Mark Twain's Letters - Volume 2 (1867-1875)

in of another such e

party went to Munich,

quarters. Clemens cl

, that he took the pa

gh thirty years later,

shown the letter, he

a lie." He wrote, als

aulein Dahlweiner: "Ac

winter we spen

Howells,

rlstrasse

ulein Da

Nov. 1

p at 6 in the morning and a noble view of snow-peaks glittering in the rich light of a full moon while the hotel-devils lazily deranged a breakfast for us in the dreary gloom of blinking candles; then a solid 12 hours pull through the loveliest snow ranges and snow-draped forest-and at 7 p.m. we hauled up, in drizzle and fog, at the domicile which had been engaged for us ten months before. Munich did seem the horriblest place, the most desolate place, the most unendur

Dahlweiner. We got a larger parlor-an ample one-threw two communicating bedrooms into one, for the children, and now we are entirely comfortable. The only apprehen

r had so little trouble before. The next time anybody has

se we are all glad the girl is gone to Venice-for there is no place like Venice. Now I easily understand that the old man couldn't go, because you have a purpose in sending Lyddy by herself: but you could send the old man over in another ship, and we particularly want him along. Suppose you don't need him there? What of that? Can't you let him feed the doves? Can't you let him fall in the canal occasional

me, he was there, and gave us preserved rose-leaves to eat, and talked about you, and Mrs. Howells, and Winnie, and brought out his photographs, and showed us a picture of "the library of your new house," but not so-it was the stud

ributors' Club." That "Contributors' Club" was a most happy idea. By the way, I think that the man who wrote the paragrap

keep that old pipe in

s you will remember. Last night she had the usual dream. This morning she stood apart (after telling it,) for some time, looking vacantly at the floor, and absorbed in meditation. At last

ven in a dream, in occasionally being the eater, instead of always t

our letter and Winnie's, and I

I send lov

ev

A

ning at this time in t

party, was "The Lady

enlarging the part

y charac

rd birthday came in Mu

o his mother we get a

old Bavarian city. Ce

r and more profitable

usion of things lef

mens and Mrs. Mo

Karls

MUNICH

sterday and started down-hill toward old age. This fac

xercise I need, and all I take. We staid three weeks in Venice, a week in Florence, a fortnight in Rome, and arrived here a couple of weeks ago. Livy and Miss Sp

d study German at the same time: so I have dropped the latter, and do

or months now. In Venice they were on the water in the gondola most of the time, and were great friends with our gondolier; and in Rome and

n love to you all and

f

ur

A

ETURN TO AMERICA. TH

ell in Munich. Each

Fraulein Dahlwei

er, did not settl

ant work-room" prov

e discovered he cou

ready to give up

letter that follo

oncerning his own p

lls, which he was

ant

apter mentioned in

p Abroad.' It was p

te Elephant' in a

ich he had now foun

other than "Simon

regarded so high

e millionaire merc

olen in the expec

Howells,

Jan. 2

hotograph. I did imagine that everything had been said about life at sea that could be said, but no matter, it was all a failure and lies, nothing but lies with a thin varnish of fact,-only you have stated it as it absolutely is. And only you see people and their ways, and their insides and outsides as they are, and make them talk as they do talk. I think you are the very greatest artist in these tremendous mysteries that ever lived. There doesn't seem to be anything that can be concealed from your awful all-seeing eye. It must be a cheerful thing for one to live with you and be awar

I threw a chapter into my present book in which I have very extravagantly burlesqued the detective business-if it is possible to burlesque that business extravagantly. You know I was going to send you that detective

t believe that that character exists in literature in so well-developed a condition as it exists in Orion's person. Now won't you put Orion in a story? Then he will go handsomely into a play aft

