Vol 1 Section 0028
Sam Sues Webb – Finishes Lecture Tour – Sam & Livy Married “Sammy in Fairy Land” Buffalo Express – Jervis Falls to Cancer – Galaxy Articles – Langdon Clemens Born
Emma Nye Dies at Clemens’ Home – Diamond Plans
1870 – Paine says that “as early as 1870 he [Sam] had jotted down an occasional reminiscent chapter” for what would become his autobiography [MTA 1: vi n1]. Of these, Paine includes “The Tennessee Land,” written this year [3-7].
January 1 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to George L. Hutchings about Trenton’s True American printing a lengthy synopsis of Sam’s Dec. 28 lecture. Sam hated it when newspapers did that; he imagined that people would not go to his lectures if they could read them in the papers. He sent Hutchings his apology for being upset by being shown the synopsis [MTL 5: 685].
“An Awful – Terrible Medieval Romance,” was printed in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 123]. Note: The piece later appeared with Mark Twain’s (Burlesque) Autobiography (Mar. 1871) and also revised as “Medieval Romance” in Sketches Old & New (1875).
I gave your paragraph out and think it has appeared. I’m heartily glad to be able to render a service—if so trifling a thing deserves that name.
I got your dispatch [not extant] in time to send word to a friend or two I had asked not to come. Better luck next time / With heartiest good wishes [MTP].
Benjamin P. Shillaber [MTP]. Note: MTP staff was unable to find this letter.
January 1 to 5 Wednesday – Sam spent these days with Livy in Elmira [MTL 4: 3].
January 4 Tuesday – Sam and Livy traveled thirty miles east of Elmira where Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Wilson Hall, Owego, New York. They returned to Elmira that evening [MTL 4: 5n2].
January 5 Wednesday – Sam left at 8 PM and traveled overnight by train from Elmira to New York City [MTL 4: 2n1, 3].
January 5-6 Thursday – Clemens wrote a sketch unpublished until 2009: “Interviewing the Interviewer” [Who Is Mark Twain? xxiv].
January 6 Thursday – Sam wrote at 9 AM from Dan Slote’s in New York to Livy.
“The Amenia train has been changed to 3.30 instead of 4, PM., & so it is just right. I can arrive there at 7.21, whoop my lecture & clear out again.”
He’d been reading Robinson Crusoe and kept losing the book. “It is just like me. I must have a nurse” [MTL 4: 1].
In the evening he lectured (“Savages”) in Amenia, New York.
An article, “Mrs. Stowe’s Vindication,” attributed to Sam, was printed in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 129].
January 7 Friday – In the wee hours after midnight, Sam wrote from Amenia, New York to Mary Mason Fairbanks.
Well, Mother Dear—You ought to see Livy & me, now-a-days—you never saw such a serenely satisfied couple of doves in all your life. I spent Jan 1,2,3,& 5 there, & left at 8 last night. With my vile temper & variable moods, it seems an incomprehensible miracle that we two have been right together in the same house half the time for a year & half, & yet have never had a cross word, or a lover’s “tiff,” or a pouting spell, or a misunderstanding, or the faintest shadow of a jealous suspicion. Now isn’t that wonderful? Could I have had such an experience with any other girl on earth? I am perfectly certain I could not. And yet she has attacked my tenderest peculiarities & routed them. She has stopped my drinking, entirely. She has cut down my smoking considerably. She has reduced my slang & my boisterousness a good deal [MTL 4: 3]. Note: Sam never quit smoking and soon resumed the other vices.
In the evening, Clemens lectured (“Savages”) in Egberts Hall, Cohoes, New York.
January 8 Saturday – At midnight in the Troy House, Troy, New York, Sam wrote to Livy. He wrote her a second letter later in the day. His second letter marveled at the insignificance of the earth in the universe and of man. “Does one apple in a vast orchard think as much of itself as we do?” Sam was reading “The Early History of Man” in Eclectic Magazine for Jan. 1870 [MTL 4: 12].
Sam also wrote his agent, James Redpath, of “one-horse” towns, bills, and the like.
“Cohoes was another infernal no-season-ticket concern—paid me in 7,000 ten-cent shin-plasters, so that my freight cost more back to Albany than my passage did” [MTL 4: 10].
“Around the World Letter No. 6,” sub-titled “Early Days in Nevada, Silver Land Nabobs” was printed in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 130].
January 10 Monday – At noon, Sam wrote from Albany New York to Livy, apologizing for his Owego lecture she had attended. The reviews were good, however. “What an eternity a lecture-season is!” Sam wrote that he was reading Ivanhoe. “He is dead, now” [MTL 4: 15-16].
That evening he lectured (“Savages”) in Tweddle Hall, Albany. Afterward in bed he wrote again to Livy. “Had an immense house, tonight, little sweetheart, & turned away several hundred—no seats for them” [MTL 4: 17].
January 11 Tuesday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Union Place Hall, West Troy, New York.
Note: Sam’s next two letters to Livy, No.s 174-5, after West Troy and Rondout lectures are lost [MTL 4: 20n10].
An empty envelope from Oliver Wendell Holmes for this date was found in Sam’s notebook # 29. Addressed to “Mark Twain Esq. (Care of Samuel Clemens)” at the American Publishing Company in Hartford. The postmark was “Jan. 11,” the year “probably” 1870 [MTNJ 3: 483.]
January 12 Wednesday – Clemens lectured (“Savages”) in Rondout, New York.
