Valley Girl Views: When Mark Twain Came To Milton Pa

In January of 1872, two years after his visit to Williamsport, and eight years before the fire that destroyed all of the buildings in downtown Milton, Mark Twain visited the Milton Opera House and gave a lecture on "Roughing It" in California.

This humorous article in the Northumberland Democrat appears to be an advertisement for the Welker Boot & Shoe Store, more than a report on the lecture:

Northumberland_County_Democrat_Fri__Jan_26__1872_

The Sunbury American reported with more details about the actual event, and less talk of shoes. "There is a general vein of humor, however, natural to him in conversation, which is more apparent in his lecture, or rather his yarns, or marvelous and extravagant exaggerations of facts and fancies, delivered in distinct but rather slow and melodious voice."

Sunbury_American_Sat__Jan_20__1872

The article also notes that "The commodions and elegant new Opera house of our Milton neighbors is highly creditable to the good taste and liberality of the enterprising gentlemen who projected improvement."

During the 1871-1872 lecture season Twain gave 76 performances in fifteen states (from Maine to Illinois) and the District of Columbia. It was his third tour in the East, and the longest to date. He earned between $100 and $150 for each performance, but he took home as little as 15% of that, as his expenses were high, and in his own words, he "squandered no end of money."

In the conditions he laid out to his agent, James Redpath, all lectures had to be along main railroad lines, his accommodations had to be in the best hotels, and he would do no lectures in churches. He believed most people were afraid to laugh sitting in a church.

He began the tour giving a lecture advertised as "Uncommon-place Characters I Have Met," but was so unhappy with it that after the first three performances he cancelled bookings in Easton and Reading, Pennsylvania, to give himself time to write another script. By December he had switched to a talk derived from his new book, Roughing It.

On December 8th 1871 he wrote to Redpath "talk nothing but selections from my forthcoming book" from that point on.

On January 11 1872 Twain spoke in Pittsburgh PA. From there he traveled to Kitanning for Jan 12, Lock Haven for Jan 16, and to Milton on January 17th. From htere he went on to Harrisburg on January 18, Landaster on the 19th, Carlisle on the 22nd. on the 23rd he was in Baltimore Md, and on the 24th in New York City, before returning to Pa to speak in Scranton on January 29th.

While In Milton (or possibly when he was in Lock Haven), Twain wrote a letter to his agent James Redpath. Twain's wife Olivia was nearing the end of her pregnancy, and Twain was reluctant to travel far, and was anxious to cancel as many lectures as possible.

Read More:

January 17 - Milton, Pennsylvania - "Roughing It" - One version of this speech is published in Mark Twain Speaking, pp. 48-63. http://www.twainquotes.com/SpeechIndex.html

You can read Roughing It, by Mark Twain, online here:

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3177/3177-h/3177-h.htm

Olivia Susan Clemens, the second child of Mark & Olivia twain was born March 19 1872, two months after Twain spoke in Milton Pa. Her older brother Langdon died of diptheria just a few months later, at 19 months old. Olivia died at age 24, of meningitis. There were two more daughters born to Mark and Olivia Twain, but only Clara outlived her father. Clara had one daughter Nina, who had no children of her own, leaving no direct descendants of Samuel Clemens. Twains youngest daughter, Jane, suffered from epilepsy and died from the apparent results of a seizure in 1909, at the age of 29.

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