October 19 Thursday – Sam wrote from Wilkes-Barre, Penn. to Elisha Bliss. The typesetters had lost part of Ch. 18 of Roughing It, which described crossing the alkali desert. Sam could not focus to rewrite it and suggested perhaps they might have to omit the whole chapter [MTL 4: 477].
Three Speeches Tour: Day By Day
October 22 Sunday – W.L. Denning did work at the Hartford rental house; also provided feather bed, 2 feather pillows, and misc. See Nov. 17 entry for payment [MTP].
October 23 Monday – Sam gave the “Artemus Ward” lecture in Lincoln Hall, Washington, D. C. [One version of this speech is found in Mark Twain Speaking, 41-7]. The lecture attracted a record crowd for Lincoln Hall, some 2,000, with 150 crowded on stage. The reviews were mixed, and Sam found it difficult to lecture about a dead humorist, or to tell Ward’s jokes and make them funny [MTL 4: 480n3].
October 24 Tuesday – Sam lectured in Institute Hall, Wilmington, Delaware – “Artemus Ward. ”
In Washington, D.C. at the Arlington Hotel, Sam wrote to James Redpath:
(The only hotel in this town) {WILLARD’S—O, my!—seventh-rate hash-house.}
October 25 Wednesday – Sam lectured in Odd Fellows Hall, Norristown, Penn. – “Artemus Ward.” That morning Sam met Susan Dickinson, sister of the famous suffrage lecturer Anna E. Dickinson, who wrote to her sister:
October 26 Thursday – Sam spent the day traveling back to Hartford [MTL 4: 482n18].
October 27 Friday – Sam lectured in Sumner Hall, Great Barrington, Mass. – “Artemus Ward.” Sam wrote at midnight (into Oct. 28) from Great Barrington to Livy that the lecture “went off very handsomely.” But the Great Barrington Berkshire Courier of Nov. 1 claimed that of the crowd of 400, at least 390 went away disappointed and dissatisfied [MTL 4: 482-3].
October 28-29 Sunday – Sam probably spent the free weekend in Hartford, only 60 miles away, then traveled to Brattleboro, Vermont.
October 30 Monday – Sam lectured in Brattleboro, Vermont – “Artemus Ward.”
October 31 Tuesday – Sam lectured in Milford, Mass. – “Artemus Ward.” Sam wrote from Milford to Livy.
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