I was so glad there was not a single sting and so many goo

to yo

s

A

re till midd

there is an incident

unting for a lost sock

bronn. The account of

hell, seems eve

mburger Cheese and the

" did not find place i

ame volume with the el

otes of "An Id

the Swiss note-book, w

s letter reflect

. Twichell,

, Jan

ss, to keep from waking Livy, and proceeded to dress in the pitch dark. Slowly but surely I got on garment after garment-all down to one sock; I had one slipper on and the other in my hand. Well, on my hands and knees I crept softly around, pawing and feeling and scooping along the carpet, and among chair-legs for that missing sock; I kept that up; and still kept it up and kept it up. At first I only said to myself, "Blame that sock," but that soon ceased to answer; my expletives grew steadily stronger and stronger,-and at last, when I found I was lost, I had to sit flat down on the floor and take hold of something to keep from lifting the roof off with the profane explosion that was

e thing began to suggest themselves. So I lay on the sofa, with note-book and pencil, and transferred th

writing of this one simply impossible, and let me gracefully out; I was about to write to Bliss and propose some other book, when the confounded thing turned up, and down went my heart into my boots. But there was now no

ook than I did, for I like my work, now, exceedingly, and often turn out ov

m dressed elaborately in walking costume-knapsacks, canteens, field-glasses, leather leggings, patent walking shoes, muslin folds around their hats, with long tails hanging down behind, sun umbrellas, and Alpenstocks. They go all the way to Wimpfen by rail-thence to Heilbronn in a chance vegetable cart drawn by a donkey and a cow; I shall fetch them home on a raft; and if other people shall perceive tha

't waste the time-I haven't the slightest desire to loaf, but a consuming desire to work, ever since I got back my swing. And you see this book is either going to be compared with

acquire a critical knowledge of the German language. My MS already shows that the two latter objects are accomplished. It shows that I am moving about as an Artist and a Philologist, and unaware that the

king of his friends-they are the parties who busy themselves with seeing things for people. But I'm bound to have him in. I'm putting in the yarn about the Limburger cheese and the box of guns, too-mighty glad Howells declined it. It seems to gather richness and flavor with

hear it with the ears of the body, but what a voice it was!-and how real. Deep down in my memory it is sounding yet. Alp calleth unto Alp!-that stately old Scriptural wording is the right one for God's Alps and God's ocean. How puny we were in that awful presence-and h

f it is. Well, time and time again it has seemed to me that I must drop everything and flee to Switzerland once more. It is a longing-a deep, strong,

children were frolicing around me and Julia was sitting in my lap; you and Harmony and both families of Warners had finished their welcomes and wer

A

of this letter, if possible. They will

Mark Twain, whether

detailed occurrence, w

tle distance, from his

is ever present, his i

lans for improving his

one of the most huma

manity excluded every

eds to be acquired.

way by the impulse of

e was never able to s

und to succeed. Mark

especially with Howe

erest of religion fou

followi

Howells,

Feb. 9

answer to it, when Mrs. Clemens shut down on it, and said it was cruel, and made me send the money and simply wish his lecture success

rd and the heart-breakingly pathetic more closely joined together? Mrs. Clemen

his lecture, yet in one inking of his pen he has already

atest work would be lost to the world. I could write Orion's simple biography, and make it effective, too, by merely stating the bald fac

drew from the deaconship in a Congregational Church and the Superintendency of its Sunday School, in a speech in which he said that for many

A few days before the Presidential election, he came out in a speech and publicly wen

f speakers. He wrote me jubilantly of what a ten-strike he was going to make with that speech. All

received when I came forward; so I seemed unable to get the fire into my speech which I had calculated u

and show it to another? Not a word of comp

as to write a burlesq

mn for stories, he concluded to write some for the same price

a week and meekly observed that the foreman swore at

$900 and he went to a ten-house village a miles above Keokuk on the river bank-this place was a railway station. He soon asked for m

mine paid his interest quarterly, and this enabled me to use my capital twice in 6 months instead of only once. But alas, when the debt at last reached $1800 or $2500 (I have forgotten which) the interest ate too formidably into his borrowings, and so he quietly ceased to pay i

this case. He has waggled it around through various courts and made some booming speeches on it. The negro children have grown up and married off, now, I believe, and their litigated town-lot has been dug up and carted off by somebody-but Orion still infests the courts with his documents and makes the welkin ring with his venerable case. The second year, he didn't make anything. The thi

