After traveling all night to Davenport, Iowa, [from Rockford] the pair “made a great triumph” at the local opera house the next evening, Sam felt “old & seedy & wretched” before the show, but instead of bathing he “drank a big cup of black coffee & went on the stage as fine as a fiddle.” [Page 444 The Life of Mark Twain - The Middle Years 1871-1891]
Sam and Cable gave a reading in Rockford, Illinois. Ralph Emerson and wife wanted Sam to “camp in their house, which is the best one in town (Rockford), but” he had to leave at 11 P.M . in a freight train [Jan. 31 to Livy, MTP].
See Touring with Cable and Huck for review.
They left [Winona] the morning of January 27 at 5:00 a.m. for a return engagement in Madison [Page 443 The Life of Mark Twain - The Middle Years 1871-1891]
Winona Daily Republican; Jan 27, 1885
Innocents Abroad.
Mark Twain and Geo. W. Cable
... they transferred their luggage seventeen miles to the West Hotel in Minneapolis and performed at the Grand Opera House [Page 443 The Life of Mark Twain - The Middle Years 1871-1891]
See Touring with Cable and Huck for review.
They left just before noon ... for St. Paul, Minnesota, registered at the Grand Hotel [Page 443 The Life of Mark Twain - The Middle Years 1871-1891]
Shortly after midnight, with the temperature at forty-two degrees below zero, they boarded a train for La Crosse, Wisconsin, where they arrived at 9:00 a.m. [Page 443 The Life of Mark Twain - The Middle Years 1871-1891]
See Touring with Cable and Huck for review.
Cable wrote home: Arrived here at 1/30 P.M. from Chicago. Snow, snow, snow! But clear skies overhead and sweet sunshine. So let it be in your heart. Now I must be off to bed so as to be fresh tonight. My health & strength need give you no concern. I weigh 111 pounds...” [Turner, MT & GWC 90]. Note: Cable seldom weighed more, and often less than 100 pounds.
See Touring with Cable and Huck for review.