“ A luxurious mahogany tender bearing the name Kanawha lay wallowing in the slip adjoining the Norfolk-Portsmouth ferry pier this afternoon. Off shore lay a great white steam yacht, while o the pier an inquisitive person connected with the local newspaper sought to pump out of the head man on the yacht tender whether Norfolk's greatest benefactor Henry H. Rogers, was aboard his yacht or to the best of his knowledge and belief ever had been aboard and failed completely. ”

“ Taylor and Reigard, his entertainers, sailed for the exposition grounds in an automobile. As the infernal machine made the preliminary thundering noise preparatory to starting he shouted that all he wanted to know was how far sound travels in a second ”

“ Rogers, but MR. Taylor gave proof that he has a conscience by explaining subsequently that it was Mr. Clemens. Then everybody did what all the world does when Mr. Clemens wills with words. They laughed.
Mark Twain then told who was aboard the Kanawha, saying that Henry H. Rogers was brought along because he owns the yacht and pays the freight, that Mr. Rogers son, Henry H. Rogers, Jr., Messrs. W. E. Benjamin and Urban Broughton, his sons-in-law, and Mr. Lancaster, an English gentleman, were along. ”