Mark reported to Livy on a poor reading in Springfield on November 7. (pg 16, Cardwell [Love Letters, p 366. The program at Springfield was experimental])

  Cable reported that the performance was “against terrible odds—brass music & fire-works in front of the hall, vast crowds blocking the streets and cannon firing directly in the rear of the house”     

Springfield Republican, Nov. 8, 1884 page 4.

The Twain-Cable Evening