See what happens when someone who has never been to a place starts blabbing about the place. Every so often I need to be reminded of the Geographer's dictum that the map is not the territory. On Wed, 2015-04-08 at 14:13 -0400, Carl J. Chimi wrote: > Why do you say that? I grew up in Malden, which is just south of Melrose > and maybe five miles or so north of Boston. Lowell is maybe 25 miles north > of Boston. It would have been relatively easy for Twain to have spent the > night after the Melrose gig to take a train into Boston for a good hotel, > and have penned and posted the letter from there. > > The point is that none of these places were more than an hour or so away > from each other by the B&M railroad, which I'm pretty sure existed in those > days and catered to people who worked in Boston but commuted from cities and > towns the trains had by then begun to turn into suburbs. When I was young, > the B&M ran from North Station in Boston north through Malden and Melrose > and on to Lowell, among other destinations. I think that was true in the > 1880s. The train run from Melrose to Boston might have taken a half hour or > so, and from Boston to Lowell maybe twice that. > > Carl > > -----Original Message----- > From: Mark Twain Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Scott Holmes > Sent: Wednesday, April 8, 2015 1:56 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Twain, November 11, 1884 A letter to Pond > > On this date Twain and Cable were in Lowell, MA for a show at Huntington > Hall. The day before they were in Melrose, MA, but there is a letter from > Twain to Pond dated November 11, 1884 from Boston, MA. Given their > geographic locations, it doesn't make much sense to me for Sam Clemens to be > in Boston on that date to post a letter. This is listed in MTP