New England, December 1869
This part of the Fellow Savages tour began with the trip from Washington D.C.
This part of the Fellow Savages tour began with the trip from Washington D.C.
Traveling from Thompsonville to Brooklyn: New Haven, Hartford and Springfield; New York & New Haven Railroads. How or where Sam crossed the East River to Brooklyn, I don't know. The NYNH&H stopped at Oak Point.
December 1, 1869: Bedford Avenue Reformed Church, Brooklyn, New York.
From Boston to Providence: the Boston and Providence Railroad.
November 9 - Harrington's Opera House, Providence, Rhode Island
Sam returned to Boston that same night and wrote to his sister:
Twain departed Elmira October 29 and arrived in Pittsburgh October 30.. He would have taken the Elmira and Wlliamsport to Williamsport.
"But the time between some of the engagements was not wasted, for whenever the opportunity offered he hurried to Elmira to be with Livy and to read proof on Innocents Abroad. The tour finally came to an end on March 3 in Lockport, New York, after which he hurried off to a longer visit at Elmira before proceeding to Hartford...." (Lorch pg 96)
From February 12 - 18, 1869: Ravenna, Ohio; Alliance, Ohio; Titusville, Pennsylvania; Franklin, Pennsylvania.
"The long journeys in poorly lighted, porrly ventilated, and poorly heated coaches, together with frequent poor rail connections and hotel accomodations exhausted him. By January 14 he acknowledged to his sister Pamela that the pace of the lecture circuit was a hard one and that he wsas 'getting awfully tired of it.' It constitutes the first record of Mark Twain's disenchantment with tour lecturing,..." (Lorch pg 95)
"In January business flourished. News of his successful performances was circulating widely. That month there were twenty bookings which took him on an itinerary that criss-crossed Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio." (Lorch, pg 94-95)
"The engagements in December numbered only about eight [ten] and were geographically spotty, ..." The first leg Twain traveled was to Rondout aboard the Hudson River railroad - 85 miles. The tour included engagements in Rondout, New York; Newark, New Jersey; Norwich, New York; Scranton, Pennsylvania; Fort Plain, New York; Detroit, Michigan; Lansing, Michigan; Charlotte, Michigan; Tecumseh, Michigan; and, Akron, Ohio;
Arriving in New York July 29, 1868, Sam took rooms at the Westminster Hotel to work on the manuscript for Innocents Abroad. But his primary concern during the weeks that followed were the courtship of Olivia Langdon of Elmira, New York, and the growing necessity of replenishing his rapidly diminishing funds.