Our Fellow Savages Tour: Day By Day

December 8 Wednesday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Lincoln Hall, Washington, D. C. [MTL 3: 415].

December 9 Thursday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Germantown, Pa. [MTL 3: 415].

January 1 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to George L. Hutchings about Trenton’s True American printing a lengthy synopsis of Sam’s Dec. 28 lecture. Sam hated it when newspapers did that; he imagined that people would not go to his lectures if they could read them in the papers. He sent Hutchings his apology for being upset by being shown the synopsis [MTL 5: 685].

January 10 Monday – At noon, Sam wrote from Albany New York to Livy, apologizing for his Owego lecture she had attended. The reviews were good, however. “What an eternity a lecture-season is!” Sam wrote that he was reading Ivanhoe. “He is dead, now” [MTL 4: 15-16].

That evening he lectured (“Savages”) in Tweddle Hall, Albany. Afterward in bed he wrote again to Livy. “Had an immense house, tonight, little sweetheart, & turned away several hundred—no seats for them” [MTL 4: 17].

January 11 Tuesday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Union Place Hall, West Troy, New York.

Note: Sam’s next two letters to Livy, No.s 174-5, after West Troy and Rondout lectures are lost [MTL 4: 20n10].  

January 12 Wednesday – Clemens lectured (“Savages”) in Rondout, New York.

January 13 Thursday – Sam wrote from Cambridge, New York to Livy about quitting smoking—did she really want him to?

“I shall treat smoking just exactly as I would treat the forefinger of my left hand: If you asked me in all seriousness to cut that finger off…I give you my word I would cut it off” [MTL 4: 21]. Note: Presented in this way, how could Livy ask Sam to quit smoking?

In the evening, Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Hubbard Hall, Cambridge, New York [MTPO].

January 14 Friday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Mechanic’s Hall, Utica, New York [MTPO].

Sam wrote from Troy, New York to Livy. Neither poor weather nor a fire in the lecture hall stopped Sam from his lecture. He was upset that the Troy Daily Times had published his Cambridge lecture of the night before. At 7 a fire broke out in the lecture hall.

January 15 Saturday – Sam wrote after midnight from the Baggs Hotel in Utica, New York to Livy [Powers, MT A Life 280].

“We had a noble house to-night (Oh, it is bitter, bitter cold & blustery!)—the largest of the season, they believe, though they cannot tell till they count the tickets to-morrow.”

Sam also wrote his sister, Pamela. He’d sent money for her and Annie to come for his wedding, plus support money for his mother, whom he did not want making the trip during the winter.

January 17 Monday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Baldwinsville, New York [MTPO].

January 18 Tuesday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Ogdensburg, NY [MTPO]. He left Buffalo at 4 PM

January 19 Wednesday – Sam lectured at the Normal School Chapel, Fredonia, New York [MTPO]. The Fredonia Censor reported on Jan. 26 of this lecture:

January 20 Thursday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Hornell Library, Hornellsville, New York. Sam wrote before the lecture from Hornellsville to Livy.

January 21 Friday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Institute Hall, Jamestown, New York, and immediately made the trip to Elmira to prepare for his wedding [MTL 4: 33n1]. Note: Reigstad writes that the tour “ended with a whimper. / He admitted to being tired for his last lecture stop, and the Jamestown Journal reports were unflattering” [93]. During the three-month lecture tour, Clemens sent over 20 stories to the Buffalo Express [94].

January 4 Tuesday – Sam and Livy traveled thirty miles east of Elmira where Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Wilson Hall, Owego, New York. They returned to Elmira that evening [MTL 4: 5n2].

January 5 Wednesday – Sam left at 8 PM and traveled overnight by train from Elmira to New York City [MTL 4: 2n1, 3].

January 5-6 Thursday – Clemens wrote a sketch unpublished until 2009: “Interviewing the Interviewer” [Who Is Mark Twain? xxiv].

January 6 Thursday – Sam wrote at 9 AM from Dan Slote’s in New York to Livy.

“The Amenia train has been changed to 3.30 instead of 4, PM., & so it is just right. I can arrive there at 7.21, whoop my lecture & clear out again.”

He’d been reading Robinson Crusoe and kept losing the book. “It is just like me. I must have a nurse” [MTL 4: 1].

January 7 Friday – In the wee hours after midnight, Sam wrote from Amenia, New York to Mary Mason Fairbanks.

January 8 Saturday – At midnight in the Troy House, Troy, New York, Sam wrote to Livy. He wrote her a second letter later in the day. His second letter marveled at the insignificance of the earth in the universe and of man. “Does one apple in a vast orchard think as much of itself as we do?” Sam was reading “The Early History of Man” in Eclectic Magazine for Jan. 1870 [MTL 4: 12].

Sam also wrote his agent, James Redpath, of “one-horse” towns, bills, and the like.

November  1 Monday – Sam  gave his “Savages lecture in Pittsburgh,  Pa., Academy of Music [MTPO].

Elisha  Bliss wrote: “We want to pay up.  Shall we forward statement & check to you at Elmira or await your arrival  here?…Can’t you send us list of engagements so far made. … Are you married? We  hear of it so often & have contradicted it…Post us up!” [MTP].

James  Redpath wrote a one liner: “we  have nothing between second and eighth” [MTP].
 

November 10 Wednesday – Sam lectured to a full house of 2,600 in Music Hall, Boston, Mass. – Sam’s letter of Nov. 9 to his sister was no exaggeration—the Boston lecture was critical to Sam’s continued success on the lecture circuit. Boston was the literary capital of the country, and success there meant easy sledding elsewhere in New England. Sam wrote from Boston to Livy his plans to spend New Year’s Day at home.  

November 11 Thursday – Sam lectured at Trinity Church, Charlestown, Mass. [MTPO].

Sam wrote from Boston at midnight:

“…bought full wedding outfit to-day (haven’t got a cent left) & occasionally the packages will arrive by express directed simply to J. Langdon, Elmira. Now your mother must unpack them & put them away for me & be sure not to let Mr. Langdon go wearing them around. I tell you, they are starchy.”

November 12 Friday – The New York Press Club sent a circular letter inviting Twain to a Press Club dinner Sat. Nov. 27, 5 p.m. at Delmonico’s. Tickets cost $3 [MTP].

November 13 Saturday – Sam lectured in Norwich, Conn. “Around the World Letter No. 3” ran in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 89].

November 14 Sunday – Clemens stayed another night in Norwich. See Nov. 15 to Livy.