Vol 3 Section 1136

Cleveland to say that if Mr. Twain knows of any other cases of this kind he would be greatly obliged if he will write him concerning them at his earliest convenience. [McElroy 14].

April 14, 1893 addition – Sam’s letter of this date to Charles M. Underhill, was later published in The Colophon 1.4 (Spring 1936), p. 633-5; though accurately summarized in Vol. II (together with Sam’s hilarious envelope address to Underhill), it becomes instructive, due to the salutation that Sam used, to show the whole letter and reveal the back-story behind the unusual salutation:

Dear Dombrowski:

I have worked at the Adam Diary until I have got it to suit me—therefore I will forward it to you in the morning. Irving can send the check to Elmira, (payable to the order of C.J. Langdon), where I shall make a little visit some days hence.

Some time or other I wish to re-teach you the uncertain game of Sixty-six when you are not busy.

With warm regards to you and Mrs. Underhill and all the house of Underhill, I am / Sincerely yours / S.L. Clemens.

[Note: in the 1936 publication, Charles M. Underhill’s son explained that the label “Dombrowski” was given to his father by Twain, who, “over twenty years before” at the Brevoort House in New York, Underhill, Twain and J.D.F Slee played the card game “Sixty-six” after a postponed meeting of coal men. Sam, never a good loser, and lost “hour after hour” to Underhill. “You’re a —— Dombrowski!” Sam exclaimed. Dombrowski was “the arch conspirator and communist leader in the French Revolution ….” Probably Ladislaus

Dombrowski of the French Civil War of 1871. His name was also sometimes given as Jeroslas Ladislaus Dombrowski. Twain would have been aware of what was going on in France at this time. He would have read 1871 newspaper reports of Dombrowski’s misadventure and fate. Yet, such anecdotes as the NYC card game are, sadly, often undatable. As of yet, no time before 1873 could Sam be placed in NYC with Slee and Underhill.]

August 29, 1893 addition – In Franzensbad, Germany, Livy wrote to Sam:

Youth my own darling;

I am only going to send you a line today, and with it I enclose the letter from Frau von Versen I rec’d a lovely letter from Mrs. Hillyer this morning they are in Homburg….

Dear blessed Miss Jane [Jean] I must tell you an experience that I had with her yesterday—I sent her with Julienne to get some Cognac. When I put the Cognac in my milk in the evening I found the milk was ruined; then I tasted the cognac, that was the most wretched stuff that I had ever tasted. I found that Jean had bought me cheap cognac. She evidently thought in the present state of our finances I must get used to drinking what was well within the range of our purse. … [MTP]. Note: the text of the TS varies somewhat from Harnsberger’s (p. 117-18), and one correction is made here from “Miss Jane” to Miss Jean, which Harnsberger shows, and “Jean” later shows in this TS. Harnsberger misdates the letter as “September 21, 1893, unpublished letter” [278n16]. Also, the letter from Frau von Versen is not extant, but on Nov. 2 he wrote daughter Clara, directing her to call on von Versen “Immediately.” Added Oct. 28, 2010.

September 12, 1893 addition – At the Kaiserhaus in Franzensbad, Germany, Livy wrote to Sam, concerned about the possible expenses of living in Paris, and considering each daughter’s needs

Youth my own darling:

Today we have a bright cool day, the weather is about as it is with us the last of Oct. or first of Nov. I must own that I greatly dread the journey without you, you think you bother me but you relieve me

of a great deal of care and I find when you are gone how much I lean upon you, you pet.

I have been reading the Paris guide book lately and it seems to me impossible for us to live in Paris in the present state of our finances. The expenses there will be entirely endless, of course I can never stir without a cab and the girls can not go about either much without one….

Susy thinks that for her it would be just as well and even better to be in the suburbs….Susy feels that

she wants to put all her time and all her strength on her singing this coming Winter….I do not know how