All this was original; it was Mark Twain." Employing D. E.
McCarthy as his agent, Mark gave a number of lectures at various places
on the Pacific Coast. From this time forward we recognize in Mark Twain
one of the supreme masters of the art of lecturing in our time.
In December, 1866, he set out for New York, preparatory to the grand
tour around the world. His own account of the circular describing the
projected trip is famous. He had proposed, for twelve hundred dollars
in gold,--at the rate of twenty dollars apiece, to write a series of
letters for the 'Alta California'. Brooks, the editor, fortified the
grave misgivings of the proprietors over this proposition; but Colonel
John McComb (then on the editorial staff) argued vehemently for Mark,
and turned the scale in his favour. While Mark was in New York, he was
urged by Frank Fuller, whom he had known as Territorial Governor of
Utah, to deliver a lecture--in order to establish his reputation on the
Atlantic coast.
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