May 5 Tuesday – Sam departed Sacramento at 2 PM on the California Steam Navigation Company’s Capital, with his friend Edward A. Poole as captain. Sam arrived back in San Francisco and stayed at the Occidental Hotel again, and finished his letter of May 1 to Mary Mason Fairbanks.
May 4 Monday – Sam was in transit to San Francisco, by stage and by train. He spent the night in Sacramento [MTL 2: 215n8].
May 3 Sunday – Sam left Virginia City for the trip over the Sierra Nevada, which, due to the late spring snows and railroad repairs, was one of train plus stagecoach for a 30-hour trip to San Francisco [MTL 2: 213n3-4].
May 1 Friday – Sam returned to Virginia City, where he began a letter to Mary Mason Fairbanks:
“My Dear Mother—I cannot go a-Maying today, because it is snowing so hard—& so I have been writing some newspaper letters…”
Sam left the letter unfinished until he returned to San Francisco [MTL 2: 211]. Sam spent a couple of days “to shake hands and swap yarns with his old friends” [MTL 2: 213].
May – Sam’s hilarious article, “My Late Senatorial Secretaryship,” was printed in the Galaxy Magazine for May 1868 [Budd, “Collected” 1008].
April 30 Thursday – Sam gave his “Sandwich Islands” lecture in Carson City as a school benefit [MTL 2: 213].
April 29 Wednesday – Sam went to Carson City and gave his “Pilgrim” lecture at Carson Theater [Sanborn 394; MTPO].
April 28 Tuesday – Sam and Joe Goodman called on Alfred Doten and Philip Lynch at the Gold Hill Daily News office. The four shared a bottle of champagne [Clark 996].
In the evening, Sam repeated his “Pilgrim” lecture at Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City. From Doten’s journal:
April 27 Monday – Sam gave his “Pilgrim” lecture in Virginia City at Piper’s Opera House. Sam competed with two large balls given in honor of the 49th anniversary of the Odd Fellows, so did not get a full house for his lecture [Sanborn 394].
April 26 Sunday – Sam’s “Holy Land Excursion. Letter from Mark Twain Number Fifty-four” dated Sept. 1867 at “Jerusalem” ran in the Alta California [McKeithan 291-6]. The Virginia City Daily Trespass reported that Sam appeared “a little lean to what he used to,” but that he talked as rapidly as ever—“gets out a word every three minutes” [Fatout 80].