The Troy (New York) Daily Times

1884: December 3

-- The unique entertainment given by Mark Twain and George W. Cable at Music Hall last evening was attended by an audience which filled nearly every seat on the floor and in the galleries. Mr. Cable has taken his place among the best American novelists and has created a unique and striking original style of story. There was much curiosity, therefore, to see the author of the Creole tales which have won such remarkable popularity with the reading public of late years. Mr. Cable is not a handsome man, but his face and head show an active intellect and a vivid imagination. His recitations, which were all taken from his strongest work, "Dr. Sevier," were delivered in a striking and pleasing though not artistic manner. His singing of Creole songs was warmly applauded. Mark Twain, though laboring under a severe cold, managed to make himself heard by the large audience, which showed a disposition to laugh whether he spoke or was silent. There was nothing remarkably witty in his remarks, but his manner and the humorous expression of his mouth and eyes would create laughter if he should read an act of congress to an audience. Altogether, the entertainment was pleasing, not only from its novelty, but from the originality of the men who conducted it. It did not drag, and the audience as it retired at 10:45 o'clock was by no means weary of listening to the pathos and humor of Cable and the laughable remarks of Mark Twain. A literary entertainment is a success if the auditors remain in their places to the end. Few, if any, left the hall last evening till they were startled from their seats by the sudden ending of Mark Twain's ghost story.


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