December 31 Wednesday – George Cable wrote from Dayton, Ohio to his wife Lucy:
“I told you in last night’s letter that we had a good time in Pittsburgh; & so we did. Not the best sort, however. We pleased our audience thoroughly & it was a large & cultivated audience. The newspapers, however, must have taken some grudge against us; for they made offensive reports of the affair” [Turner, MT & GWC 77].
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:
February 1 Sunday – Sam wrote from Chicago, Illinois to Livy, giving her the future reading dates and reviewing the past few days.
February 10 Tuesday – Sam and Cable gave a reading in Opera House, Delaware, Ohio [MTPO].
Sam wrote from Columbus, Ohio to Livy (continued from above):
….After the show (& a hot supper, Pond & I did play billiards until 2 a.m., & then I scoured myself in the bath, & read & smoked till 3, then slept till half past 9, had my breakfast in bed, & now have just finished that meal & am feeling fine as a bird [MTP].
February 11 Wednesday – Sam and Cable gave a reading sponsored by the Union Library Association, at the First Congregational Church, Oberlin, Ohio. Reviews were mixed [Cardwell 58]. Clemens included: “Tragic Tale of the Fishwife,” “A Trying Situation,” “A Ghost Story,” and “Incorporated Company of Mean Men” [MTPO].
Horace E. Rounds wrote from Milwaukee for autograph & photo [MTP].
February 12 Thursday – Sam and Cable gave a reading to a packed house at Whitney’s Opera House, Detroit, Michigan. Even though there was a scheduling conflict with a high society event, the Light Guard’s Grand Levee Honors for Governor Russell A.
February 13 Friday – At 9 A.M. Sam wrote from Detroit, Michigan to Livy, whose last letter transmitted a hint by some Hartford charity for Cable to perform for their benefit.
February 14 Saturday – Sam was introduced to tobogganing by 74 young ladies from Helmuth Female College, “2 ½ miles” out from town. It was twelve below zero.
February 15 Sunday – While Sam most likely slept in, Cable attended morning service at a Toronto Methodist church, and again at a 3 PM Sunday school [Roberts 22].
February 16 Monday – In a Feb. 17 letter to Livy, Sam explained why he did not write on Feb. 16. On the train all day, Cable asked to borrow Sam’s writing pad. Though it was “pretty thin,” Sam thought there’d be enough. Cable wrote eight letters and used up the pad.
February 17 Tuesday – Sam and Cable gave a reading in Opera House, Ottawa, Canada.
Sam wrote from Brockville, Canada to Charles Webster. Sam still had not heard if Osgood had sent a statement for the account.
February 18 Wednesday – The official U.S. publication date for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Oxford edition, 1996]. Note: other dates are sometimes given, for example, Budd in MT “Collected” gives Feb. 16 [978]. In the first month the book sold 42,000 copies [Willis 161]. By the year 2000, the book had sold perhaps twenty million copies and approximately 60 foreign editions [162].
February – A chapter from Huck Finn, “Royalty on the Mississippi, As Chronicled by Huckleberry Finn” ran in the Feb. issue of the Century Magazine, p.544-67 [Camfield, bibliog.]. The same magazine also ran the third of three small (approx. 3” x 4”) display ads, announcing MARK TWAIN’S NEW WORK, with Kemble’s picture of Huck Finn doffing straw hat, “sold only by subscription, agents wanted, Chas. Webster” etc. [MTP, 1884-5 financial files].
February 19 Thursday – Sam’s P.S. to his Feb. 18 to Livy, simply added that he’d “talked here in Montreal last night.” Before the reading Sam wrote another letter to Livy, enclosing the itinerary for the tour for February.
February 2 Monday – Sam wrote from Chicago, Ill. to Livy, that he loved her dearly fifteen years ago but loved her “more dearly now.” He reflected how they were,
“…well off; but poor [then], compared to what we are now, with the children…those dear rascals” [MTP].
February 20 Friday – En route from Montreal to New York City Sam wrote to Livy. He’d sent a toboggan for the children but cautioned, “They better not try to use it till I come.” He wrote just as the train left the Lake Champlain area.
February 21 Saturday – Upon arriving in New York, Sam and Cable breakfasted with Ozias Pond and his wife, Nella.
February 23 Monday – Sam and Cable gave a reading at the Opera House in New Haven, Conn. [New Haven Evening Register for Feb. 18, 21 and 23].
J. Chipchase wrote from Baltimore about losing money on an offer by Bissell’s [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Bissel’s victim & my reply”
February 25 Wednesday – Cable’s Feb. 26 letter home:
Had a great time in Newark last night; one of the finest nights we have had for some ten days. Orange [NJ] was very poor—i.e. the audience was slim; which was a great surprise to us & not to be accounted for [Turner, MT & GWC 113]. Note: Although not listed in Railton or Schmidt, it seems from this letter that the men read in both places, probably a matinee and an evening performance.
February 26 Thursday – Sam saw Nat Goodwin, actor and vaudevillian, on the train going to Philadelphia. Goodwin told Sam he was “very anxious to play” the Sellers as Scientist [Feb. 27 to Howells].