Three Speeches Tour: Day By Day

January 24 Wednesday – Sam lectured to over 2,000 in Steinway Hall, New York City – “On Governor Nye,” a benefit for the Mercantile Library. Sam telegraphed from New York to James Redpath to tell Pugh that he would not lecture again this season [MTL 5: 31]. Though Sam had been in New York many times over the past few years, this was his first lecture there since May 1867, when he first spoke before an Eastern audience prior to leaving on the Quaker City excursion. The reviews praised the lectures. Sam stayed at the St. Nicholas Hotel.

January 25 Thursday – Sam returned home to Hartford and family to spend three or four days resting [MTL 5: 33].

January 26 Friday – F.W. Farwell wrote from NYC advertising the Babcock Fire Extinguisher [MTP].

Thomas B. Pugh wrote from Phila. to Sam, regretting Sam could not lecture in Phila again this season [MTP].

January 27 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James Redpath, nixing lectures in New York, Englewood, New Jersey, Danbury, Conn., but agreeing to Amherst, Mass.

“Thank God it is nearly over. I haven’t a cent to show for all this long campaign. Squandered it thoughtlessly paying debts” [MTL 5: 36]. Note: Sam did lecture in Danbury on Feb. 21.

January 28 Sunday – The Jubilee Singers, touring for Fisk University in Nashville, performed at the Asylum Hill Church in Hartford to a nearly full house. It’s likely that Sam attended [MTL 5: 37, p316n2]. Note: the church had 186 pews, seating 930 people [Strong 49].

January 29 Monday – Sam lectured in Klein’s Opera House, Scranton, Pa. – “Roughing It” [MTPO].

January 3 Wednesday – Sam lectured in Richmond, Indiana – “Roughing It.” He also wrote his mother, Jane Clemens:

Dear Mother—Enclosed find checks for three hundred dollars. Please drop Livy a line acknowledging receipt of them, & tell her to let me know right away.

January 30 Tuesday – Sam lectured in The Tabernacle, Jersey City, New Jersey – “Roughing It.” Sam had become used to introducing himself, and played it up for all the humor it offered. He often related the true story about a man out West who’d been forced to introduce him: “I don’t know anything about this man except two things, one is, he has never been in the penitentiary, and the other is, I don’t know the reason why” [MTL 5: 38].

January 31 Wednesday – Sam again took a ferry and lectured in Opera House, Paterson, New Jersey – “Roughing It” [MTPO]. Sam probably spent the night at Paterson’s Franklin House Hotel [MTL 5: 39].

Bill paid to Whiton & Gilletto $15 for 1&1/2 cord oak wood [MTP].

January 4 Thursday – Sam arrived in Dayton, Ohio and stayed at the Beckel House, Room 169. In the evening he lectured “Roughing It” to a full house in the Music Hall. He wrote John Henry Riley about plans for the diamond book, thinking that he’d be ready to start the collaboration around the first week in March [MTL 5: 2-3].

Friend Riley—

Heaven prosper the Minister to S. A! Amen.

January 5 Friday – Sam lectured in Opera House, Columbus, Ohio – “Roughing It” [MTPO].

A receipt from John Hooker for $100 for “house rent in full” is likely for one month, since later receipts for Hooker’s Nook Farm rent were $300 per quarter. Bill paid to E. Habenstein, baker for Livy, products not legible [MTP].

January 6 Saturday – Sam “hired a locomotive…to keep from having to get up at 2 in the morning,” and made the trip from Columbus to Wooster, Ohio, where he lectured in Arcadome Hall – “Roughing It” [MTL 5: 11-12n3].

January 7 Sunday – Sam telegraphed from Wooster, Ohio to William Dean Howells to solicit Bret Harte and “the other boys” to get up a fund for William Andrew Kendall (1831?-1876), a poet who was ill in New York, to gain his passage back to California. Sam claimed he didn’t know Kendall, but Harte did, having published several of his poems while editor of the Overland.

January 8 Monday – Sam gave the “Roughing It” lecture in Concert Hall, Salem, Ohio [MTPO].

He wrote from Salem to Livy.

“Well, slowly this lecturing penance drags toward the end. Heaven knows I shall be glad when I get far away from these country communities of wooden-heads. Whenever I want to go away from New England again, lecturing, please show these letters to me & bring me to my senses” [MTL 5: 14].

January 9 Tuesday – Sam lectured in Gray and Garrett’s Hall, Steubenville, Ohio – “Roughing It” [MTPO].

November 1 Wednesday – Sam lectured in Music Hall, Boston, Mass. – “Artemus Ward.” Sam wrote from Boston to Livy:

November 10 Friday – Sam lectured in Stetson Hall, Randolph, Mass. – “Artemus Ward.” Sam had a “delightful & jolly little audience.” He spent the night in Randolph.

November 11 Saturday – Sam woke at 6 AM and traveled to Boston, where he had breakfast and then wrote Livy at 11 AM. Feeling “rusty & stupid,” Sam wrote:

“You see those country hotels always ring a gong at 6 & another at half-past, & between the two they would snake out Lazarus himself, let alone me, who am a light sleeper when nervous” [MTL 4: 488].

November 12 Sunday – Sam wrote from Boston to Elisha Bliss. He’d enjoyed a good many dinners with Howells, Aldrich and Keeler. Sam directed copies of Innocents be sent to the three men, in care of J.R. Osgood & Co., Boston [MTL 4: 489].

November 13 Monday – Sam lectured in Mechanic’s Hall, Boston, Mass. – “Artemus Ward.”

November 14 Tuesday – Sam lectured in Smyth’s Hall, Manchester, N.H.  – “Artemus Ward.”

November 15 Wednesday – Sam lectured in City Hall, Haverhill, Mass. – “Artemus Ward.” Sam wrote from Haverhill after the lecture to Livy.

November 16 Thursday – Sam lectured in City Hall, Portland, Maine – “Artemus Ward.” Sam wrote from Portland to Moses S. Beach, declining an invitation Beach had sent to Livy for the family to stay with the Beaches [MTL 4: 493-4]. Note: It was Mrs. Beach who had disapproved of Sam as a suitor for their daughter Emeline in 1868.

November 17 Friday – At 1 AM in Portland, Maine, Sam wrote a short note to Livy. Sam thought the Portland lecture enjoyable, and the Portland Eastern Argus agreed [MTP].

In the evening Sam lectured in Huntington Hall, Lowell, Mass. – “Artemus Ward.” [MTPO].

November 18 Saturday – With another open weekend, Sam arrived in Hartford in the afternoon or evening and spent the rest of the weekend at home [MTL 4: 493n8].