving in time for billiards” [MTP]. Note: The billiards were part of his Friday Night male gathering.

“…a superb performance, and of prodigious variety. It began shortly after noon and lasted till 4. There were 4,000 people present, and they sat it through” [Apr. 9 to Livy, MTP].

“More than once I have been accused of writing obituary poetry in the Philadelphia Ledger. I wish right here to deny that dreadful assertion. I will admit that once, when a compositor in the Ledger establishment, I did set up some of that poetry, but….I did not write that poetry” [Fatout, MT Speaking 194].

Also at the gathering was Harry Kellar, the great magician, who performed his famous “Mysterious Cabinet” illusion [Slotta 51-2].

In the evening, Sam gave a dinner speech at the Clover Club in Philadelphia [Schmidt].

Charles H. Clark forwarded the Southern New England Tel. Co.’s letter to him, about Sam’s complaint that the phone rang too many times on a call [MTP].

S.L. Caldwell for Vassar College wrote encouraging him to allow his daughter (not specified) to stay there during his talk [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Accepted”