Jonas Seely (1832?–83), a lawyer in Carson City and Virginia City in the early 1860s, and currently an acting United States district attorney in Nevada, had accompanied Goodman to Washington. Seely was seeking the post that had been held for four years by a close Nevada friend of Clemens’s, Alexander W. (“Sandy”) Baldwin (1840–69), who was killed in a California train accident on 14 November. (Goodman and Seely had been pallbearers at Baldwin’s funeral in Oakland two days later and Clemens had memorialized him in “A Fair Career Closed,” in the Buffalo Express of 27 November, as “a shining example of how generous Fortune can be, and how fickle” SLC 1869 .) Seely was one of two principal contenders for the appointment, which carried an annual salary of $3,500—considered inadequate but reportedly about to increase to $6,000. The other was Edgar W. Hillyer (d. 1882), the prosecuting attorney for Storey County, Nevada, who was “backed by Senator William M. Stewart and certain commanding influences” (“The U.S. District Judgeship,” Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, 11 Dec 69, 2). Unknown to Clemens, Hillyer had been appointed on 15 December. He was confirmed by the Senate by 23 December (Kelly 1862, 88; Kelly 1863, 279; “Died,” San Francisco Morning Call, 16 June 83, 4; “Obsequies of the Late Judge Baldwin of Nevada,” San Francisco Evening Bulletin, 17 Nov 69, 3; L1 , 280 n. 11; Chase et al., 124; Virginia City Territorial Enterprise: “For Europe,” 2 Dec 69, 2; “Confirmed,” 23 Dec 69, 2).

Oakes Ames (1804–73)—the wealthy manufacturer and capitalist, member of Congress since 1862, and principal figure in the Crédit Mobilier corporation through which he corruptly financed the recently completed Union Pacific Railway—had four sons: Oakes Angier (1829–99), Oliver (1831–95), Frank (1833–98), and Henry. Oakes Angier and Oliver both lived in North Easton, Massachusetts, about eight miles south of Canton, while Frank lived in Canton itself, making him the most likely to have been Clemens’s inhospitable host (nothing is known of Henry). Frank Ames had been educated at the Leicester and Andover Academies before entering his family’s lucrative shovel-manufacturing business. At present he was a chief owner of the Kinsley Iron and Machine Company in Canton, had extensive business interests elsewhere, particularly in railroads, and was active in Republican politics (“Address of the Republican State Committee,” Boston Advertiser, 26 Oct 69, 4; “Hon. Frank M. Ames,” Boston Evening Transcript, 25 Aug 98, 5).

Clemens wished to be rested for his lecture in Hudson, Massachusetts, on the evening of 21 December (no reviews have been located). His sponsor there was the Reverend H. G. Gay. An incident Clemens recalled in 1907 must have occurred in Gay’s home, although Clemens’s account disguised the actual time and place:

Entries in an 1879 notebook of Clemens’s indicate that the embarrassing biblical verse was 2 Kings 18:27—“But Rab-shakeh said unto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?” (N&J2, 302–3).