America as "Mark Twain's Brother"-that to be on the bills. S

and ran a bold tilt against total abstinence and the Red Ribb

let a mail intervene; so by the time my letter reached

n the middle of the last chapter, last March, to digest the matter of an infidel book which he proposed to write; and

, but take it up and use it. One can let his imagination run riot in portrayin

erry one be yours. Poor old Methusaleh,

ev

A

and inclosed with the fo

Feb. 9

yment out of his changes, and transformations and transfigurations as a steadfast man gets out of standing still and pegging at the same old monotonous thing all the time. That is to say, I don't see why a kaleidoscope shouldn't enjoy itself as much as a telescope, nor a grindstone have as good a time as a whetstone, nor a barometer as good a time as a yardstick. I don't feel like girding at you any more about fickleness of purpose, because I recogn

would make a deep and cruel wound in your heart and in your pride. It was decidedly unwise in you to think for a moment of coming before a community who knew you, with such a course of lectures; because Keokuk is not unaware that you have been a Swedenborgian, a Presbyterian, a Congregationalist, and a Methodist (on probation), and that just a year ago you were an infidel. If Keokuk had gone to your lecture course, it would have gone to be amused, not instructed, for when a man is known to have no set

inis

ny ways was hardly le

again revealed in h

d he possessed the dr

he importance to him

own in a letter like t

y of nature which

. Twichell,

Feb. 2

is a rattling good one. But I have not sot down here to answer your le

ned and freshly strapped razor won't cut, but after strapping on the hand as a final operation, it will cut.-So I sent out for an oil-stone; none to be had, but messenger brought back a little piece of rock the size of a Safety-match box-(it was bought in a shoemaker's shop) bad flaw in middle of it, too, but I put 4 drops of fine Olive oil on it, picked out the razor marked "Thursday" because it was never any account and would be no loss if I spoiled it-gave it a brisk and reckless honing for 10 minutes, then tried it on a hair-it wouldn't cut. Then I trotted it through a vigorous 20-minute course on a razo

xt Thursday-address,

h l

E

A

easant quarters at the

ring, and the traveler

ench capital. Mark T

se of the noises of t

in the hotel and made

he said: "I sleep like

d of a lion that wr

e book in six weeks;

. He was looking aft

to Frank Bliss, of T

e frontpiece, which,

its origin. To Bliss h

by pasting a popular

d Biblical one-shall

be engraved

bad in France and they

in England. They had

or Brown, whose health

n blamed himself hars

ed would have meant s

hat time the real rea

uncertainty of trains

to reach Liverpool

th characteristic sel

stinacy on his part ha

rpool, on the eve of s

good-b

n Brown, i

TEL, LIME STR

. (

e were at last obliged to give up the idea of seeing you at all. It is a great disappointment, for we wanted to show you how much "Megalopis" has grown (she is 7 now) and what a fine creature her sister is, and how prettily they both speak German. There are six persons in my party, and they are as difficult to cart around as nearly any other menagerie would be. My wife and Miss Spaul

and if my instinct and experience are worth anything, it is the very worst hotel on earth, without any exception. W

, and in the kindest remembrance to "Joc

y yo

. CL

79, that Mark Twain re

seventeen months of h

and had added gray ha

that he looked older

t his hair had t

nished his book of tr

from complete-and h

t Quarry Farm. When, a

Howells, Clemens wrote

ells hastily sent a l

ep of a torpid conscie

o write you; but I lov

glad that you are home

you come home with

ens, toiling away at h

spect of other plan

ver failed t

Howells,

Sept.

