Your point is well taken.  I have been unable to locate an on-line copy 
of any Lafayette paper for that date.  I was actually trying to find 
train schedules, such  as I found for the Fort Wayne departure. My 
reference to Scharnhorst was not about the interview but about his 
paragraph in "The Middle Years" page 446.  One needs to be careful about 
all secondary sources, however.  This particular entry has them 
departing Fort Wayne before 6am, the Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, February 
6, 1885 has the train departing at 6:30 am.  I'm still bothered by the 
DBD entry for February 7th - why would he need to take a train to 
Indianapolis at 7am if he was already in Indianapolis.  This would make 
more sense if he actually woke up in Lafayette that morning.As an 
asideregarding the interview, I enjoyed Twain's description of the canal 
and its comparison with Venice.

On 8/8/23 15:30, Barbara Schmidt wrote:
> Scott -- a couple of things to consider -- the two letters catalogued by
> MTP described as from Lafayette or en route from Lafayette may have been
> written on the same date or several hours apart but misdated or mailed
> separately.  I have found no convincing evidence that Clemens and Cable
> lectured in Lafayette. They may have and the news accounts of it just have
> not surfaced.
>
> Yes, there is that interview in Scharnhorst (#37) from the Lafayette
> COURIER newspaper.  Footnote 1 indicates a paragraph has been omitted
> because it appeared in an earlier interview. The question that arises for
> me — Was this an authentic interview or a reporter’s spoof or hoax with
> Clemens quoting poetry, drinking beer, and commenting on the mayor and tax
> issues in Lafayette?   To nail down whether the Lafayette interview is
> authentic and if Clemens and Cable did lecture there, it would help to take
> a look at issues of that paper for the week before and after the interview
> was published to see if any lectures were advertised or reported.
>
> Barb
>
> On Tue, Aug 8, 2023 at 10:31 AM Scott Holmes<[log in to unmask]>  wrote:
>
>> While tracking the trains between Fort Wayne, Lafayette, and
>> Indianapolis, I became confused over the Day  By Day entries for
>> February 6 and 7.  It appears that both "Chronology of Known Mark Twain
>> Speeches,..." and "Touring with Cable and Huck" missed the Lafayette
>> Lecture on February 6th of 1885.  Gary Scharnhorst did not.  What caused
>> me to stumble was the February 6th DBD entry that goes on to describe
>> the February 7th lecture in Indianapolis and then the February 7th entry
>> that notes Sam had to get up a 7am to take the train to Indianapolis.
>> Why would he need to do that if he was already in Indianapolis?
>>
>> --
>> /Unaffiliated Geographer and Twain aficionado/
>>
-- 
/Unaffiliated Geographer and Twain aficionado/