April 8 Wednesday – The Clemens family was at sea on the S.S. Wardha, bound for Port Louis, Mauritius.
The San Francisco Examiner, p.8 ran a review of the touring PW with Frank Mayo, “Mark Twain’s Epigrams.” The play at the Columbia Theater was called a “huge success.”
April 7 Tuesday – At sea on the S.S. Wardha, Clara Clemens wrote to her cousin Samuel Moffett:
April 6 Monday – The Clemens family was at sea on the S.S. Wardha, bound for Port Louis, Mauritius.
April 5 Sunday – At sea on the S.S. Wardha Sam noted his last two lectures:
Talked Friday, 9.30 p.m. & Saturday 5.30 p.m. Dead Man, Plug, Smpox, Punch & German — 1.20 [hrs]. Watermelon, Duel, McWillims, Poem, Whistle — 1.20.
We sailed yesterday evening. Guests in Columbo of Dr. Murray & his wife — delightful people & a delightful bungalo…The Anglo-Indian runs to pets. (Lt.Col. Baddeley at Cawnpore.)
Tropical downpour when we sailed [NB 37 TS 24-5].
On board, Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore:
April 4 Saturday – At 5:30 in Columbo, Sam gave another “At Home” lecture, probably his No. 2 program. In the evening during a tropical downpour, the Clemens party sailed on the S.S. Wardha for Port Louis, Mauritius [Ahluwalia 20].
April 3 Friday – Shortly after noon, the Wardha arrived in Colombo, Ceylon. At 9:30 p.m. Sam gave his “At Home” lecture in Public Hall, to what Lorch calls “a highly appreciative but disappointingly small audience,” due to it being Good Friday and with inclement weather [194]. Livy and Clara spent the day sightseeing in Kandy; The Clemenses were guests of Dr. Murray, surgeon, “delightful people & a delightful bungalo” [Ahluwalia 20; Lorch 194].
April 2 Thursday – The Clemens family was en route on the Wardha in the Bay of Bengal, headed for Colombo, Ceylon. Aboard ship Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
April 1 Wednesday – The Clemens family was again en route on the Wardha in the Bay of Bengal, headed for Colombo, Ceylon. Sam noted, “Curving down around the S.E. corner of Ceylon” [NB 37 TS 18].
April – A copy of Walter Bagehot’s Biographical Studies (1895) was inscribed in Sam’s hand: S.L. Clemens from Mr. Skrine, Calcutta, April, 1896 [Gribben 39]. See Mar. 25 for a NB entry on Francis Skrine.
March 31 Tuesday – The Wardha was piloted into the harbor of Madras, India at daybreak for a 24 hour stop. Sam was again suffering from a cold and cough. He was interviewed by the Madras Standard; the interview ran on Apr. 1; a longer version on Apr. 11 in the Calcutta Reis and Rayyet (see Budd, “Interviews” (119) p. 69). From the interview, Sam was quoted: