I'm wondering just how much influence Tom Maguire had regarding Sam's 
decision to start on a lecturing circuit.  Maguire gave him a break, one 
half the usual fee, to lecture at Maguire's Academy of Music in San 
Francisco, Sam's first lecture.  The biographies I've seen generally 
credit John McComb of the Alta California with encouraging him - and he 
probably did. But in a 4 part series published in the California 
Historical Society Quarterly (1941-2) Lois Foster Rodecape credits Tom 
Maguire.  This is a fascinating series of essays on the life of Maguire 
and Sam was familiar with Maguire's  venues in both San Francisco and 
Virginia City. Maguire was at least aware of Twain as a reporter for the 
Territorial Enterprise and obviously knew him in San Francisco.

-- 
/*Unaffiliated Geographer and Twain aficionado*/

Visit B. Scott Holmes <https://bscottholmes.com>
Twain's Geography <https://twainsgeography.com>