Fetching 'Em in Virginia City

The Virginia City (Nevada) Daily Trespass
1868: 22 April

MARK TWAIN.--Mr. Sam Wetherill, the gentlemanly agent for Mark Twain, arrived in this city, by Donner Lake stage, this morning, and announces that Mark will give us a talk on Saturday evening next, at Athletic Hall, on 'Pilgrim Life,' being a sketch of his notorious voyage to Europe, Palestine, etc., on board the steamship Quaker City. The mere announcement will be quite sufficient to fill the house to overflowing.



The Virginia City (Nevada) Daily Trespass
1868: 23 April

MARK TWAIN will not lecture on Saturday night, as first advertised, but will be on hand with his pilgrimage on Monday evening next.



The Virginia City (Nevada) Daily Trespass
1868: 24 April

MARK TWAIN, whose case has been put over for a hearing on Monday evening, in order not to come too close upon the very solemn performance of this afternoon, called on us this morning, in company with Jerry Driscoll, who tried to make something out of him in his youthful days, but had to give it up. Nobody can make much out of him, we judge--even by getting up early in the morning; for he said he had been up all night, and we presume it is his habit. Twain's real name is Clemens; but he has a brother in Carson whom he still respects, also a niece in St. Louis; and hence he chooses to be known, in his ravings, by the nom de plume which heads his advertisement--which see--box sheet now open, and seats rapidly taking. He was quite a humorous fellow, was Twain, before his recent trip with the Holylanders on the Quaker City. Pirooting around in the land of Deuteronomy, Ecclesiastes, Beelzebub, Job, and those fellows, and taking warning from the case of Ananias and Sapphira, Twain comes back an altered man. Moreover, he had an idea of tracing up his genealogy to the family of Mary, the mother of Mark who figured in the Acts. The trip was in that respect a failure, and Mark soured; but he comes back a better man, and it will be good to hear him.



The Virginia City (Nevada) Daily Trespass
1868: 27 April

MARK TWAIN.--This evening, at 7 o'clock, the Opera House will be open to admission to people having a dollar of their own, or borrowed from others; and at precisely 8 o'clock Mark Twain will commence his lecture upon a tour of Europe, Palestine, etc. Last week we had the privilege of paying a dollar to gain admittance to Platt's Hall, San Francisco, to hear Mark tell his story. The pasteboard we purchased for the dollar gained us admittance to the inner portion of the building, only that, and nothing more. The building was crowded to excess; crowded beyond the limits of a first class game; crowded so that when Mark commenced to make some preliminary remarks we could only hear the petrified echo of dry humor, and the coarse return of a thousand subdued snickers. As the traveler proceeded, echos and returns redoubled, and yet we knew nothing of the subject which he of Dutch Nick memory was repeating. People crowded in from the streets; became suspended from hooks, clung tenaciously to the walls, grouped upon window sills, grappled at gas fixtures, mounted the plug hats and well covered shoulders of strangers, crushed and ruined a legion of waterfalls, chignons and curls, and at last pressed us comparatively to the front, where we obtained a sight of Mark's familiar phiz, but no sound that issued from his lips reached us, and we only knew he was saying something above mediocrity by the continuous echos of laughter which came to us like sea weeds from Alcatraz to Meiggs' Wharf. To-night we propose to hear his lecture, and all those people who fail to go early, and consequently have a rear rank position, can listen to our consumptive laugh and learn how we felt at Platt's Hall. We take pleasure in stating that Mark don't drink--except when his spirits are properly amalgamated with sugar, grass, lime, ice and a teaspoon.



The Virginia City (Nevada) Daily Trespass
1868: 29 April

MARK TWAIN.--The distinguished Pilgrim will lecture at Carson this evening, to a crowded house. From Carson he will return to California, and the next we expect to hear of him may be from Alaska, Yokahama, Spitzenberg or Posey county. His lecture is an admirable production, and worthy of any man's ste(a)el.


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