January 13 Thursday – Sam wrote from Cambridge, New York to Livy about quitting smoking—did she really want him to?
“I shall treat smoking just exactly as I would treat the forefinger of my left hand: If you asked me in all seriousness to cut that finger off…I give you my word I would cut it off” [MTL 4: 21]. Note: Presented in this way, how could Livy ask Sam to quit smoking?
In the evening, Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Hubbard Hall, Cambridge, New York [MTPO].
January 14 Friday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Mechanic’s Hall, Utica, New York [MTPO].
Sam wrote from Troy, New York to Livy. Neither poor weather nor a fire in the lecture hall stopped Sam from his lecture. He was upset that the Troy Daily Times had published his Cambridge lecture of the night before. At 7 a fire broke out in the lecture hall.
“…I felt that all I needed to be entirely happy was to see the Troy Times editors & this chairman locked up in that burning building” [MTL 4: 25-6]. Note: The fire was quickly put out and Sam lectured in a damp, singed, smelly hall.
January 15 Saturday – Sam wrote after midnight from the Baggs Hotel in Utica, New York to Livy [Powers, MT A Life 280].
“We had a noble house to-night (Oh, it is bitter, bitter cold & blustery!)—the largest of the season, they believe, though they cannot tell till they count the tickets to-morrow.”
Sam also wrote his sister, Pamela. He’d sent money for her and Annie to come for his wedding, plus support money for his mother, whom he did not want making the trip during the winter.
“Hurry up, Pamela, you & Annie, & get to Elmira by the 24th or 25th if you can. I shall be there by the 22nd to remain.”
That evening he lectured (“Savages”) in Doolittle Hall, Oswego, New York. Sam’s story, “A Ghost Story – By the Witness,” was printed in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 134].
January 17 Monday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Baldwinsville, New York [MTPO].
January 18 Tuesday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Ogdensburg, NY [MTPO]. He left Buffalo at 4 PM.
January 19 Wednesday – Sam lectured at the Normal School Chapel, Fredonia, New York [MTPO]. The Fredonia Censor reported on Jan. 26 of this lecture:
Mark Twain’s lecture was a success…we shall not attempt to quote, for the reason that the lecture was too good to be mutilated, or spoiled for other audiences by having the jokes sent ahead of the speaker, and then, be the report never so accurate, the effect of Mark’s delivery is lost, which is a continued source of amusement in itself. Imagine a lean, cadaverous looking speaker, standing upon the platform for five minutes like a school boy who has forgotten his “piece,” and then drawling out with ministerial gravity his own introduction, because the Chairman of Lecture Committees never introduced him “strong enough.”
Note: five letters that Sam wrote Livy from Jan. 15 to 19 (#’s 179-83) are lost [MTL 4: 33n1].
January 20 Thursday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Hornell Library, Hornellsville, New York. Sam wrote before the lecture from Hornellsville to Livy.
I left Buffalo at 4PM yesterday & went to Dunkirk, & thence out to Fredonia by horse-car (3 miles) rattled my lecture through, took horse-car again & just caught 9.45 PM train bound east—sat up & smoked to Salamanca (12.30,) stripped & went to bed in a sleeping car two hours & a half, & then got up & came ashore here at 3 o’clock this morning—& had a strong temptation to lie still an hour or two longer & go to Elmira. But I resisted it. By coming through in the night, I saved myself 2 hours extra travel [MTL 4: 31-2].
January 21 Friday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Institute Hall, Jamestown, New York, and immediately made the trip to Elmira to prepare for his wedding [MTL 4: 33n1]. Note: Reigstad writes that the tour “ended with a whimper. / He admitted to being tired for his last lecture stop, and the Jamestown Journal reports were unflattering” [93]. During the three-month lecture tour, Clemens sent over 20 stories to the Buffalo Express [94].
“I am willing to pay the $100 peaceably—though I prefer to be sued if it will not discommode you too much. It is more business-like. I am to be married next week, and I have got to economise. I am not going to pay the full amount of any body’s bill” [MTL 4: 39]. Note: this is possibly due to his Brooklyn cancel; see Dec. 6, 1869.
Friend Bliss—
Why bless your soul, I never have time to write letters these days—takes all my time to carry on the honey-moon. I would like to talk to Mrs Bliss [Amelia Bliss] two or three or four hours about my wife now, if she could stand it——she used to stand it very well when I was at your house.
Express gets along well. I have a strong notion to write a——
Well, never mind, I’ll tell you about it another time.
I am glad Mrs. Barstow has retrieved her credit—I was about to write you to charge her $150 to me, when your second letter came. I am very glad, more simply for her own sake, that she has kept up her credit.
6,000 & upwards, in 16 days, is splendid—Splendid, isn’t it? [IA sales]
I don’t go near the Express office more than twice a week—& then only for an hour. I am just as good [as] other men—& other men take honey-moons I reckon.
Hello!—there’s the bell—my wife is taking a nap & I am receiving calls [MTL 4: 77; MTPO].
Late February – Livy’s cousin, Hattie Marsh Tyler, “who lived in the Buffalo area, dropped in. She filled Olivia’s ears with complaints about the female ‘help’ available in Buffalo. Around that time, just three weeks into running her new household, Olivia had needed to mildly scold servants Ellen and Harriet. Perhaps Tyler’s groaning bolstered Olivia’s executive decision making (by mid-April, Harriet was dismissed as a servant)” [Reigstad 134]. Note: Livy then hired “a German girl” [143].