me so far. So we will say Hartford or Belmont, about the beginning of November. The date of our return to Hartfo

tlantic stuff in my head, but

? Orion is a field which grows richer and richer the more he mulches it with each new top-dressing of religion or other guano. Drop me an immediate line about this, won't you? I imagine I see Orion on the stage, always gentle, always melancholy, always changing his politics and religion, and trying to reform the world, a

the outer darkness, after 30 years' rab

st abounding love to you and yo

s

A

interested Howells,

tter of using Orion

taken the skeleton of

... I really have a co

other into drama. You

ou like with him, but

rable hurt on h

Orion Clemens had a k

would have enjoyed him

Indeed, it is more th

at the thought of

e next letter one migh

t of this plan, and w

mat

Howells,

, Oct.

ready written. Afterward he began to sell off his furniture, with the idea of hurrying to Leadville and tackling silver-mining-threw up his law den and took in his sign. Then he wrote to Chicago and St. Louis newspapers aski

y's sign, "though it only creaks and catches no flies;" but last night's letter informs me that he has retackled the religious question, hired a distant den to write in, applied to my mother for $50 to re-buy his furniture, which has advanced in va

fierce upstirring, and if it would not get it when Grant enters the meeting place I must doubtless "lay" for the final resurrection. Can you and Hay go? At the same time, confound it, I doubt if I can go myself, for this book isn't done yet. But I would give a heap to be there. I

ind, you can stop over here on your way, I wish you would do it, and telegraph me. Getting pretty hungry to see you

s

A

eat Commanders," menti

al Grant after his jou

one continuous ovati

d commanders were sti

Chicago to do him hon

there was anything p

indications. Mark Tw

ce been completely "d

felt that the sight

commander would stir

even in that earlier

him through the Mis

e become a hero to Ma

lemens favored the ide

ceding letter an invit

reunion; but by this

er he wrote has

iam E. Stron

N AVENUE,

28,

CH'M, AND GENTLEME

chance, for I have not had a thorough stirring up for some years, and I judged that if I could be in the banqueting hall and see and hear the veterans of the Army of the Tennessee at the moment that their old commander entered the room, or rose in his place to speak, my system would get the kind of upheaval it needs. General Grant's progress acr

for an office. However, I consume your time, and also wander from the point-which is, to thank you for the courtesy of your invitation, and yield

reat r

Gent

truly

. CL

emen, but the card of invitation went to Elmira

ent. He reconsidered

the committee had requ

sque in the idea of t

rainy fortnight thro

now to join in welcome

to be something more t

several days, wit

s, and muc

Chicago in good seas

ns intimately present

yment and his own

y written after the m

in it was Dr. A.

"Doctor" of In

lemens, i

SE, CHICAG

life to me-hurt in Chicago fire and lay menaced with death a long time, but the Innocents Abroad kept her mind in a cheerful attitude, and so, with the doctor's help for the body she pulled through.... They drove me to Dr. Jackson's and I had an hour's visit with Mrs. Jackson.

Fred G

I would like you to come and have a talk

ittle girl nearly as big as Bay but only three years old. They wanted me to come in and spend an evening, after the banquet, with them and Gen. Grant, after this grand pow-wow is over, but I said I was going home Friday. Then

ng songs and made speeches till 6 o'clock this morning. Nobody got in the least degree "under the influence," and we had a pleasant time. Read awhile in bed, slept till 11, shaved,

nteenth was issued for me. I was there, looking down on the packed and struggling crowd when Gen. Grant came forward and was saluted by the cheers of the multitude and the waving of ladies' handkerchiefs-for the windows and roofs of all neighboring buildings were massed full of life. Gen. G

any-stay where you are-I'll

l General, and you should have heard the cheers. Gen. Logan was g

y cloak and his plumed chapeau, sitting as erect and rigid as a statue on his immen

P.M., and got it, but brought Gen. Willard, who lent me his for the rest of my stay, and will g

rmy of the Tennessee will receive Gen. Grant, and where Gen. Sherman w

y darling, and am hoping t

A

sion, which he descr

at Haverley's Theatr

morning, or at least s

a night of

lemens, i

, Nov.

