No letters written between 11 and 18 April have been found. On Tuesday, 13 April, Clemens and Twichell began a visit to Brooklyn, where they stayed at the home of Dean Sage. The following day, the two visitors attended a session of the adultery trial of Henry Ward Beecher, which was of particular interest to the Sage family because Dean’s father, Henry, had been a trustee of Beecher’s Plymouth Church for nearly two decades and employed Beecher’s son William in his lumber company (Clifford E. Clark, 247). Twichell, who described the occasion at length in his journal, noted that William F. G. Shanks, city editor of the New York Tribune, recognized Clemens, and escorted them
to the Tribune seats just under the Judge’s desk and in the very centre of the Court where we could see everything to the best advantage. This brought us into close proximity to all the principal participants in the Trial. . . .
The excitement was such as to be painful. It was very trying to me to see Mr. B. subject to such questioning. He appeared well—innocent—unafraid—at ease, and yet his bearing and style of answering did not somehow come up to my idea. He was a little as though speaking to an audience.
I was immensely drawn out to him, and wished for his sake that I was a better man—good enough to sit there and pray for him. . . . Dean Sage came over at noon and lunched with us at the Club, and went to the afternoon session with us.
The Judge (Neilson) on being introduced to Mark asked him up to a seat on the bench, but he would not go.
At the close of the p.m. session when the Court adjourned I saw Mr Beecher shake hands with Mr Beach of the opposing counsel, and (being very near) heard him say to him, “Sometime I’ll tell you all about it,” or that substantially. I shook hands with Mr Beecher, and told him who I was, but he replied that he knew me without being told.
I never was present on an occasion when I experienced such a powerful sense of the tremendous nature of the issue. (Twichell, 1:80, 82–84)
In its coverage of the day’s proceedings, the New York Tribune of 15 April reported Clemens’s and Twichell’s attendance: “‘Mark Twain’ and his friend, the Rev. Joseph H. Twitchel, were seated among the Plymouth members for a time, but moved forward to seats at The Tribune table to obtain a better view of the witness and the cross-examining counsel” (“The Tilton-Beecher Trial,” 3). Twichell pasted a clipping of the Tribune article in his journal, beside the following excerpt from the New York Sun of the same date:
Yesterday was a momentous day in the trial of Mr. Beecher, the cross-examination of the defendant by Mr. Fullerton being devoted to the most vital of the scandal episodes and documents. Anticipation of the importance of the proceedings drew not less than ten times as many persons to the court house as the trial room could hold, and the excluded nine-tenths of the applicants for admission displayed their tickets and clamored in the hallway. A company that was noteworthy as to some of its components gathered within the railing. Mark Twain shambled in loose of coat and joints and got a seat near the plaintiff’s table. He closely resembles Mr. Moulton, and was mistaken by many for that much-watched attendant. Mr. Moulton arrived soon afterward, and when the two were brought together the likeness bore the test of juxtaposition. Mr. Moulton was in features, hair, and expression an enlarged counterpart of Mr. Clemens. The Rev. Joseph M. Twitchell, Mark Twain’s companion in the travels of the “Innocents Abroad,” was with the humorist. (“Ragged Edge in Earnest,” 2; Twichell, 1:86)
Underneath this clipping Twichell wrote, “This was a great joke on M. T. who had been greatly disappointed in Moulton’s appearance and disliked his looks exceedingly.” (Twichell was not in fact on the voyage that led to The Innocents Abroad.) On 15 April, Clemens and Twichell lunched at Delmonico’s with Sage, John Hay, and William Seaver, then returned to Hartford that evening.
Upon his return, Clemens found a letter from Howells (CU-MARK):
Howells’s telegram, requesting the June installment of “Old Times on the Mississippi,” is not known to survive. On 17 April Clemens, without Olivia, left for a three-day visit to Cambridge. There he wrote the next letter.