March – Between March 1870 and March 1871 – Sam wrote 87 pieces for the New York Galaxy [Wilson 109]. He was offered two and a half times the normal rate for a regular humorous section in the magazine. He agreed only if the label of humor was not applied to his work. He thus wrote under a column titled, “Memoranda,” and his first article was published in May.
Livy’s cousin, Anna Marsh Brown stayed with the Clemenses “briefly” [Reigstad 134].
March 2 Wednesday – The Clemenses invited George H. Selkirk and wife Emily over for the evening. Selkirk was one of Sam’s Express partners [Reigstad 133].
Jervis Langdon replied to the Feb. 26 from Sam:
Dear Samuel,
You should have the privilege of following in the footsteps of your illustrious mother, so you should. You can make changes. You may put the Carriage in the Cellar, the horse in the drawing room, & Ellen in the stable. Please your own tastes my boy, some have peculiar tastes & ought to be gratified
I am for liberty—
Your affectionate father / J. Langdon [MTPO].
In Buffalo Sam and Livy began a letter to Jervis Langdon that they finished on Mar. 3:
Polishing Irons
Dear Father—
Got your dispatch, & shall talk no business with my partners till Mr. Slee gets back.
The “Peace” has arrived, but Livy don’t know it, for she has got some eternal company in the drawing-room & it is considerably after dinner-time. But I have spread the fringed red dinner-table spread over the big rocking-chair & set up the beautiful thing on it, & in a prominent place, & it will be the first thing Livy sees when she comes in.
Later—She went into convulsions of delight when she entered. And I don’t wonder, for we both so mourned the loss of the first Peace that it did not seem possible we could do without it—& for you to send another in this delightful & unexpected way was intensely gratifying. You have our most sincere gratitude—Livy’s for the present itself, & mine because I shall so much enjoy looking at it [MTL 4: 82].
Note: Sam’s partners were Josephus N. Larned and George H. Selkirk. “The Peace” statuette had arrived shattered, and Livy shed tears over it and written to her mother about it. So a replacement was sent in perfect order.
March 3 Thursday – Sam and Livy (in shaded text) finished their letter to Jervis Langdon.
Your two letters came this morning, father, & your dispatch yesterday afternoon. (Mem.—Ellen’s in the stable & the horse in the attic looking at the scenery.)
We think it cannot be worth while to enter into an explanation of the Express figures, for the reason that Mr. Slee must have arrived in Elmira after your letter was written, & he would explain them to you much more clearly & understandingly than I could.
I thank you ever so much for your offer to take my money & pay me interest on it until we decide whether to add it to the Kennett purchase or not. I was going to avail myself of it at once, but waited to see if Mr. Slee & MacWilliams [sic McWilliams]couldn’t make Selkirk’s figures show a little more favorably. As I hoped, so it has resulted. And now, upon thorough conviction that the Express is not a swindle, I will pay some more on the Kennett indebtedness.
I am very glad to begin to see my way through this business, for figures confuse & craze me in a little while. I haven’t Livy’s tranquil nerve in the presence of a financial complexity—when her cash account don’t balance (which does not happen oftener than once a day) false she just increases the item of “Butter 78 cents” to “Butter 97 cents”—or reduces the item of “Gas, $6.45” to “Gas, $2.35” & makes that account balance. She keeps books with the most inexorable accuracy that ever mortal man beheld.
Father it is not true— Samuel slanders me—
I wrote “Polishing Irons” at the head of this letter the other night to remind either Livy or me to write about them—didn’t put it there for a text to preach from.
The report of my intending to leave Buffalo Livy & I have concluded emanates from Hartford, for the reason that it really started in the newspapers only a very little while after my last visit & your last letter to Hartford, & has been afloat ever since.
Yr son
Samuel
[MTL 4: 82]. Note: shaded text by Livy.
Sam also wrote Elisha Bliss, asking him to send a free copy of his book to an old Hannibal boyhood friend now a Methodist preacher in Rolla, Mo.—Lewis Frank Walden (d.1924) [MTL 4: 84]. Note: Walden was a close boyhood pal of Sam’s and lived on Palmyra Avenue (now Mark Twain Avenue) at the foot of Cardiff Hill. Besides all the boyhood games and pranks shared, Walden set type in the Hannibal Courier office with Sam, and later purchased the place [Hannibal Courier-Post, Mar. 6, 1935 p.9C].
Dr Sam
On arrival of Keokuk Packet I went on board (this morning) to meet Sallie Bowen and who do you suppose I met?
No less distinguished visitors, than “Kitty Hawkins” (Lauras Sister) and “Old Lucy Davis” for a more particular description of them, reference is hereby made to latter portion of Shakespears Seven Ages. Old Luce’ asked for you instanter! Said you were the worst Boy, “and I declare in my heart he’s the funniest man in my acquaintance” Wants to know if you still climb out on the roof of the house and jump from 3d story windows
Yours Ever / Bill
[MTPO]. Notes from source: Sallie was Sarah Ro Bards Bowen. Catherine (Kitty) Hawkins was the older sister of Annie Laura Hawkins Frazer. Lucy Davis was a Hannibal schoolteacher.
