29–30 November 1871 • ?Newark, N.J. (Paraphrase: Redpath to SLC, 18 Jan 72, CU-MARK, UCCL 11823)
Well, Troy had telegraphed for Feb. 8. We telegraphed you. You answered with a “word with a bark to it—No”1explanatory note
Clemens probably barked from Newark, where he lectured on 29 November. Having no lecture scheduled on 30 November—which was Thanksgiving Day as well as his thirty-sixth birthday—he could have remained part of the day in Newark before making the long train trip to Oswego, New York, to lecture on 1 December. The curtness of his response may be set down to his extreme reluctance to extend his tour much into February—and to his having just committed himself to a lecture in Troy on the first of that month. Apparently in December, in a telegram now lost, he complicated matters by absent-mindedly agreeing to lecture in Paterson, New Jersey, on 1 February. (He was yielding to the importunities of a Paterson lecture committee that had been waiting since August for confirmation of an early February date.) Redpath managed to reschedule the Paterson lecture for 31 January (7 Jan 72 to Redpath, Axelrod; Redpath to SLC, 18 Jan 72, CU-MARK).
Paraphrase in MS, James Redpath to SLC, 18 Jan 72 (UCLC 31791), Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
L4 , 503.