Different views of the Quaker City Mock Trial

Tue, 26 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad described the five month journey of dozens of passengers on the Quaker City ship traveling from New York to Europe and the Middle East. While cruising across the Atlantic Ocean out of New York, the Quaker City passengers needed activities to take up the many days it took before they reached their first destination. One of those activities was a Mock Trial, where they set up a trial of the Purser, Robert Vail, for ‘stealing’ a coat from Mark Twain.

Can you trust a transcription?

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

While Mark Twain’s book The Innocents Abroad is the most famous record of the tourist cruise in 1867 on the Quaker City paddle steamer, it wasn’t the only one. Many passengers on the ship, like Twain, corresponded with newspapers across the United States. One other passenger, Mrs. Louisa Griswold, also published a book of the journey, and some of the other letters and journals were in some form put into print. One journal, written by Mrs. Emily Severance, was published by her daughter many years later, as a record of the journey for her children and grandchildren. Printed in 1938 in a small edition, some copies made it out into libraries. Severance writes about the very fact that so many passengers were writing about the trip:

Emily-Severance on Quint Books

Different views of the Quaker City Mock Trial

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