Dear Children
The weather has been unpleasant most of the time since I came here, but it has given me a good time to rest which I much needed I live on simple diet exercise what I am able, which has been very little, but my stomach has finally consented to digest the food, & I look now for rapid improvement
We shall move on from here tomorrow, for Charlston & Savannah. We want to hear from you very much and I hope you will write immediately on recpt of this at Savannah Gi., at Screven House—
I have thrown off all care.
so you see how good I am to follow the counsel of my children—
Doct Sayles has been a great comfort to me, I could not have got along without him, all my organs seemed to have suspended their functions, I would eat food moderately for two days and then throw it up. My bowells would not moove untill mooved by medicine I have been some times 4 days but now for 4 days I have not thrown up my food & my liver seems to have assumed its function, but very slugishly
I think I shall return entirely restored. I do not intend to return untill I am well—
Since writing this much your mother has retd from Breakfast with a letter from Susie from which we learn there is a letter from you awaiting us at Charlston, which makes us in a hurry to get there It will however take us untill Tuesday evening we shall only go to Weldon Monday, we shall probably stay in Charlston untill next week Monday. However that will depend upon Circumstances, we do not hold ourselves to any rules but moove with the spirit—
Samuel, I love your wife and she loves me, I think it only fair that you should know it but you need not flare up, I loved her before you did and she loved me before she did you & has not ceased since I see no way but for you to “make the most of it”—my wife sends much love
Your father / J. Langdon [MTP].
I keep money on deposit with Dan Slote all the time, in New York, & have just written him to write John Daly (of Daly & Boas, Blank Books, Main st. St. Louis,) to honor my order on them in your favor for $100. Dan will write them to-morrow [missing words]
…
Who is Mr. Webster of the Republican? If I knew him I would introduce you but I cannot very well take that liberty with a stranger. Who is he?
Dear Father & Mother— / Day before yesterday I loaned Mr. Larned $3,000 taking as security one-half of his ownership in the Express—the loan is for one year. Bowen & Rogers drew the papers at Mr. Slee’s instance. Took Mr Slee’s advice in everything. I have concluded to keep him here, for I cannot do well without him, but will get you a good man in his place. My wife still needs Mrs. Slee for some time yet, also, & so it seems absolutely necessary that we retain the family here for the present [MTL 4: 109].
“Send check & quarterly statement to me at Elmira Saml L. Clemens” [MTP, drop-in letters].
P.S.—1. I have not sold out of the “Buffalo Express,” and shall not, neither shall I stop writing for it. This remark seems necessary in a business point of view.
2. These MEMORANDA are not a “humorous” department [Schmidt].
First appearing in the Galaxy “The Facts in the Case of the Great Beef Contract,” a satire on government bureaucracy, something Sam never had trouble satirizing [Budd, “Collected” 1010]. Paine notes that Sam wrote the article three years before and mislaid it [MTB 404]. Note: reprinted May 7, 1870 in the Sacramento Daily Union as “A Famous Beef Contract, etc.”
Dear Redpath, / I mislaid the letter enquiring about Cambridge, N.Y., till this moment. It got mixed with my loose papers.
They told me that the society I
talked for was the leading [&] favorite. They half burned down the hall
at 7 p.m., [&] yet at 8 had a full house though a mighty
wet [&] smoky one. It was a bad night too.Springfield Mo. /[Yrs] /Mark. [MTP, drop-in letters].
Friend Clements. / Enclosed please find Statement of sales, & Check for 3914.65 amount of copyright, which we trust will come safely to hand, & be satisfactory to you, & show you “we still live” We will at the end of the year give you a statement of every Book bound with report of what has been done with all. Every vol that we do not pay copyright on (i e Editors &c) so as to make it all plain & square with you. This is our style— Dont think your Galaxy articles hurt your reputation at all. it was good, capital capital I sent your Book to Mrs [Bart] Bowen Col. as you directed. Please acknowledge recpt of Check, & state how you feel as regards sales &c. Respects to Mrs. C / [MTPO].
In Buffalo, Sam wrote to Elisha Bliss, enclosing a San Francisco letter, which evidently suggested a proposed book dealing with the Civil War:
Is the war worn out & the people surfeited with adventures, blood, scouting & all that sort of thing? Think the matter over & give me an idea of what I had better do with this. It would have been mighty bully chance a few years ago.
“My old friend Sam, / You will appreciate Mother’s effort to write: when I tell you ‘tis done with her left hand—the right hand being paralyzed and useless. / She was much affected by your kind remembrance of her, and greatly enjoyed reading your book” [MTP]. Note: Horr was Sam’s old schoolmarm. Sam wrote “preserve” on the env.
Dear Father— / For several days the news from you has grown better & better, till at last I believe we hardly seem to feel that you are an invalid any longer. We are just as grateful as ever two people were in the world. Your case was looking very ominous when we came away, & if we had been called back within a day or two we could not have been surprised. Now we hope to see you up here with mother, just as soon as you can come. Everything is lovely, here, & our home is as quiet & peaceful as a monastery, & yet as bright & cheerful as sunshine without & sunshine within can make it. We are burdened & bent with happiness, almost, & we do need to share it with somebody & so save the surplus. Come & partake freely.
I do not think we shall be easily able to go home when Anna Dickinson visits you, & so it has not been right seriously in our minds, perhaps, as yet. We expect to spend a full month in the Adirondacks (August or Sept.), & I shall have to do all that amount of Galaxy & Express writing in advance, in order to secure the time. So I shall make myself right busy for a while now—shall write faithfully every day.
I want Theodore to send $150 to Charley for me, & I never shall think of it when down town. Can Theodore send the money & just charge it up against me with interest till I see Elmira again? I have asked Charley to get a fine microscope for me, & I guess he would like me to trot the money along.
