November 21 Friday – Sam and Cable gave a reading in Association Hall in Philadelphia. Included: “King Sollermun,” “Tragic Tale of the Fishwife,” “A Trying Situation,” and “A Ghost Story” [MTPO].
Sam wrote from Philadelphia to Livy:
“Livy darling, a most noble big audience, & a most prodigious good time.
We are to be here again Wednesday afternoon & evening, 26th —the day before thanksgiving.
November 20 Thursday – Sam and Cable gave a reading in Newburgh, New York.
Sam wrote a letter marked “Confidential” from Hartford to William N. Woodruff, Hartford machinist and contractor, about the Nathan Hale statue competition for the Conn. State Capitol [MTP]. Gerhardt won the competition in Mar. 1885 [Perry 168; Schmidt]. (See MTNJ 3:179n6 for more about Woodruff.)
November 19 Wednesday – Sam and Cable gave two readings in Chickering Hall, New York City. From The New York Times, Nov. 19, 1884:
GENIUS AND VERSATILITY.
MR. CABLE EXHIBITS BOTH AND MARK TWAIN SOMETHING ELSE.
November 18 Tuesday – Sam and Cable gave a reading in Chickering Hall, New York City. Cardwell calls the houses “well-filled” and that Pond ran the same advertisements leading up to the three New York performances [19]. Included: “King Sollermun,” “Tragic Tale of the Fishwife,” “A Trying Situation,” and “A Ghost Story” [MTPO].
November 17 Monday – Sam and Cable gave a reading in Plainfield, N.J. [MTPO]. He did not read in Elmira as planned.
Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion, who evidently had sent him some poetry and a check. The check was acknowledged and Sam added this about Orion’s poetry:
November 16 Sunday – Cardwell says Sam was in Providence, R.I. on this day, and Cable “presumably had one or two days at home in Simsbury” [19]. Sam must have continued on to Hartford, because he wrote from there to James B.
November 15 Saturday – The Boston Daily Advertiser touted George W. Cable as a southern gentleman, Sam as a Connecticut resident—adding the Civil War reconciliation aspect, a “literary bridging of the bloody chasm” and a “rostrum of rapproachment of Louisiana and Connecticut” [Lorch 164].
Sam and Cable gave a matinee reading in Boston [Turner, MT & GWC 59].
November 14 Friday – Boston papers reviewed the performance of the previous evening—The Transcript, the Globe, the Journal, and the Post. The Globe compared Cable to Dickens and praised Twain for his struggle with the German language, his trying conversation with the young lady in the hotel dining room at Lucerne, and his ghost story.
November 13 Thursday – Here was the first big test in a big city—Boston. Pond placed advertisements in the Evening Transcript several days in advance, starting with Nov. 8. He presented the reading as part of the lyceum lecture series. The focus of these ads became the standard for the tour—“Twain is a comedian; Cable a master of humor and pathos” [Cardwell 17].
November 12 Wednesday – Sam and Cable gave a reading in Rumford Hall, Waltham, Mass. [MTPO].
Sam wrote from Lowell, Mass. to Livy: