To H. H. Rogers, in New York City: 

         &nb
sp;                                             (Forenoon)
          
                                   Cleveland, July 16, ’95. 
Dear Mr. Rogers,—­Had a roaring success at the Elmira reformatory Sunday night.  But here, last night, I suffered defeat—­There were a couple of hundred little boys behind me on the stage, on a lofty tier of benches which made them the most conspicuous objects in the house.  And there was nobody to watch them or keep them quiet.  Why, with their scufflings and horse-play and noise, it was just a menagerie.  Besides, a concert of amateurs had been smuggled into the program (to precede me,) and their families and friends (say ten per cent of the audience) kept encoring them and they always responded.  So it was 20 minutes to 9 before I got the platform in front of those 2,600 people who had paid a dollar apiece for a chance to go to hell in this fashion.

I got started magnificently, but inside of half an hour the scuffling boys had the audience’s maddened attention and I saw it was a gone case; so I skipped a third of my program and quit.  The newspapers are kind, but between you and me it was a defeat.  There ain’t going to be any more concerts at my lectures.  I care nothing for this defeat, because it was not my fault.  My first half hour showed that I had the house, and I could have kept it if I hadn’t been so handicapped. 
                         Yours sincerely,
                                   S. L. Clemens.

P. S. Had a satisfactory time at Petoskey.  Crammed the house and turned away a crowd.  We had $548 in the house, which was $300 more than it had ever had in it before.  I believe I don’t care to have a talk go off better than that one did.

Mark Twain, on this long tour, was accompanied by his wife and his daughter Clara—­Susy and Jean Clemens remaining with their aunt at Quarry Farm.  The tour was a financial success from the start.  By the time they were ready to sail from Vancouver five thousand dollars had been remitted to Mr. Rogers against that day of settlement when the debts of Webster & Co. were to be paid.  Perhaps it should be stated here that a legal settlement had been arranged on a basis of fifty cents on the dollar, but neither Clemens nor his wife consented to this as final.  They would pay in full.

They sailed from Vancouver August 23, 1895.  About the only letter
of this time is an amusing note to Rudyard Kipling, written at the
moment of departure.

To Rudyard Kipling, in England: