1 Clemens delivered his “Reminiscences” lecture in Bethlehem on 16 October and in the neighboring town of Allentown on 17 October. The Bethlehem Times of 17 October reported that the “best and biggest part of Bethlehem’s intelligent population” came away from the lecture well satisfied at having seen a celebrated author. But the paper faulted Clemens for being inaudible and for rehashing Innocents Abroad anecdotes, and concluded: “As a lecturer, we feel bound to say that, though not an entire failure, he is far from being instructive in his remarks or entertaining in his manner” (reprinted in McIlhaney). The second performance received an even cooler reception: “Mark Twain has the reputation of being a funny man, and the greatest joke he ever perpetrated was his ‘lecture’ last evening. We do not propose to make an extended notice and merely remark that we prefer reading to hearing him” (“Local Intelligence,” Allentown Chronicle, 18 Oct 71, 4).