f position and attitude were also frequent. But Grant!-he was under a tremendous and ceaseless bombardment of praise and gratulation, but as true as I'm sitting here he never moved a muscle of his body for a single instant, during 30 minutes! You could have played him on a stranger for an effigy. Perhaps he never would have moved, but at last a speaker made such a particularly ripping and blood-stirring remark about him that the audience rose and roared and yelled and stamped and clapped an entire minute-Grant sitting as serene as ever-when Gen. Sherman stepped to him, laid his hand affectionately on his shoulder, bent respectfully down and whispered

ch-the old savage-eyed rascal-three or four feet behind Gen. Sherman, and as he had been in nearly every battle

Indian, in General's uniform, striking a heroic attitude and g

scraps in the drawer and

morning and drank little or nothing. Went

A

d letter that we get

to Howells, which, in

need not be

owever, must n

ike to see a bullet-sh

the gaze of a thousan

seen it since they s

n they were in their p

t, their first comman

going mad over the fla

dy struck up, 'When we

ould have heard the th

ars stream down. If I

se things, nor be able

, my boy, g

Mark Twain's speech h

house. He had been in

but had replied that

n once. There was one

erlooked on these oc

toast. In his letter

freely of his person

t all, and with that c

ailed him to

lemens, i

, Nov.

fter 5 in

,-oh, it was just the supremest combination of English words that was ever put together since the world began. My soul, how handsome he looked, as he stood on that table, in the midst of those 500 shouting men, and poured the molten silver from his lips! Lord, what an organ is human speech when it is played by a master! All these speeches may look dull in print, but how the lightni

I mounted on top of the dinner table, but it was only on account of my name, nothing more-they were all tired and wretched. They let my first sentence go in silence, till I paused and added "we stand on common ground"-then they burst forth like a hurricane and I saw that I had them! From that time on, I stopped at the end of each sentence, and let the tornado of applause and laughter sweep around me-and when I c

e told me he laughed till the tears came and every bone in his body ached. (And do you know, the biggest part of the success

ll always be grateful to you for coming." General Pope came to bunt me up-I was afraid to speak to him on that theatre stage last night, thinking it might be presumptuous to tackle a man so high up in military history. Gen. Schofield, and other historic men, paid their compliments. Sheridan was ill and c

I live a hundred years, I'll always be grateful for your speech-Lord what a supreme thing it was." But I told him it wasn't any use to talk, he had walked off with the

rest easy, they would go at once, at this unholy hour of the night and compel the railways to do their duty by me

listening to speeches, and I never ate a single bite or took a sup of anything but ice water, so if I seem ex

good bye and God bless you and the Ba

A

u want to-I saw some

icago speech, when we find him, a few days later, writing to Ingersoll for a perfect copy to read to a young girls' cl

obert G.

RD, De

to a miracle. I wish I could hear you speak these splendid chapters before a great audience-to read them by myself and hear the boom of the appl

memory had been able to correct all the errors. I read it to the Saturday Club (of young gi

y Yo

. CL

r Mark Twain's Whittie

fects. Now, in 1879,

breakfast to Dr. Oli

ited. He was not eage

ries of two years bef

er, he agreed to atte

wain never lacked co

lf. To Howel

Howells,

, Nov. 2

nd be heard among the very earliest-else it would be confoundedly awkward for me-and for

be there at all; but Warner took th

, reminds me of Susie's newest and very earnest lon

a child's head, once, and

ev

. CL

t well. Clemens, onc

nservatively, it may

tribute to Doctor Hol

nowledgment, the kind

dinner of two years be

aster, and this time h

y restored in h

HOWELLS. "THE PRINCE AND THE PAU

-[A Tramp Abroad.]-

Paris, and later

me to an end. In De

ing on it, and he

, rather by a decree

ip. This was early

his difficulties, a

ding

Howells,

D, Jan.

