South Africa, 1896: DBD

June 4 Thursday – Sam and Carlyle Smythe arrived at Queenstown, Cape Colony (pop. 4,000+) at 7 a.m. They took rooms at Joplin’s Commercial Hotel, where Sam slept six hours. Later in the day the pair were admitted to the Queenstown Club, where their names were entered in the Club Visitors Book by W. Wainright, and A.D. Webb, a prominent attorney. They would return in two days for wine and speeches [Philippon 20; Parsons, “Clubman in S.A.” 249].

June 5 Friday – In Queenstown Sam had lunch at the home of A.D. Webb, the noted attorney who had sponsored Carlyle G. Smythe at the Queenstown Club. In the evening Sam gave his 90-minute “At Home” (No.1) lecture to a packed audience at the Town Hall. The Queenstown Representative reviewed the talk on June 8, an article signed by “Autocycus,” who Parsons suggests may have been F.C.T. von Lisigen.

June 6 Saturday – In Durban, S. Africa, Livy and Clara took a tug and boarded the Athenian, captained by W. Martin of the Union Steam Ship Co. The ship left Durban at about 4 p.m., headed for Port Elizabeth with a stop on June 7 at East London.

Sam spent some time at the Queenstown Club enjoying wine and sharing speeches [Philippon 20; Parsons, “Clubman in S.A.” 249].

June 7 Sunday – Sam was up at 6 a.m. and left Queenstown with Carlyle Smythe at 7 a.m., arriving in King Williams Town, Cape Colony in the late afternoon; they took rooms at the Central Hotel [Philippon 20]. Sam wrote to Livy:

June 8 Monday – Clara Clemens’ 22nd birthday. Sam wrote her a short note at nearly midnight, that he’d almost forgotten the date, and if it weren’t so late he’d send a “telegraphic word of condolence.” Sam sent the note to the Grand Hotel in Port Elizabeth, where the ladies would arrive the following day, June 9 [MTP].

June 9 Tuesday – Livy and Clara arrived at Port Elizabeth on the Athenian and took rooms in the Grand Hotel. In King Williams Town, Sam gave his “At Home” (No. 2) talk at Town Hall. Reviews published: June 10: Kaffrarian Watchman; June 13: Cape Mercury thought Sam was better as a writer [Philippon 20-1]. 

Parsons writes,

May 1 Friday – The Clemens party was at sea aboard the Arundel Castle bound for South Africa. In his May 2 entry in FE, Sam related this night’s story:

May 11 Monday – Durbin, Natal. Parsons writes,

May 12 Tuesday – In Durban, Natal Sam gave his “At Home” No. 1 lecture at the Theatre Royal. The house held about 1,000 and was full, tickets from 1s to 4s, with an approximate gross of £105. Sam spoke for 95 minutes, including the boy and the corpse, Civil War soldiering, Mexican plug, German language, and his Australian Poem [Philippon 15]. 

After the lecture he went to the Princess Café and gave a Savage Club supper speech. Fatout writes,

May 13 Wednesday – In Durban, Natal Sam gave his “At Home” No. 2 (morality) lecture at the Theatre Royal. Extra seats were brought in to accommodate an overflow crowd. Reviews published: May 15: Transvaal Advertiser; May 16: Natal Witness; Pretoria Press.

Sam gave an impromptu speech for the Durban Savage Club, Dr. Samuel George Campbell, chairman [Philippon 15]. Parsons writes,

May 14 Thursday – Sam and Carlyle G. Smythe left Durban at 6 p.m. on the Natal Govt. Railway for “the heat and turmoil” of the Transvaal. They were seen off at the station by David Hunter and A. Milligan. They traveled 71 miles to Pietermaritzburg, arriving at 10 p.m..

May 15 Friday – In Peitermaritzburg, S. Africa, Sam was awakened at 7 a.m. He bathed and had coffee and shaved, then rested in bed rehearsing for the night’s lecture. Before lunch he wrote to Livy:

May 16 Saturday – At 10 a.m. in Pietermaritzburg Sam wrote to Livy:

I have just had my bath & coffee, Sweetheart, & am back in bed again. My proposed program is the one I used in Calcutta:

First Night. Dead Man, Plug, Ram, Smallpox, Christening.

