Train accident on the bridge over the Mississippi River. The engine and baggage car jumped the track. The three entertainers walked across the bridge, took a car to the Southern Hotel, and that night were welcomed by a large audience (pg 37 Cardwell)
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch January 9, 1885, Pg2
Sam wrote en route from Indianapolis to Springfield, Ill. to Livy: We were up at 7, this morning, with a 9-hour journey before us & no parlor car. But we are getting along all right. The train stops every half a mile. It is now 1 p.m., & this car has been filled & emptied with farmer-people some 300 times. They are a constant interest to me—their clothes, their manners, attitudes, aspect, expression—when they have any.
Sam wrote to Livy on the train from Louisville, Ky. to Indianapolis, Ind, relating the dinner of the last evening at the Pendennis Club. Sam remarked on the differences of a Southern audience: In truth, Baltimore, Washington & Louisville prove that none but a Southern audience can bring out the very best that is in a man on the platform. There is an atmosphere of affection for you, pervading the house, that you seldom feel, at least in a strong inspiring way, in a northern audience.
Sam rose at 6 AM and took a train to Louisville, Kentucky (Cardwell says 8:15 AM train [34] ). They stayed at the Galt House At 4:30 they went to a reception at the Louisville Press Club, and a stop at the Pendennis Club [Cardwell 34]. In the evening, Sam and Cable gave a reading at Leiderkranz Hall. En route, Cable wrote to his wife Lucy about distractions in the audience during performances:
Sam wrote from Paris, Kentucky to Livy. He was sorry he’d missed going to a soldiers’ home in Cincinnati for General Franklin. I froze to death all last night, & never once thought of Sam Dunham’s camel’s hair shirt—but I did think of it a couple of hours ago, & am very comfortable, now. I mean to lay it on the bed every night after this. When we came to put out our washing yesterday in Cincin, Mr. K. piled out a whole trunkful—all saved up since we were on the road last.
Sam took a train to Cincinnati, Ohio for the day, then to Paris, Kentucky for the show.
Under the management of Ozias Pond, brother of James B. Pond:
Cardwell notes that they were in Paris, KY on December 31. (pg 31 Cardwell) as does Touring with Cable and Huck, Scharnhorst has them in Hamilton:
He would most likely have taken the Lakeshore Railroad to either Dunkirk or Buffalo. From either of these location Sam could take the New York, Lake Erie and Western (the name of the Erie Railroad from 1878 to 1895). From Dunkirk he would pass through Salamanca. Either route would take him through Elmira and I have found no reference to his visiting Elmira at this time. Another route from Buffalo would be on the New York Central and Hudson Ri