ct ever since I saw you-I have been fighting a life-and-death battle with this infernal book and hoping to get done some day. I required 300 pages of MS, and I have written near 600 since I saw you-and tore it all up except 288. This I was about to tear up yesterday and begin again, when

t is painfuller than another, may

line I should ever write on this book. (A book which required 2600

Sea off my back, where he has been roosting for more than a year and a half. Next time I make a contrac

and am also mighty glad you have begun the next (this is also from a man who knows the felicity of that, and means stra

ut up-must drop

ev

A

k Twain wrote to his

rst hint of a ventur

part in the Hartford

en years. This was th

in the end, all but

ut a brief mention o

r itself is not wort

chine" appear with in

d here its first ment

ther that he undertake

ssion in which nothing

asanova's memories,

ny literary suggestion

egan at once piling up

a

himself, having got '

ith enthusiasm on a st

y Farm-a story for ch

Little Prince and The

o Howells his delig

Howells,

D, Mch.

untenance (and half as much learning and still more genius and imagination) and after that, the rightful small King has a rough time among tramps and ruffians in the country parts of Kent, whilst the small bogus King has a gilded and worshipped and dreary and restrained and cussed time of it on the throne-and this all goes on for three wee

r penalties upon the King himself and allowing him a chance to see the rest of them applied to others-all of which

siderable damning with faint praise out of her, but this time it is all the other way. She is become the ho

of it is beyond praise. The language is so beautiful, the passion so fine, the plot so ingenious, th

ee's" and the "thou's" had a pleasant sound, since it is the language of the Pr

Ev

A

ve," mentioned in this

done for Law

e, was forwarding his

brother's approval, so

d anxious, that Ho

e Atlantic. We may im

commendation

ion C

6,

,-It is a model

, perhaps, but he can't say decidedly, "This writer is not such a simpleton as he has been letting on to be." Keep him in that state of mind. If, whe

not try to find those places, else you will mar them further by trying to better them. It is peri

longed in an earlier chapter, do not go back, but jam it in where

re, but have not needed to make any

sease badly, and thenceforth

B

A

bring himself to print

ling to make. "It wru

fter I had finished i

ing." Howells added th

de one acquainted with

Twain, and that these

a true prophecy, fo

acked most of its vita

, without those faithf

continued, as he bega

ntribution to literatu

heology and discussion

haps, as many as two

ould undert

always busy with plans

nt, some semi-seriou

nce he proposed a "Mod

fication for members

"I am the only membe

quite aggravated type,

stop dead still wit

upon reflection I have

. Therefore, I have h

inction of membership

hough I have had some

sgood, Fields, Higgi

Howells, Mrs. Clemen

he s

the only reason he ha

he was too modest-too

get over this diffi

ghly of the Club and i

dinner at the public e

may put my name down a

Howells applauded the

said that she knew o

. Her manner of sayin

ad named were not,

. I have sent your le

modesty. He will th

s you or I; whereas, o

tted on su

ells is, in the main,

as to become in tim

, the matter of cop

interest in the subje

Canada, and the rights

ica. We have already

Lowell, Longfellow, a

d come of this plan

he hesitated when he f

to work a hardship t

"My notions have might

copyright classics, i

e. These things must

ls of the country.....

acy, and thus save me

anyway, and I'd like c

pposing t

ells, in Bel

, June 6

sit is going to get mixed, and you'll have been here and gone again just about the time I get back. Bother it all, I wanted to astonish you wit

as managed to do the right thing for once, and said "I opened the conservatory doors, took the library off the alarm, and spread everything open, so that there wasn't any obstruction between him and the cellar." Language wasn't capable of conveying this woman's disgust. But the sense of what she said, was, "He couldn't have done any harm in the conservatory-so you must

she knows how to a

s sent for, and responded; Susie Warner down, abed; Mrs. George Warner threatened with death during several hours; her son Frank, whilst imitating the marvels in Barnum's circus bills, thrown from his aged horse and brought home insensible: Warner's friend Max Yortzburgh, shot in the back by

hese stirring times, and don't intend to go to work again till we go away for the Summer, 3 or 6 weeks hence. So I am writing

a time like this when all legislation must have a political and Presidential bearing, else Congress won't look at it. So have ch