We are offered $15,000 cash for the Tennessee Land—Orion is in favor of taking it provided we can reserve 800 acres which he thinks contain an iron mine, & 200 acres of cannel coal. But inasmuch as the country is soon to be threaded with railways, the parties who are trying to buy (they are Chicago men,) may very much prefer to have the iron & coal themselves. So I advise Orion to offer them the entire tract of 30 or 40,000 acres of land at $30,000 without reserving anything; or, all except that 1,000 acres of coal & iron for $15,000. Our own agents have for two or three years been holding the tract complete, at $60,000, & have uniformly hooted at any smaller price.
My sister writes that the plants have not yet arrived from Elmira.
She also writes that she & Margaret have finished making & putting down the most of the carpets, though the one for the parlor has not transpired yet. {Transpired is no slouch of a word—it means that the parlor carpet has not arrived yet.} And she writes that the kitten slept all the way from Buffalo to Dunkirk & then stretched & yawned, issuing much fishy breath in the operation, & said the Erie road was an infernal road to ride over. {The joke lies in the fact that the kitten did not go over the Erie at all—it was the Lake-Shore.}
Livy is sound asleep, I suppose, for she went to our room an hour ago & I have heard nothing from her since.
Ma will go to Fredonia tomorrow to advise about the Tennessee land, but she may return, as my sister’s house must be pretty well tumbled yet.
Mr. & Mrs. Slee are well. We saw them Friday evening.
We took dinner & spent yesterday evening most pleasantly with the Grays (editor Courier,)—they are going to Addirawndix with us.
Must write the Twichells.
With very great love to all of you, including Mother, Sue, Theodore & Grandma—& in very great haste—
Yr Son
Samℓ [MTL 4: 138-40].
Annie Moffett (in 1875 became Mrs. Charles Webster) recalled Jane Clemens her grandmother in Fredonia days:
Jane Clemens adored parades…She was a good mixer and loved company…She had no use for people who bored her…She was devoted to the theatre, and she loved spectacles and gaiety…She was lively and emotional and would weep at the slightest provocation…She loved red and wanted everything in her room red. She would have dressed entirely in that color if she hadn’t been dissuaded…She had a fondness for molasses candy…She was always ready to talk…She was a great embroiderer of her tales…She did not like housekeeping or doing any disagreeable work if she could get out of it…In politics she was very liberal…She loved her newspaper and, although she could see with only one eye, she would read it even by flickering firelight [The Twainian, “The Real Jane Clemens,” October, 1939 p2-4, from an article in the July, 1925 magazine, The Bookman].
Jervis Langdon and Olivia Lewis Langdon wrote their son, Charles Langdon, who had written asking for an extended stay in Europe. In part:
My dear Son
Your letter of 27th April from Beirut to your Father & Mother only is this morning recd— I have written you one letter upon the subject when in the South, which you have not recd—& my opinion is you had better calculate to reach home as nearly as you can consistently one year from the time you left. We do not feel that we can do without you longer, and think it may be as well for you to visit Europe further some day, when perhaps Clemens, Livia & Ida can go with you. My health is not good & the Doctor thinks a sea voyage at present would be hazardous as my difficulty is altogether or nearly so in the stomach, I am doing very well now & believe home is the best place for me to secure my health [MTPO].
June – In the Galaxy for this month—MARK TWAIN’S MEMORANDA – Included:
“A Couple of Sad Experiences” – (includes The
Petrified Man and My Famous Bloody Massacre)
“The Judge’s ‘Spirited Woman’”
“Higgins”
“Hogwash”
“A Literary ‘Old Offender’ in Court with Suspicious Property in His Possession”
“Post-Mortem Poetry”
“Wit-Inspirations of the “Two-Year-Olds”
Short miscellaneous items: “Murphy,” “A Patriarch,” and “Lady Franklin” [Schmidt].
Note: Budd gives “Breaking it Gently” for this issue, first appeared without a title [“Collected” 1010].
June 22 Wednesday – Sam and Livy returned to Elmira to help nurse Jervis Langdon [MTL 4: 155n1]. They took turns at a bedside vigil. Sam took a shift in the middle of the day and from midnight to four in the morning. Livy and sister Susan Crane sat with their father for seven or eight hour stretches, waving a palm-leaf fan over him during the hot summer days [Willis 61].
Pamela Moffett wrote. (Only the envelope survives) [MTP].
June 23 Thursday – Female Academy, Buffalo, New York – Commencement Exercises Speech. Clemens wrote the speech, though David Gray (1836-1888), poet and editor of the Buffalo Courier, read it [McCullough 211].
Sam’s article, “MARK TWAIN IN NEW YORK” was printed in the Auburn, California, Stars and Stripes [Fatout, MT Speaks 62].
Sam telegraphed from Elmira to John Munroe & Co., American bankers in Paris, France to telegraph all over Europe if necessary to locate Charles Langdon, and notify him of his father’s condition. After eight hours, the Munroe Co. responded that a reply from Charles had reached them. Charley was in Bavaria and would start home immediately [MTL 4: 155].
June 23–26 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Appleton & Co., declining their offer to write a “humorous picture-book” [MTL 4: 155].
June 24 Friday – Sam’s article “Buffalo Female Academy” was printed in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 211].
June 25 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to his mother, and sister:
“We were called here suddenly by telegram 3 days ago. Mr. Langdon is very low. We have well nigh lost hope—all of us except Livy.”
