April 30 Saturday – Sam and Livy were at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York. In the afternoon Sam accompanied a reviewing party to review the corps of cadets, and forgot to throw away his cigar before taking his place in the staff line. In the evening Sam gave his promised lecture. From Leon:

The Army and Navy Journal of 23 May 1887 published an account of the reading in a dispatch from the academy dated 5 May: “On Saturday evening the cadet mess hall was thrown open for the first time since it has received its new and handsome decorations. Exclamations of surprise and pleasure greeted these changes, which are certainly fine. An unusually large and brilliant audience welcomed with a storm of applause the arrival of Mark Twain”….Having learned that the cadets regarded Professor Postlethwaite with great affection and that he had a sense of humor, Mark Twain once again used the chaplain as an obliging stage prop:

He entered the room with Professor Postlethwaite and was escorted to the platform. The reading this time was on the article that appeared in the April “Century” “English as She is Taught” — which aroused simply roars of laughter, but the cream of the fun was in the remark, “There were donkeys in the Theological Seminary” [sic] and his immediately turning round to explain to the chaplain that nothing personal was intended, was so indescribably funny that the audience continued to laugh and applaud for fully five minutes [73-4].

Jerusalem Smyth wrote from New South Wales that Sam had amused him with his books for 20 years — the note is scribbled front and back with various addresses and sayings, “if you are broke put a dog on me anywhere in Australia” [MTP].

Mrs. L. Pet Anderson, a medium, wrote a thank you letter “channeling” Gen. Grant to Sam [MTP].