October 30 Saturday – Sam arrived in Pittsburgh in the afternoon, for his Nov. 1 lecture. He was the guest of honor at a banquet at McGinley’s Dining Saloon, on Wood Street, given by the lecture committee of the Mercantile Library Association [MTL 3: 382n2]. Lorch says it was an “oyster supper” [105].
October 29 Friday – Sam left Elmira for Pittsburgh. See locket picture of Livy dated this day by MTP.
October 28 Thursday – James Redpath wrote to Sam: “We offered the date indicated by your telegram, by telegraph: but it did not suit / There is therefore no change in the schedule given before” [MTP].
October 27 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Emily A. Severance in Cleveland. The Severances had been cabin mates on the Quaker City. Sam had sent them a copy of Innocents and answered her thanks. Sam wrote he expected to be in Cleveland the next day on the way to Pittsburgh, but a derailment on Oct.
October 23 Saturday – Sam’s article, “The Legend of the Capitoline Venus,” was published in the Express. This is one of Sam’s earliest in the paper. The title was shortened to “The Capitoline Venus” upon reprinting in Sketches, New and Old (1875) [Wilson 177]. This story was similar to his Innocents Abroad material involving the public’s gullibility to artistic hoaxes.
October 19 Tuesday – “Mark Twain – His Greetings to the California Pioneers of 1849” was printed in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 71].
October 16 Saturday – “Around the World – Letter No.1” dated Oct. 10 ran in the Buffalo Express. “I am just starting out on a pleasure trip around the globe, by proxy.” Charley and Professor Darius Ford’s trip was to be coordinated and written up by Sam.
October 14 Thursday – Sam’s letter to the California Pioneers of Oct. 11 ran in the New York Tribune [Camfield, bibliog.].
October 11 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to the California Pioneers regretfully passing on their invitation to a banquet at Delmonico’s in New York City. About 200 Californians had traveled across country from Sacramento a week before [MTL 3: 371-2].
October 9 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Schuyler Colfax, vice president under Grant. Colfax was returning to Washington from a visit to the Pacific states. Sam asked for letters of recommendation for Charles Langdon and Darius Ford, who were traveling to the West Coast.