November 29 Friday – Sam’s second lecture in Napier was canceled due to a fourth carbuncle threatening. His doctor called on him again at the hotel “and told him about some drunkards reclaimed by the Salvation Army, and a ‘citizen’ told him that the colonists, rather than having their teeth filled, merely pulled them out and substituted false ones.” Stuck in bed, Sam read railroad timetables and Indian histories [Shillingsburg, At Home 165; “Down Under” 27-8].
November 30 Saturday – Sam’s 60th Birthday.
In Napier, N.Z. on Frank Moeller’s Masonic Hotel letterhead, Sam responded to a letter (not extant) from J.B. Pond asking if he’d be interested in 50 lectures in England the next year.
No; fifty lectures in England would not be worth my while.
December – In New Zealand Sam entered in his notebook:
At great intervals they have much snow & very hard winters in the Middle Island; Lady Barker tells of one [Gribben 47; NB 36 TS 3]. Note: Mary Anne Barker’s (Lady Broome) Station Life in New Zealand (1870).
December 1 Sunday – In Napier, N.Z. at Frank Moeller’s Masonic Hotel, Sam rested his carbuncles. Shillingburg gathers from the following Dec. 1 notebook entry that Sam may have been treated by a Dr. John Brown [Shillingsburg, “Down Under” 28].
Dr. John Brown—“Somebody you are acquainted with?” “No, dog, I’m not acquainted with” [NB 34 TS 45] Note: more likely Sam recalled his late friend the Scot Dr. John Brown.
December 2 Monday – The Clemens party left Napier for Palmerston North (pop.12,000). FE:
December 3 Tuesday – Sam called the four-hour train ride to Wanganui (pop. 14,000) “a pleasant trip.” Sam wrote of the area:
Much horseback riding, in and around this town; many comely girls in cool and pretty summer gowns; much Salvation Army; lots of Maoris; the faces and bodies of some of the old ones very tastefully frescoed. Maori Council House over the river — large, strong, carpeted from end to end with matting, and decorated with elaborate wood carvings, artistically executed. The Maoris were very polite [FE ch XXXV 318].
December 4 Wednesday – In Wanganui, Sam wrote of a crazed intruder, who burst into his rooms and warned that the Jesuits were going to poison him in his food, or kill him on the stage that night.
This lunatic has no delicacy. But he was not uninteresting. He told me a lot of things. He said he had “saved so many lecturers in twenty years, that they put him in the asylum.” I think he has less refinement than any lunatic I have met [FE Ch XXXV 320-1].
December 5 Thursday – Sam and Carlyle Smythe left the ladies in Wanganui at 8 a.m. for lecture engagements in Hawera (pop. 2,000) and New Plymouth (pop. 3,800). Sam gave his “At Home” lecture in Hawera’s Drill Hall to a standing room only crowd. The Hawera Star ran a review on Dec. 5 and 6 [Shillingsburg, “Down Under” 28; At Home 171].
Livy finished her Dec. 2 letter to Susy:
December 6 Friday – Sam traveled from Hawera to New Plymouth, some 48 miles in four hours, “12 m per hour” riding through the garden region. “From Stratford to N.P. it was difficult to stay in your seat, so tremendously rough was the road” [NB 34 TS 48]. He’d been advertised for two weeks by The Budget to speak in Alexandra Hall, which held a thousand people. The hall was packed and included some Maoris: Shillingsburg quotes newspapers and writes,
December 7 Saturday – Sam and Carlyle Smythe traveled from New Plymouth back to Wanganui, a ten-hour trip by train. They stopped at Hawera an hour and a half where they ate lunch at the hotel. Advertisements advised people in Wellington that Sam’s performance had been changed from Monday to Tuesday, Dec. 10.
December 8 Sunday – In Wanganui, a small earthquake took place, a usual occurrence for this area. Since no trains ran in Australia or N.Z., Sundays were usually one of rest, or sightseeing. Sam wrote of this day in FE:
December 9 Monday – The Clemens party left Wanganui at 1 p.m. bound for Wellington (pop. 37,000) some 100 miles to the south; the train took nine hours, arriving at 10 p.m., too late to make his lecture appearance. Seats sold for this night were made valid for the next evening, Dec. 10, and Tuesday’s scheduled performance moved to Wednesday. Shillingsburg writes Sam had misread the express train schedule, missing the fine print that the express only ran on Tuesdays and Fridays.
December 10 Tuesday – In Wellington, N.Z. a reporter from the Evening Post called on Sam at Moeller’s Occidental Hotel. Sam related the nine-hour train trip from Wanganui, the “continual stoppages at little stations, where apparently nothing was done” and the jolting ride.
Livy was reported as saying that she hoped they would,
December 11 Wednesday – In Wellington N.Z. Sam gave his “At Home” performance at the Opera House. Lord David and Countess Glasgow and party, the Governor of N.Z. were in the audience.
Reviews published: Dec. 11: New Zealand Times; Dec. 12 and Dec. 19: New Zealand Mail.
December 12 Thursday – The last full day in Wellington, and N.Z., Sam and Carlyle G. Smythe took a short train ride to the suburb of Hutt, where they enjoyed the gardens of Mrs. Ross, played billiards, and in the evening went to a concert. Livy and Clara likely went along.
December 13 Friday – At 3:15 p.m. the Clemens party (including Carlyle G. Smythe) left Wellington, N.Z. on the Union Co.’s Mararoa. “Summer seas and a good ship — life has nothing better” [FE ch. XXXVI 324]. On board was the “damdest menagerie of mannerless children I have ever gone to sea with” [NB 36 TS 2] who raised Sam’s ire — in his notebook he hoped for a heavy storm. Also on board was the manager of the Greenwood Theatrical Co.