Second. Watermelon, Duel, Crusade, Interviewer, Poem, Whistle.

Third. Punch, McWilliams, Sandpile, German. (And possibly Golden Arm.)

May 17 Sunday – Sam and Smythe arrived in Johannesburg at Park Station at 8:50 p.m. and were greeted by a “large number of admirers and curious spectators.” They took rooms at the Grand National Hotel at Rissik and Pritchard Streets. Journalists from the Johannesburg Times and the Standard Diggers’ News interviewed Mark Twain, these published on May 18 [Philippon 16].

May 18 Monday – In Johannesburg, a journalist from the Johannesburg Star interviewed Sam in bed for an hour at the Grand National Hotel. The interview was taken in the forenoon; it ran this same day [Scharnhorst 300]. A. Bonamici of Bonamici & Co. was Sam’s manager in Johannesburg gave Sam a small, engraved gold brick. At 3:30 in the afternoon Sam took a drive with Mrs.

May 19 Tuesday – In Johannesburg, S. Africa, Sam wrote at 12:30 p.m. to Livy:

Livy dear, I have just finished bathing & shaving — I slept straight through ten hours — for the fatigue of that sleepless night in the train had arrived at last, though there had been no suggestion of it before [MTP].

Sam wrote a second letter to Livy later in the afternoon, as he waited for Mrs. Adele Chapin’s carriage to drive him out.

May 2 Saturday – The Clemens party was at sea aboard the Arundel Castle bound for South Africa. Sam wrote in FE:

May 2, A.M. A fair, great ship in sight, almost the first we have seen in these weeks of lonely voyaging. We are now in the Mozambique Channel, between Madagascar and South Africa, sailing straight west for Delagoa Bay [ch LXIV 631].

May 20 Wednesday – In Johannesburg, S. Africa Sam began a letter to Livy he added to on May 21.

Livy darling I love you, & that is about all I can find time to say this morning. I am driven — driven — driven — & without you to save me from blunders I make them all the time. I think I have engaged myself to lunch with 2 different crowds at 1 o’clock today. This would not have happened if you had been there….A visitor is announced [MTP].

May 21 Thursday – In Johannesburg, S. Africa Sam finished a letter to Livy he began May 20.

Livy darling, your dear letters are arriving now & glad am I to get them. It is noon, & I am not yet dressed or shaved. I got to bed (from a lovely supper given to Smythe & me by the theatre manager at one oclock this morning & slept like a log until eleven. Am refreshed. I was dreading lecture No.3. But it came out just as handsomely as the others [MTP].

May 22 Friday – Close to midnight in Johannesburg, S. Africa, Sam wrote to daughter Clara:

Dear Ash-Cat:

I got your rattling good letter yesterday, you must relieve Mamma often of the task of writing me.

May 23 Saturday – In Johannesburg, Adele Chapin arrived to help Sam pack, and with her husband Robert Chapin took him to the train station. The trio left with Carlyle G. Smythe at 10:46 a.m. and traveled the 46 miles to Pretoria, Transvaal, S. Africa, arriving in the early afternoon. In his May 24 letter to Joe Twichell he wrote:

May 24 Sunday – In Pretoria Carlyle Smythe led a Press reporter to interview Sam in the Grand Hotel. Sam was talkative giving the journalist an hour “full of wit and entertaining items,” including a desire to meet the “man of the hour,” President Kruger. He then gave the reporter an autograph and a curious line:

Truth is stranger than fiction — to some people. But I am measurably familiar with it / Truly yours, Mark Twain. / May 24, 1896 [Parsons, “Clubman in S.A.” 248].

May 25 Monday – In Pretoria, South Africa Sam wrote to Livy:

Livy darling, I am sending “A Monk of Fife” to you. I have just finished it. There is no “Joan” in the May Harper; so it is finished. …

May 26 Tuesday – In Pretoria, Transvaal, Sam met with President Paul Kruger. Tenney suggests, “it is possible that friends saw the interview [Press of May 25] and urged him to set matters right. Twain said little of the meeting in his notebook:”

May 27 Wednesday – In the morning in Pretoria, S. Africa Sam wrote to Livy, who evidently had tried to reach him by more than one telegraph.