November – The Peterson Magazine, V p.1159-64 ran Ellen A. Vinton’s article, “Who Are Our American Humorists?”: “The most popular of all our humorists, Mark Twain…has acquired both education and literary culture, and has shown himself capable of success in a wider field of literature than the one he has chosen to fill” [Tenney, ALR supplement to the Reference Guide (Autumn, 1979) 184].
October 31 Thursday – In Melbourne, Sam attended the wool-sales for half an hour with John H. Wagner. Sam said, “wool brokers are just like stockbrokers” [Shillingsburg, “Down Under” 20].
Sam’s notebook recorded the visit:
Oct. 31. Melbourne. Went to the wool exchange with John H. Wagner. Selling the “clip” in lots — at 6 & a farthing. When a man has the clip of 100,000 sheep to sell (6 pounds of wool to the sheep) the difference of a farthing makes a big difference — 600,000 farthings.
October 30 Wednesday – In Melbourne at the Menzies Hotel, the Clemens ladies were busy packing for the voyage to New Zealand. Frederick W. Haddon wrote to Sam inviting him to write an article. This letter is not extant, but is mentioned and responded to on Nov. 14 [Shillingsburg, “Down Under” 20].
October 29 Tuesday – Livy and Clara remained in Melbourne. Sam commuted from Geelong to Prahran by train, where he gave his “At Home” lecture in the 1,000 seat Town Hall to a “vast audience,” which “filled the building in every part.” He included his Australian poem (which was received with bursts of laughter) and “Punch Brothers” — a somewhat different program than Oct. 26’s matinee performance. The Prahan Telegraph reviewed the lecture on Nov.
October 28 Monday – At the home of John H. Wagner in Malvern Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper:
October 27 Sunday – John H. Wagner called for the Clemenses at their hotel. They were taken to the Wagner home, a “superb house” with a most beautiful view in Malvern, a suburb of Melbourne, where they spent 24 hours [OLC to Susan Crane Nov. 24, 1895].
October 26 Saturday – The Clemens party left Maryborough at 5 a.m. and took the train through Castlemaine to Melbourne and the Spencer Street Station. They likely took rooms again at the Menzies Hotel on Latrobe Street. Sam gave a 3 p.m. matinee performance of “Mark Twain At Home” in Athenaeum Hall, Melbourne. The Melbourne Evening News ran a review of the lecture this same day.
October 25 Friday – The Clemens party left Bendigo at 5 a.m. and arrived in Maryborough in the afternoon. In ch. XXXI of FE Sam relates talking to a man he thought to be a minister who warned him about the bad hotel in Maryborough, and warned him with some swearing included. Upon arrival he asked the man’s friend if the man was in the ministry — “No — studying for it,” came the reply. They were met at the railroad station and driven to Town Hall for an official welcome in the Mayor’s parlor by Mayor F.J.
October 24 Thursday – In the morning in Bendigo, the Clemens party toured the area of Lone Tree Hill with local newspaper publisher John Gregory Edwards and his wife in a Victoria carriage. In the afternoon Sam took part in a ceremony with the Mayor and city fathers, and received a keepsake booklet by Frank Fearn, a punster, poet, and artist who was “possessed of considerable literary ability.” Shillingsburg conjectures that Fearn was “Quite possibly…“Mr. Blank” in FE, ch.
October 23 Wednesday – From FE: Got up at 6, left at 7.30; soon reached Castlemaine, one of the rich gold-fields of the early days; waited several hours for a train; left at 3.40 and reached Bendigo in an hour. For comrade, a Catholic priest [Father Henry W. Cleary (NB 34 TS 21 misspells as “Creary”) ], who was better than I was, but didn’t seem to know it — a man full of graces of the heart, the mind, and the spirit; a lovable man. He will rise. He will be a bishop some day. Later an Arch-bishop. Later a Cardinal.