DBD: World Tour

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 10 Friday – The Clemens family was at sea on the S.S. Wardha, bound for Port Louis, Mauritius. Sam also wrote in FE:

April 10. The sea is a Mediterranean blue; and I believe that that is about the divinest color known to nature.

April 11 Saturday – The Clemens family was at sea on the S.S. Wardha, bound for Port Louis, Mauritius. In FE Sam wrote of the morning shipboard routine:

April 12 Sunday – On board the Wardha at sea, Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore, principally about the Archer County, Texas land that Livy purchased. (See Oct. 27, Nov. 25, Dec. 30 1882 entries.)

April 13 Monday – The Clemens family was at sea on the S.S. Wardha, bound for Port Louis, Mauritius. Livy wrote home to Alice Day on their ninth day at sea that “this ocean trip has been most restful” [Rodney 187].

April 14 Tuesday – The Clemens family was at sea on the S.S. Wardha, bound for Port Louis, Mauritius. Sam wrote in FE:

April 14. It turns out that the astronomical apprentice worked off a section of the Milky Way on me for the Magellan Clouds. A man of more experience in the business showed one of them to me last night. It was small and faint and delicate, and looked like the ghost of a bunch of white smoke left floating in the sky by an exploded bombshell [nebula] [ch LXII 617].

April 15 Wednesday – At 2 a.m. the S.S. Wardha arrived and anchored off Port Louis. Sam wrote:

Rugged clusters of crags and peaks, green to their summits; from their bases to the sea a green plain with just tilt enough to it to make the water drain off. I believe it is in 56° E. and 22° S. — a hot tropical country. The green plain has an inviting look; has scattered dwellings nestling among the greenery. Some of the sentimental adventure of Paul and Virginia.

April 16 Thursday – The best account of the Clemens party reaching Mauritius and traveling to the village of Curepipe, which Parsons calls a “mountain health resort,” where they would rest twelve days, is in FE:

April 18 Saturday – In Curepipe, Mauritius on a twelve-day rest, Sam wrote in FE:

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.

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 20 Monday – In Curepipe, Mauritius, Sam wrote in FE:

April 20. — This is the only place in the world where no breed of matches can stand the damp. Only one match in 16 will light.

The roads are hard and smooth; some of the compounds are spacious, some of the bungalows commodious, and the roadways are walled by tall bamboo hedges, trim and green and beautiful; and there are azalea hedges, too, both the white and the red; I never saw that before.

April 22 Wednesday – In Curepipe, Sam gave this date for a discussion of why the English allowed the French to colonize Madagascar.

April 23 Thursday – In Curepipe, Sam gave this date for a potpourri of information about Mauritius.

April 23. “The first year they gather shells; the second year they gather shells and drink; the third year they do not gather shells.” (Said of immigrants to Mauritius.)

Population 375,000. 120 sugar factories.

April 24 Friday – In Curepipe, Mauritius Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

We have been here about ten days, and shall be here 3 or 4 more before our ship will be ready to receive us on board. This holiday comes very handy for me; I am very glad to have a resting spell; I was getting fagged with platform work….

April 25 Saturday – Richard Watson Gilder published Sam’s Mar. 12 letter about Jaipur architecture as “A Gift from India” in the Apr. 25, 1896 issue of Critic [Gribben 355].

Critic also reprinted “Mark Twain on the Platform” from The Sketch, dealing with Sam’s world tour, including a description of his choice of material and of his platform appearance and manner [Tenney 25]. 

April 28 Tuesday – The Clemens family left Curepipe, took the two-hour trip to Port Louis, and boarded the Arundel Castle for the eight-day voyage to Mozambique and Natal. Parsons includes Sam’s remark about bed linens being washed in a stream as his “chief memory” of Mauritius:

This is the first time I ever saw women trying to break rocks with sheets [“Traveler in S.A.” 3].

April 29 Wednesday – The Clemens party was at sea aboard the Arundel Castle bound for South Africa. In FE Sam waxed eloquent about the 4,700 ton ship, captained by R.W. Winder [Philippon 14]:

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 30 Thursday – The Clemens party was at sea aboard the Arundel Castle bound for South Africa.

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 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 6 Monday – The Clemens family was at sea on the S.S. Wardha, bound for Port Louis, Mauritius.

April 7 Tuesday – At sea on the S.S. Wardha, Clara Clemens wrote to her cousin Samuel Moffett:

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.”