He added that Charley would be home in two weeks, and that the whole city was troubled at Jervis’ condition. The Elmira newspapers reported on Jervis Langdon’s condition, sometimes weekly [MTL 4: 156]. Sam also wrote to Mary Mason Fairbanks about Jervis [MTL 4: 157]. It had become a deathwatch.
“Receipt of your check for two thousand dollars is here—hereby acknowledged. Saml L Clemens” [MTPO].
“I will come as soon as I can leave Livy….My coming at this time would stop Livy’s progress; for whilst she sleeps but poorly now, she may be said to not sleep at all when I am away…she is weak & suffering….get all the gossip you can about Cousin James Lampton & family, without her knowing it is I that want it” [MTL 4: 184-5 – note: source is uncertain as to year of this letter]. Sam eventually based the model for Colonel Sellers in The Gilded Age on cousin James Lampton.
“Friend Church— / Received yr. Check for $334, full payment for July & Sept. Sent the MS.S. for Oct. yesterday, to you. Yrs ever” [MTP, drop-in letters].
Ella Wolcott (b.1828) wrote to seek publishing help for a young man, Frank Huntington, who was traveling and studying in Germany [MTP].
My Dear Sir: / I want to read your admirable book (“The Innocents Abroad”) but us poor d——s of country newspaper men can’t afford to buy one. We don’t know your publishers. Can’t we notice or advertise, and thus come into possession of something good for the mind, of a standard heaps of newspaper men want to reach, but you hold so successfully at your service? [MTPO]. Note: Sam sent this on to Bliss.
October 10? Monday – Sam wrote to Ainsworth R. Spofford, on his “Fortifications of Paris” map which ran in the Buffalo Express Sat. Sept. 17:
Mr. Spofford, could I get you to preserve this work of art among the geographical treasures of the Congressional Library?
Yrs Truly
Mark Twain.
Note: see MTPO’s explanatory note 2 from SLC’s of 9 Oct 1870 to Redpath
I am so stupid. I forgot that it will be two or three weeks before I can see whether you are going to want that portrait & burlesque or not—so you must sit right down & write me even if you have to delay your dinner a minute or two. Will you?
2d article of this “Memoranda” (expressed last night per U.S. Ex. Co.) is headed “History Repeats Itself.” Please change that heading to / “Moral Anecdote for the Young” / Unattractive headings is bad wisdom [MTP]. Note: this misdated in MTP’s files as 1871; but Sam was in Pennsylvania on Oct. 19, 1871.
I don’t believe you’ve forgotten me, and I don’t want you to put on airs and pretend you have, just because I’m going to remind you of a promise.
When we met here in 186whatever it was 68 I believe, you told me you were going to go off in the Quaker City… [MTP]. Note: Mortimer Neal Thomson (1831-1875). He reminded Sam of his promise to give a copy of the book written from the excursion.
“Dear Twain: / The portrait is all right. I will give it to the engraver immediately.
We wont talk about your giving up at the end of the year. It is something not to be even thought of for a moment” [MTPO]. Note: a doodled portrait of King William of Prussia; see Oct. 18.
“I thank you, & through you the Literary Society you represent, for the honor conferred upon me by electing me to an honorary membership, & shall gladly avail myself of your kind invitation to visit your body at any time that I may chance to be in Lancaster” [MTP]. Note: the Society’s notification is not extant.
Buffalo, Nov. 1870.
The passage is as follows:
From Soliloquy at Tomb of Adam.
“The grave of Adam! How touching it was, here in a land of strangers, far away from home, & friends, & all who cared for me, thus to discover the grave of a blood relation. True, a distant one, but still a relation. The unerring instinct of nature thrilled its recognition. The fountain of my filial affection was stirred to its profoundest depths, & I gave way to tumultuous emotion.”
It is on page 567—well toward the end of the book.
Yrs Truly / Samℓ. L.
Clemens /(Mark Twain.)
Dear Twain / Yours recd Yes I got your article. “It is accepted” (a. la. N.Y. Ledger) Thanks for same—
Paper will be out last of the month—
How would your Bro. do for an editor of it—?
Would he be satisfied with $100. per month for present, until we could do better by him—?—
You see we have no real place just now for him, but would like for your sake to create a position for him, if possible—would this do? perhaps if here by & by we could see some opening which would pay good—(I guess he has an “it is safe to trust him to find “openings” if enough if you & he get along well together.)
Say! Is he anything like his younger brother—?
When does he want to leave St Louis.?
Tell me what you want, &, what you think about it &c &c— / Truly / Bliss [MTPO].
Dear Grandma:
I have waited with some impatience to hear from you or from some other member of the family, but up to this time no letter has arrived for me. I have received enthusiastic notice in telegrams from Cleveland & in congratulations from Mr. Brooks in New York—& the telegrams from Elmira have been gladly received & carefully preserved. But from you personally, I have not heard, at least in the shape of a letter, & I am obliged to say that I am hurt at it. Every now & then I think it all over & then I comprehend that you cannot write in these latter years without great difficulty. Of course that makes me feel better about it, but it does not last long. I soon get to worrying again & saying to myself that you might have written me one line at least. But never mind, I know it is all just as it should be, & that you have neglected me not because you desired to do it, but because you could not well help it. For I will not believe but that you love me. I am four days old to-day at eleven o’clock. Do you recollect when you were only 4 days old? I guess you don’t. I am looking for Granny Fairbanks tomorrow, & will be glad to see her, too, but I shall be outrageously sorry to part with Aunt Susie Crane, for she was here when I first came, & I have come to like her society very much, & she knows my disposition better than anybody except Auntie Smith.