President-is approval the proper word? I find it is the

ffection t

s

A

rous to send strang

wain. They were so apt

n the wrong mood. Howe

lt was only amusing i

of their

ells, in Bel

9,

l-meaning corpse was the Boston young man, but lawsy bless me, horribly dull company. Now, old man, unless you have great confidence in Mr. X's judgment, you ought to make him submit his article to you before he prints it. For only think how true I was to you: Every hour that h

time, and Mrs. Clemens cor

ev

A

to ask that man to l

afraid of was that you

so I tried to put i

nt you to board peop

ng. I suppose I have m

preternaturally keen

u. (How does tha

l-a remarkable letter-

we get a happy hint o

ground a glimpse of M

refle

ichell, in

RM, Aug.

r frog," I should think he was convicting himself of being a pretty poor sort of observer.... I will not go into details; i

ht about by throwing this new security on the market. Four weeks ago the children st

e

a

ey [

in [an

a

. 4., and am become No. 5. Some time ago it used to be nip and tuck between

y, and read and smoke and scribble and have a good time. Last evening Livy s

would have done if he ha

at abscess c

elieve

de a co

d so booming with fresh young blood and bountiful life, and sappy cynicisms about girls, has since climbed the Alps of fame and stood against the sun one brief tremendous moment with the world's eyes upon him, and then-f-z-t-! where is he? Why the only long thing, the

b, I mean, who are holding this yellow paper in your hand in 1960,) save yourself the trouble of looking further; I know how pathetically trivial our small concerns will seem to you, and I will not let your eye profane them. No, I ke

A

Mark Twain was working

to a letter to Aldric

s a pleasant letter,

mentioned was 'The

rich, in Pon

Sept.

its Mrs. Clemens just right, for she is having a reading holiday, now, for the first time in same months; so between-times, when the new baby is asleep and stren

ween sixty and eighty thousand words-about the size of your book. I

it. In my opinion, this universal applause over his book is going to land that man in a Retreat inside of two months. I notice the papers say mighty fine things abo

. Clemens asks me to send her warmest regards to

s

A

a journalist in San F

Soule, who had a desk

ose days highly consi

hom were younger and

never been an importa

me still local, and

ed to have a volume

ed standing. Because

and a warm friend in

uld turn to him now, a

ould turn

Howells,

, Oct.

Soule he needn't write you, but simply send the MS. to you. O dear, dear, it is dreadful to be an unrecognized po

him-if he contracts with the undersigned he will experience a change in that programme that will make the enamel peel off his teeth for very surprise-and joy. No, that last is what Mrs. Clemens thinks-but it's not so. The proposed work is growing, mightily, in my estimation, day by day; and I'm

s

A

s might have found val

ommend them to Osgood

n regard to him, and I

fellow! I can imagine

gle not to be

, was inevitable. So

try at all. No publi

give them

otchman" mentioned in

who had a plan to enga

of anthology of the w

though the other plan

time grew

with Bliss for the pu

an had been made on a

'The Innocents Abroa

,' and to 10 per cent

ater percentages fair

however, had never bee

more than once urged h

lf-profit basis. T

p Abroad' was made on

d his first statement

der earlier conditions

sfaction; at least,

s advantage. It produ

an excuse to place h

of inde

emens, in K

, Oct

binding,) that I have lost considerably by all this nonsense-sixty thousand dollars, I should say-and if Bliss were alive I would stay with the concern and get it all back; for on each new book I would require

about $75 a month-so I shall tell Mr. Perkins to make your check that amount per month, hereafter, while our income is able to afford it. This ends the loan business; and hereafter you can reflect that you are living not on borrowed money but on money which you hav

