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 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 22 Saturday – Sam and Cable left Philadelphia and traveled to Brooklyn, where they gave two performances at the Academy of Music. The Brooklyn Eagle called it “The Literary Event of the Season” [p.5]. Henry Ward Beecher and Dean Sage and wife were in the audience.
November 23 Sunday – Sam and Cable left New York early on their way to Washington, D.C. [Turner, MT & GWC 60].
Sam mentioned in his Nov. 21 letter to Livy that he enjoyed letters from his daughters. He answered and wrote from New York to Clara Clemens (“Ben”).
November 24 Monday – Thomas Nast invited Sam to spend time with him since Sam and Cable were to lecture in Morristown, New Jersey on Thanksgiving eve.
“Or, if you cannot spend so much time here we can give you a substantial tea at six or seven. Do you require reinforcing after the lecture is over? That was always my hungry time” [MTP].
November 25 Tuesday – In the evening, Sam and Cable gave a second reading in Congregational Church, Washington, D.C. The Washington Post printed a very positive review of the previous night, and announced that President Grant would attend the reading this night.
November 26 Wednesday – Sam and Cable left Washington for Philadelphia, where they gave a reading in Association Hall. In the evening, they gave a reading in Morristown, New Jersey and spent the night at the home of Thomas Nast, just before Nast began his own tour. The cartoonist arranged for them a quiet supper…Oysters on the shell were served at the little repast, and Mr.
November 27 Thursday – Livy’s 39th birthday.
Sam and George W. Cable left the Nast home in Morristown, New Jersey on Thanksgiving morning [Paine, Nast 512]. Once again, Sam was away from home on a family member’s birthday. Willis describes Livy’s Hartford life at the time:
November 28 Friday – Sam wrote on board the train from Washington to Livy [MTP]:
November 29 Saturday – Sam and Cable gave a second reading in Academy of Music, Baltimore, Md. From the Baltimore Morning Herald of this day:
November 30 Sunday – Sam’s 49th birthday. Johann Schiller’s The Fight with the Dragon, a Romance, was inscribed: “Saml. L. Clemens, Nov. 30th, 1884” [Gribben 606]. Note: Perhaps a birthday gift.
Sam and Cable dined with Daniel Coit Gilman (1831-1908), first president of Johns Hopkins University [Turner, MT & GWC 63].
December – Sam telegraphed Charles Webster. The place and day are unknown. “Plucky lawyers are scarce in Hartford,” Sam wrote, but recommended Charles S. Cole if Webster needed a lawyer to go after the American Publishing Co., to sue for copyright in light of the piracy of The Frank Coker News Co. of Talladega, Ala. (See June 26 entry.)
December 1 Monday – The Clemens family drove north a few hours to Simsbury, Conn., where Cable resided. Sam and Cable may have caught a conveyance there to Adams, Mass., on the western side of the state.
December 2 Tuesday – Sam and Cable arrived at Albany, New York at noon. Governor and President-elect Cleveland requested an audience. Writing to Livy the next day about the meeting:
December 3 Wednesday – George W. Cable wrote en route between Albany and Ithaca to his wife, Lucy:
December 4 Thursday – Sam and Cable gave a reading in Grand Opera House, Syracuse, NY [MTPO].
Sam wrote from Syracuse, New York to Thomas Nast, thanking him for the Nast family’s recent hospitality in Morristown, N.J.
“…do all your praying now, for a time is coming when you will have to go railroading & platforming, & then you will find you cannot pray any more because you will have only just time to swear enough” [MTP].
December 5 Friday – Sam and Cable gave a reading in Opera House, Utica, NY [MTPO].
Sam wrote from Utica, New York to Susy Clemens.
“Susie, my dear, I have been intending to write you & Ben for a long time, but have been too busy. Nach meinen vorlesung in Ithika…” [etc. the rest in German; MTP].
December 6 Saturday – Sam and Cable rose at 4:30 A.M. and took the train to Rochester, New York, arriving at 10 A.M. They gave a 2 PM matinee reading in Rochester at the Academy of Music for a small, but “appreciative to a degree” audience, who fought a downpour to hear the two men.
December 7 Sunday – Sam wrote two more letters from Rochester to Livy. In the first note, Sam admitted being homesick on a “sour, bleak, windy day…with trifling flurries of snow.” He’d stayed in bed all day reading and smoking. Except for the weather the houses would have been overflowing.
The second note in the afternoon was a P.S. describing a “violent & absurd” performance of his “first sample of the Salvation Army” [MTP].
December 8 Monday – Sam and Cable arrived in Toronto, Canada at 4:30 P.M. on the Great Western train from Niagara Falls [Roberts 19]. In Toronto, Rose Publishing Co. applied to Sam to buy the Canadian rights to publish Huck Finn [Dec. 10 to Webster, MTP]. Ozias Pond was not the tour’s manager until after New Year’s day, but came with the pair.
December 9 Tuesday – Sam and Cable were driven around Toronto to see the sights, which included the University of Toronto. They visited the studio of painter Andrew Dickson Patterson (1854-1930) famous a year later for his portrait of Canada’s first prime minister, John A. Macdonald (1815-1891).
Sam wrote from Toronto, Canada to Livy:
December 10 Wednesday – The Dawson Brothers in Canada and Chatto & Windus in London published Adventures of Huckleberry Finn [Powers, MT A Life 489; Roberts 22].
December 11 Thursday – Sam “rushed to David Gray’s…with Cable, arrived at noon” and had to wait for his steak to be re-cooked, and so drank two cups of strong coffee that did not agree with him [Dec. 12 to Livy, MTP].
Sam and Cable gave a second reading in Concert Hall, Buffalo, New York.
The Buffalo Times:
December 12 Friday – Sam took a train from Buffalo at 12:30 A.M. and arrived at Ann Arbor, Mich. at 10 A.M. Sam wrote from Ann Arbor to Livy:
December 13 Saturday – Two copies of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were deposited in the Copyright Office, Library of Congress, though the official publication did not take place until Feb. 18, 1885 [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Oxford edition, 1996].