I am boarding with a strange young woman by the name of Brown, & her baby is boarding with my mother. I expect Mrs. Brown could take several more boarders like me, for I am not a very hearty eater. I don’t understand this little game, but I guess it is all right. It is some little neat trick of my father’s to save expense, I fancy.
I have a ridiculous time of it with clothes. Except a shirt which aunt Hattie made for me I haven’t a rag in the world that fits me. Everything is too large. You ought to see the things they call “slips.” I am only 13 inches long, & these things are as much as 3 feet. Think of it. I trip & break my neck every time I make a step, for I can’t think to gather up the surplus when I am in a hurry.
I tell you I am tired being bundled up head & ears nine-tenths of my time. And I don’t like this thing of being stripped naked & washed. I like to be stripped & warmed at the stove—that is real bully—but I do despise this washing business. I believe it to be a gratuitous & unnecessary piece of meanness. I never see them wash the cat.
And I tell you it is dull, roosting around on pillows & rocking chairs & everybody else spinning around town having a good time. Sometimes they let that other baby lie on the kitchen table & wink at the sun, but bless you I never get a show. Sometimes I get so mad that I cannot keep my temper or my opinion. But it only makes things worse. They call it colic, & give me some execrable medicine. Colic. Everything is colic. A baby can’t open its mouth about the simplest matter but up comes some wise body & says it is wind in its bowels. When I saw the dog the first time, I made a noise which was partly fright & partly admiration—but it cost me a double dose of medicine for wind in the bowels. Do these people take me for a balloon?
I am not entirely satisfied with my complexion. I am as red as a lobster. I am really ashamed to see company. But I am perfectly satisfied with my personal appearance, for I think I look just like aunt Susie. They keep me on the shortest kind of rations, & that is one thing that don’t suit the subscriber. My mother has mashed potatoes, & gruel, & tea, & toast, & all sorts of sumptuous fare, but she never gives me a bite—& you can risk your last dollar on it that I don’t ask for it. It would only be another case of “wind in the bowels.” You’ll have to excuse me. I am learning to keep my remarks to myself. {But between you & I, Grandma, I get the advantage of them occasionly—now last night I kept aunt Smith getting up every hour to feed me— but and between you & me and I wasn’t hungry once.}
That doctor has just been here again. Come to play some fresh swindle on me, I suppose. He is the meanest looking white man I ever saw. Mind, now, this is not a splenetic & prejudiced outburst, but a calm & deliberate opinion formed & founded upon careful observation. Won’t I “lay” for him when I get my teeth?
Good-bye Grandma, good-bye. Great love to you & grandma & all the whole household.
Your loving great-grandson, / Langdon Clemens [232].
Mary Mason Fairbanks wrote to Langdon Clemens upon his birth: “My Dear Langdon / I am delighted to learn of your safe arrival, and gratified that you should have so promptly reported yourself to me, your venerable relative—on your father’s side” [MTPO].
Friend Bliss— / This is a mild satire of my brother’s on the “Sleeping Beauty” who is making such a stir in St Louis.
Come, let’s hear from you.
Our baby flourishes gallantly. How is Frank’s
Yrs / Clemens [MTPO].
From the Fredonia Censor for this date:
Mark Twain had a son and heir born to him last week, and yet, notwithstanding his extreme youth, his father has made something of him already—made a joke of him according to the [New York] World, which says the following despatch has been received by the Literary Bureau from Mark Twain:
“A son was born to me yesterday [Nov. 7], and with true family instinct he has gone to lecturing already. His subject is he same as Josh Billings—‘Milk.’ You are hereby constituted his agent and instructed to make arrangements with lyceums.” [See also Nov. 8 entry for Billings reference].
“My brother only
waiting for you to say when. [Answer.] Book progressing slowly What date do you think it best to issue it? /
Clemens” [MTPO]
Dr Clemens. / Believe me I am exceedingly glad to know your wife is getting on so well & your boy has gained an ounce as I learned from his letter to [Twitchell.]
I trust no [untoward] accident will alter this state of affairs for the worse— I have not heard from you since the one relating to your [brother.] Has he decided to come? Please let me know if it is [settled] yet and when he will be here, if he is to come— Also please give me an idea when you would like the book to come [out,] & how you get on with it.
By the way did you get the books I sent you? /truly [Bliss] [MTP].
Dr Clemens, / Have I been so stupid, as not to say to you I expect your brother so far as we are concerned. I thought I had said so or as much, & was waiting for report, daily as to his time of arrival &c—
He tells a good yarn in the slip sent. We will give him scope for his talent here— [MTPO].
[unknown number of words missing]
Am. Pub. Co. But all right—I am willing. Only I know this—that if you take the place, with an air of perfect confidence in yourself, never once letting any thing show in your bearing but a quiet, modest, entire & perfect confidence in your ability to do pretty much anything in the world, Bliss will think you are the very man he needs—but don’t show any shadow of timidity or unsoldierly diffidence, for that sort of thing is fatal to advancement.
I warn you thus because you are naturally given to knocking your pot over in this way when a little judicious conduct would make it boil [MTPO].
