[Although MT had never been to Montana before, the paper there
identified him as a returning native of the west. The first
notice below sounds like one of Pond's publicity puffs, but the
second, an article from the Sunday Standard just after MT's
performances in Butte and Anaconda, is clearly based on
interviews with local citizens. It's too bad that the reporter
does not identify his sources for these two anecdotes more
explicitly. The second (though it confuses resident newspaper
man Sam Clemens with visiting lecturer Mark Twain, and 1863 with
1868) is clearly an account of the practical joke MT's friends
in Virginia City played on him the last time MT ever visited
Nevada, and it is markedly different than MT's own version of
the event, at the end of Roughing It, where he does not describe
himself running away.]  The Anaconda Standard 2 August 1895
Famous Twain To-Night.  Mark Twain to-night at Evans opera house
is a rare treat. The West is seldom visited by authors of such
prominence and merit. No writer