January 6 Wednesday – Witness to the worldwide notoriety and love for Mark Twain is this article printed in the North Otago Times in New Zealand:

MARK TWAIN

In a letter received by Mr. J.L. Dow, M.L.A., of Melbourne, from Mr. James B. Pond, of New York, Mark Twain’s business manager for his lecturing engagements, some particulars are giving in connection with General Grant’s book. Mr. Pond says: “I was out on the road all summer with Miss Clara Louise Kellogg and a concert company. Was gone four months. Had a great time, and returned renewed in health and pocket. I have tried to find a more first rate attraction that would be good enough to take to Australia. I very much want to make the tour, but not unless I could have an attraction that would satisfy your best people. Mark Twain is getting rich so fast that I fear it is a fruitless effort attempting to get him to go so far. He says he is lazy. He is the smartest lazy man I ever saw, and accomplishes the most remarkable results of any person I know. He and General Grant were great friends. When Grant became embarrassed Mark asked him to write a book, and assured him that he would make it profitable for him. Grant at first scouted the idea, but Mark kept at him and got him at it, and then came the ‘Century Magazine’ people. They got one or two articles, but with the understanding that they were to be part of the forthcoming book. The publishers began to come when it was known Grant was writing a book.” [Note: Clara Louise Kellogg (1842-1916) J.L Dow was John Lamont Dow who would meet the Clemenses in their 1895 world tour in Australia].

Pond went on to detail Sam’s bonus offer to Grant, the subsequent sales, as well as the “Fifty-nine thousand volumes of ‘Huckleberry Finn’ sold last spring. Note: It is interesting that even at this early date, nine years before Sam’s tour down-under, Pond was writing of a tour to Australia with Mark Twain.