May 23 Saturday – In Johannesburg, Adele Chapin arrived to help Sam pack, and with her husband Robert Chapin took him to the train station. The trio left with Carlyle G. Smythe at 10:46 a.m. and traveled the 46 miles to Pretoria, Transvaal, S. Africa, arriving in the early afternoon. In his May 24 letter to Joe Twichell he wrote:

Harper for May was given to me yesterday [May 23] in Johannesburg by an American lady who lives there, and I read your article while coming up in the train with her and an old friend and fellow-Missourian of mine, Mrs. John Hays Hammond, the handsome and spirited wife of the chief of the 4 Reformers, who lies in prison here under a 15-year sentence, along with 50 minor Reformers who are in for 1 and 5-year terms [MTP]. Note: The “American lady” was no doubt Adele Chapin, since no other lady besides Mrs. Hammond was listed as traveling to Pretoria with Sam.

At 2:30 p.m. he visited the prisoners from the Jameson raid in prison, accompanied by American consul Robert Chapin and wife, Carlyle Smythe and Mrs. John Hays Hammond.

Paine quotes Sam:

I made them a speech — sitting down. It just happened so. I don’t prefer that attitude. Still, it has one advantage — it is only a talk, it doesn’t take the form of a speech…. I advised them at considerable length to stay where they were — they would get used to it and like it presently; if they got out they would only get in again somewhere else, by the look of their countenances; and I promised to go and see the President and do what I could to get him to double their jail terms [MTB 1018].

Mrs. Hammond described Sam’s visit including more of his talk:

Mark Twain came to the Rand. He visited the men at Pretoria. My husband did the honors of the prison and introduced him to the Reformers. He talked to them a long while sitting on a dry-goods box; expressed his satisfaction at finding only one journalist in the crowd, and no surprise that the lawyers were largely represented. He assured them that they were to be congratulated and envied, although they did not know it. There was no place one was so safe from interruption as in a jail. He recalled to their minds Cervantes and Columbus — it was an honour to share captivity with such men as these [Philippon 17: quoting from A Woman’s Part in a Revolution 137-8].

Sam’s intent was to “cheer up” the prisoners. Parsons writes,

These were the men who had unheroically wavered toward — then away from — assistance to the impulsive Leander Starr Jameson in his undermanned, loosely coordinated invasion of the Transvaal, with the object of forcing President Paul Kruger to slacken his curbs on the wealthy but heavily taxed and voteless Uitlanders. Twain exchanged greetings with his two American friends, John Hays Hammond, Rhode’s gold fields engineer, and Captain Thomas Mein, and traded jests with Colonel Bettington before bringing consolation to his mixed audience of Britons, Celts, Continentals, and Colonials [“Clubman in S.A.” 245-6].

Note: See Parson’s account for mixed recollections of the meeting and talk by some of the prisoners. Hammond came to resent Sam’s remarks; he was first sentenced to death, then commuted to fifteen years, then released on paying a fine of $125,000 [MTHHR 215n1].

In the evening Sam gave his “At Home” (No.1) lecture at Caledonian Hall, ticket prices 10s for a stage seat to 3s unreserved. The Transvaal Advertiser of May 25 ran a review of the lecture.

Sam tried to meet with President Paul Kruger sometime after leaving the jail, but was unable to do so [Press review of May 25].

After visiting the jail Sam began a letter to Livy that he added to on May 24.

Livy darling, I had a good time with my house last night.

In the afternoon I went to the jail with the Chapins & Mrs. Hammond & Smythe. About 50 political prisoners there. I had found I had met Hammond many years ago when he was a Yale senior & guest of Gen. Franklin; Capt. Mien, I found was an old friend of 32 years ago; an English prisoner heard me lecture in London 23 years ago. I made a sitting-talk of some length & Smythe made a synopsis of it for publication, from memory. The prisoners are a fine body of men; almost all [of] them educated gentlemen — possibly all. They look healthy & well-kept [MTP].

Sam returned to writes the Grand Hotel where Philippon writes the staff kept Mark Twain awake [17].