Clemens detested platforming, but the idea of reading from his books or manuscript for some reason seemed less objectionable, and, as already stated, the need of much money had become important.

He arranged with J. B. Pond for the business side of the expedition, though in reality he was its proprietor.  The private-car idea was given up, but he employed Cable at a salary of four hundred and fifty dollars a week and expenses, and he paid Pond a commission.  Perhaps, without going any further, we may say that the tour was a financial success, and yielded a large return of the needed funds.

Clemens and Cable had a pleasant enough time, and had it not been for the absence from home and the disagreeableness of railway travel, there would have been little to regret.  They were a curiously associated pair.  Cable was orthodox in his religion, devoted to Sunday-school, Bible reading, and church affairs in general.  Clemens—­well, Clemens was different.  On the first evening of their tour, when the latter was comfortably settled in bed with an entertaining book, Cable appeared with his Bible, and proceeded to read a chapter aloud.  Clemens made no comment, and this went on for an evening or two more.  Then he said: 

“See here, Cable, we’ll have to cut this part of the program out.  You can read the Bible as much as you please so long as you don’t read it to me.”

Cable retired courteously.  He had a keen sense of humor, and most things that Mark Twain did, whether he approved or not, amused him.  Cable did not smoke, but he seemed always to prefer the smoking compartment when they traveled, to the more respectable portions of the car.  One day Clemens sand to him: 

“Cable, why do you sit in here?  You don’t smoke, and you know I always smoke, and sometimes swear.”

Cable said, “I know, Mark, I don’t do these things, but I can’t help admiring the way you do them.”

When Sunday came it was Mark Twain’s great happiness to stay in bed all day, resting after his week of labor; but Cable would rise, bright and chipper, dress himself in neat and suitable attire, and visit the various churches and Sunday-schools in town, usually making a brief address at each, being always invited to do so.

It seems worth while to include one of the Clemens-Cable programs here —­a most satisfactory one.  They varied it on occasion, and when they were two nights in a place changed it completely, but the program here given was the one they were likely to use after they had proved its worth: 

Program

Richling’s visit to Kate Riley
Geo. W. Cable

King Sollermun
mark twain

(a) Kate Riley and Ristofolo
(b) Narcisse in mourning for “Lady Byron”
(c) Mary’s Night Ride
Geo. W. Cable
(a) Tragic Tale of the Fishwife
(b) A Trying Situation
(c) A Ghost Story
mark twain