My Dear Twain—A joyous thanks giving to you with your new joy. I saw the moment with much pleasure, remembering the scripture, and “thy Twain shall be thrice.” Bless the bairn [baby Langdon], and may his life be ever Clemens, as it would not be likely were it a girl….Now for a very modest request I wish to make—that you will write me six lines or upwards for a Fair paper I am editing”[MTP].
Friend Clemens / Last night I dreamed “three times in succession” that I dwelt and delved in the Diamond fields of South Africa, and fairly reveled in the Republic of the Transvaal (wherever that may be)—furthermore that that I had been eminently successful in finding and buying the precious gems, some of which outrivaled the Koh-i-nor in size, weight and water, and outshone the Great Hoggarty Diamond in brilliancy. And lo and behold, this morning comes your letter!
How I would [have] liked to have been able to pack right up and start from the word “go”. I am “mighty willin” but not ready. And so after duly considering the subject, and carefully weighing the pros and cons I telegraphed the following “at your expense”:—
“Yes—at the close of session. Will write. Would rather talk. Pass is good yet. Can start to-morrow evening. Shall I? Answer”. Charges $1.50 for that with orders to C.O.D.
Waiting a reply I am writing you, with thanks for your kind consideration for my welfare and assuring you that I would really like to go. I am somewhat of an expert in precious stones, thanks to that poor old Brazillian Diamond Hunter whom I befriended in the Cal. mines, years ago; have a taste that way and thanks to my early experience in the gold fields and in Mexico and Centro-America am a good campaigner and know how to take care of myself and others. Besides which a residence of five years in the District of Columbia should certainly fit a man for South Africa. North Africa or the Interior of Africa. All of which is respectfully submitted. But—why did the idea not enter into your head or my head, or the pair of cabbage-heads when I was with you in Buffalo? And I would have said Yes to your query “Will You Go?” at once. Now, I consider that I am to a certain extent compromised to remain here through this session for I know that Senator Cole, Sutro, Judge Carter and others will rely upon my aid in their matters and apart from my engagement with the ALTA I have agreed to correspond with two other Cal. newspapers during the session; and this only one short week ago.
Then there are my two Committees—before which there remains much unfinished business which “went over” during the last session—and with which no new man taking my place as Clerk, could attend to so well as I, and it would not be right for me to leave at this time. Were I [to] go to Africa, to the diamond fields, or to Peru, to the coal mines, for you, I am sure you would not like me to fly off somewhere else just because the impulse seized me or a better offer were made me to go elsewhere. No—I cannot do it even though to “stick” should result to my disadvantage. But if there is no actual haste in the matter I can go after close of the session say as soon as you like after the fourth of March next. Who cares if there are “four hundred waggons on the Pnielside”. Why when I get there with my waggon I’ll drive in on the near side or the off side and thus secure a positive advantage—especially when it is time to leave. So wait for the “Ides of March” or fix a date to correspond to ’em, and I’ll go. / Yours truly / J. H. Riley. / Your injunction of secresy is heeded most religiously [MTPO]. Note: Adolph Sutro (1830-1898); Senator from Calif. Cornelius Cole (1822-1924); David Kellogg Cartter (1812–1887), chief justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia since 1863.
Leave the miner’s poem
& some other short thing
till Feb.
(Let this be added to “Sad Sad Business.”)
Originally I expected the present article to be only six lines long—a simple statement that that review was a burlesque on the London one, & that I was the culprit. But I ask the reader as a man & a brother if he could have the heart to demand that I leave this next paragraph out? It is from the regular Boston correspondence of the Northampton “Gazette:” [MTP]. Note: clipping not in file.
Friend
Clemens, / “Little madam” is a brave one— What a magnet for the women you are—
‘From the North & the South the East & the West they come to do homage’Am looking for
your brother daily. Have been in a stew—all day looking for a dispatch from you & none has
come from you— Did my letter reach you—& have you replied?— Am
anxious to hear, as I suppose the matter requires prompt action— Do you demur
to my argument? Trust to hear from you soon—about it—& know how you feel—
Hope you did not think me over sharp—now did you? / Let me hear from you if
mine is not recd, telegraph [MTPO].
“Contract approved signed and mailed to you. / Sam L. Clemens”
Friend
Clemens, / Yours of 22nd rec’d. Glad to hear you
are progressing with the Books— I believe I wrote you
I would copy this contract the next day after I wrote you & send you Well I
think I did—not do as I agreed this time— The fact is I have been so busy with
your brother &c getting things ready for paper &c I have not had a
moment to do it— Have waited 2 or 3 days past to do it & send with this
reply, & now dont send it. Well I will do it to night before I go to bed
& also make out the contract for the Sketch book
& send both tomorrows’ mail—but dare not delay
writing you longer. Yes we will have Mullen illustrate the sketch book all
right. Glad you have the Jumping Frog, in your own hands, but think he got the big end of a loaf He ought to have
sold you the plates for what he owed you.
Dont you think Jumping Frog would be a big thing in the sketch book? Seems to me it will do you as much good there as anywhere & pay you best— Think strongly of it, & see if you dont think it will be best to put it in there— By the way where are the plates & dont you want the book sold as it is—think we could sell a good many without making a noise—if you dont put it in Sketch book— Yes we want it in the pamphlet, or at least talk it over with you before you let it go, if you use it this way. Are you coming on? Will canvass for Sketch book as soon as Prospectus is ready for it. Will send Contracts tomorrow. Excuse my past lies failures. / Truly/ Bliss [MTP]. Note: (Misdated Dec. 29.)