1 Williams (1824?–81) was the San Francisco Evening Bulletin editor responsible for “dramatic criticism, and book reviews,” according to his fellow editor William C. Bartlett. He had probably helped to puff the lecture, and was very likely the one who reviewed it for the Bulletin. Born in Utica, New York, Williams served as a printer’s apprentice on the Utica Herald before working his way through Williams College, after which he rejoined the Herald as an associate editor until about 1854 or 1855, when he traveled for two years in Germany, France, Egypt, and the Holy Land. Returning home, he was invited to join the Albany Evening Journal as associate editor. He remained with the Journal until 1865, when he accepted an offer from the Bulletin and moved permanently to California. By then he had had some experience as a lecturer “who both amused and instructed,” according to Bartlett, who also praised his “sound literary judgment and catholic spirit,” as well as his “vigorous, condensed, and nervous style” (Bartlett 1881, 324–27; San Francisco Evening Bulletin: “Deaths,” 1 July 81, 3; “Samuel Williams,” 2 July 81, 1, reprinting the Oakland Tribune). Clemens not only wrote this request to Williams, and possibly to other journalists as well, he evidently passed out cards with his message at the lecture itself: the reporter for the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle explained that

Clemens’s efforts were apparently successful: no synopsis of his lecture appeared in any of the extant San Francisco newspapers.

2 The lecture was a financial success for Clemens, earning him about sixteen hundred dollars (at one dollar per ticket). He had made all seats “reserved,” and the demand for tickets was so great that he agreed to repeat the lecture on 15 April, “in order to accommodate the thousands of besiegers who were repulsed at the door” (advertisement, San Francisco Times, 15 Apr 68, 2). But the lecture itself drew mixed reviews. The Bulletin critic (presumably Williams) published what the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise later called, in reprinting it, “;the most appreciative notice of any of its cotemporaries” (“Of Mark Twain’s lecture ... ,” 18 Apr 68, 2). Yet even the Bulletin expressed disappointment with the lecture:

The Alta agreed, noting that the “lecture was not so well prepared as the first one delivered on the Sandwich Islands, though two bursts of eloquence called out hearty applause—on the ruins of Palestine, and on what the Pilgrims will not forget” (“‘Mark Twain’s’ Lecture,” 15 Apr 68, 1). Similar, though usually briefer, notices appeared in the Critic, the Examiner, the Times, the Golden Era, and doubtless other newspapers as well (“Mark Twain’s Lecture,” San Francisco Critic, 15 Apr 68, 3; “Amusements,” San Francisco Examiner, 15 Apr 68, 3; “Amusements,” San Francisco Times, 15 Apr 68, 1; “Mark Twain’s Lecture,” Golden Era 16 [18 Apr 68]: 4). After the second performance, the Alta editor did his best to smooth over Clemens’s earlier lapse:

Two weekly journals, on the other hand, were much more critical. The San Rafael Marin County Journal was disgusted that “this miserable scribbler, whose letters in the Alta, sickened everyone who read them, and of which the proprietors of that paper were heartily ashamed has the audacity and impudence to attempt to lecture to an intelligent people” (“Sickening,” 18 Apr 68, 2). And the California Weekly Mercury called the lecture “a most palpable failure ... foul with sacrilegious allusions, impotent humor, and malignant distortions of history and truth” (“Mark Twain,” 12 [19 Apr 68]: 5). Before he could learn of these remarks, however, Clemens took the California Steam Navigation Company’s daily steamer to Sacramento on 16 April, where he lectured the following night. After also lecturing in nearby Marysville (18 April), Nevada City (20 April), and Grass Valley (21 April), he returned to Sacramento, and on 23 April took the 6:30 a.m. Central Pacific train for Nevada (Langley 1867, “Advertising Department,” vii; “Railroads and Stages,” San Francisco Alta California, 23 Apr 68, 4).