December 8 Friday – Sam lectured in Union Hall, Fredonia, New York – “Roughing It.” Sam telegraphed from Buffalo to Redpath & Fall. “Notify all hands that from this date I shall talk nothing but selections from my forth-coming book Roughing It, tried it last night suits me tip top” Sam sent the telegraph while traveling from Warsaw [MTL 4: 511].
December 9 Saturday – Sam lectured in Farrar Hall, Erie, Pennsylvania – “Artemus Ward.”
December 10 Sunday – Sam wrote from Erie, Penn. to Mary Mason Fairbanks, apologizing for not being able to spend time with the Fairbanks family.
December 11 Monday – Sam lectured in White’s Hall, Toledo, Ohio – “Artemus Ward.” Sam wrote from Toledo to James Redpath, claiming that his new lecture was “perfectly bully, now.” He wrote that he’d given it “at Warsaw & made a spectacular success—& at Fredonia & made a splendid failure.” So, Sam rewrote the “Roughing It” lecture again.
December 12 Tuesday – Sam lectured in University Hall, Ann Arbor, Michigan – “Artemus Ward.” “–a continuous roar of laughter” [MTL 4: 515].
December 13 Wednesday – Sam lectured in Union Hall, Jackson, Michigan – “Artemus Ward” this time was said to be “rather monotonous and tiresome.” Either Sam was inconsistent with this material, probably looking past it to his perfected new lecture, or regional/local differences applied.
December 14 Thursday – Sam gave the revamped “Roughing It” lecture in Mead’s Hall, Lansing, Michigan. Samuel H. Row introduced Clemens. See Nov. 14, 1905 from Row.
December 15 Friday – Sam lectured in Luce’s Hall, Grand Rapids, Michigan – “Roughing It” was a moderate success.
December 16 Saturday – Sam lectured in Union Hall, Kalamazoo, Michigan – “Roughing It” drew a sharply divided reaction in the newspapers, the Kalamazoo Telegraph hated the performance, while the Gazette claimed Sam “enchanted” and “convulsed” the audience. Sam must have wondered what he had to do to win over the press. Sam spent the night in Kalamazoo.
December 17 Sunday – Sam started at 4 AM for Chicago, about 140 miles away.
December 18 Monday – Sam arrived in Chicago at 3 PM, some 11 hours for a 2-hour trip. He gave the “Roughing It.” lecture south of the area devastated by the Oct. 8 fire, in Michigan Avenue Baptist Church, Chicago.
December 19 Tuesday – In Chicago, Sam stayed with Dr. Abraham Reeves Jackson, the “doctor” of Innocents Abroad. Sam performed the “Roughing It” lecture at the Union Park Congregational Church, Chicago, Ill. Reporters praised both of Sam’s Chicago lectures.
December 20 Wednesday – Sam lectured (topic unknown) in Sandwich, Illinois (why not the Sandwich Islands lecture for Sandwich?) The Chicago Tribune printed a long synopsis of Sam’s “Roughing It” lecture, so he returned to the “Artemus Ward” lecture, at least in Princeton and perhaps here as well [MTL 4: 519].
December 21 Thursday – Sam lectured in City Hall, Aurora, Illinois – Topic was probably “Artemus Ward.” The Chicago Evening Post ran an interview on page 4 with Sam on some comments on King Edward VII [Scharnhorst, Interviews 1].
December 22 Friday – Sam lectured in Patterson Hall, Princeton, Illinois – “Artemus Ward.”
December 24 Sunday – Charles Langdon sent a small preface to a book: “Practical Suggestions on the Sale of Patents,” 1871 by Wm. Edgar Simonds, atty. Hartford. No letter enclosed [MTP].
December 25 Monday – Christmas – Sam wrote from Chicago to Livy at 2 AM. “Joy, & peace be with you & about you, & the benediction of God rest upon you this day!” Sam was still working over his lecture. There had been a smallpox scare in Chicago with fines levied against anyone not vaccinated. Sam urged Livy to get vaccinated, at least once a year [MTL 4: 521].
December 26 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Champaign, Illinois to Livy, then gave the “Artemus Ward” lecture there in Barrett Hall. Sam was memorizing his new lecture and wanted to:
“…get out of the range of the cursed Chicago Tribune that printed my new lecture & so made it impossible for me to talk it with any spirit in Illinois” [MTL 4: 522].
December 27 Wednesday – Sam lectured in Tuscola, Illinois – “Artemus Ward.” He was still not out of “Chicago Tribune territory,” he wrote Livy from Tuscola, but he’d memorized all of the new “Roughing It in Nevada” lecture [MTL 4: 525].
December 28 Thursday – Sam lectured in Lincoln Hall, Danville, Illinois – “Roughing It.”
He wrote from Danville to Livy, concerned about her health and the baby’s. He announced, “The debt to the firm is all paid up” (the $12,500 owned to Jervis Langdon on the purchase of the Buffalo Express.) [MTL 4: 526-7].
December 29 Friday – Sam lectured in Mattoon, Illinois – Topic was probably “Artemus Ward.” The hall in Mattoon had a hall above it used by a secret order. During the lecture noise frequently came from above, disturbing Clemens. Before the close of the lecture Twain said he’d lectured in schools, churches and theaters but had never lectured in a livery stable where they kept horses overhead [“Editor’s Drawer,” Harper’s Monthly 70 (Apr. 1885): 822].
December 30 Saturday – Sam lectured in Paris, Illinois – Topic was probably “Artemus Ward.”
December 31 Sunday – In a “warm drizzling rain,” Sam went to church in Paris, Illinois, and wrote of the experience in a long letter to Livy.
“It was the West & boyhood brought back again, vividly. It was as if twenty-five years had fallen away from me like a garment & I was a lad of eleven again in my Missouri village church of that ancient time” [MTL 4: 527].