The (San Francisco) Daily Alta Californian

1868: April 16

MARK TWAIN'S LECTURE REPEATED.--The repetition of the lecture on the Holy Land Excursion last night, was vastly gratifying to the audience and the lecturer; he had "got the hang of the sermon" and delivered it with more nonchalance, assuming that confidential conversational tone that breaks down all barriers between the man on the stage and the people occupying the seats. The description of Palestine as it is, the compressed substance of a dozen volumes of travels, is the gem in the lecture, though for poetic eloquence, the summary of things that cannot be forgotten, bears off the palm. The lecture is to be repeated at Sacramento, on Friday night.




The (San Francisco) Daily Morning Call

1868: April 16

MARK TWAIN'S LECTURE.--Mark Twain repeated his lecture last evening. His journey to the Holy Land has been called a pilgrimage. It was more properly a crusade--a humorous tilting against shams and sentiment. He battered the casques of friends and foes, perhaps not always fairly, but always effectively. He was a crusader on his own hook--a kind of free lance, working himself into a grotesque rage over dulness, carving the sconces of proper folk, and making it lively for infinite respectability. There were passages graphic, eloquent, complete and elegant enough to stand out in glaring contrast with more slipshod, doubtful jokes, and make Mark Twain himself his own severest critic.


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