tell; she has blue eyes and brown hair, and three chins, and is very fat and happy; and at one time

thing urgent to say, except that a basket full of letters has accumulated in the 7 days that I ha

love

A

encl

The Prince and Paup

Howells for conside

's and I like it immen

ted out some things th

t is such a book as I

of fury there is to

ublishing the story a

accepted seriously ov

rred to in the next l

c book, the story told

e a bull t

Howells,

Eve,

t the book-so, on the whole, I've concluded to publish intrepidly, in

ime. Smith's an enjoyable fellow. I liked Barrett, too. And the oysters were as g

and unassailable array and had studied them out and got them by heart-all with the trembling half-hearted hope of getting Grant to add his signature to a sort of petition to the Viceroy of China; but Grant took in the whole situation in a jiffy, and before Joe had more than fairly

s as if he had come to borrow a dollar, and been of

dark. Merry Chris

Ev

A

l Mission, mentioned i

titution, projected e

ng Wing. The mission w

high honor in which G

through him it might

ncerned and naturally

o following the retur

m General Grant, in w

erful and most influe

great friendship for m

of the same thing si

government, that the

from this country

Chang was experienci

or possibly he was n

ssion did n

S AND OTHERS. ASSISTING A YO

Twain's admiratio

ird-term President

eld. He had made sp

n just ended, and

rt. Upon Garfield's

tled to no special f

ferred at length cou

ough made for a

t James A. Garfie

, Jany.

GAR

n persons wanting office have asked me "to

never complied. I could not without exposing the fact that I hadn

equently I am not risking anything. So I am writing this as a simple citizen. I am not drawing on my fund of influence at all. A simple citizen may express a desire with all propriety, in the matter of a recommendation to office, and so I beg permission to hope that you will retain Mr. Douglass in his present office of Marshall of the Distri

ing to the point, his history would move me to sa

reat r

, Ge

s tr

. CL

of his way any time

ldhood associations w

felt that the white ma

orced bondage. He woul

e would as likely as n

ngregation. Once, in

ne too politely phrase

annoyed and about to

mens, who was

church, and if so thi

how to write a polis

anner changed so sud

to, and it will be use

ery man colored until

Howells,

, Feb. 2

o have a thing to do, but you shall work if you want to. On the evening of March 10th, I am going to read to the colored folk in the African Church here (no whites admitted except such as I bring with me), and a choir of colored folk will sing jubilee songs. I count on a good time, and shall

ssions, but I came home feeling as one does who realizes that he has done a neat thing for once and left no flaws or loop-holes. Well, Livy said she had never told me to invite Charley and she hadn't dreamed of inviting Susy, and moreover

A

were always privately

e along the way of ac

dramatic schools; yo

ge and to travel abroa

colored students, on

nother through th

name of Gerhardt in

mportant, or at least

e following letter giv

or

Howells,

and Conf

, Feb. 2

S,-Well, here

irritable mood, for the barber was up stairs waiting and his hot water getting cold, when the colored George returned from answering the bell and

bent scowling over that person, and began a succession of ru

uestion and answer were going on. She had risen to her feet with the first question; and there she stood, with her pretty f

ight-forwardly; and bravely, and most winningly simply and earne

tatue in clay, and would I be so kind as to come and look at it, and tell him

t know anything about art-the

come down the first day that fell idle-and as I conducted her to the door, I tamed more and more, and said I would come during the very next week-"We shall be so glad-but-but, would you please come early in the week?-the statue is just finished and we are so anxious-and-and-we did hope you could come this week-and"-well, I came down another peg, and said I would come Monday, as

its office. Warner fought, as I had done; and he was in the midst of an article and very busy; but no matter, she won him completely. He laid aside h

n't fail." He was in love with the girl, and with her husband too, and said he b

machine shop, the wife kept no servant, she was there alone. She had a little parlor, with a chair or two and a sofa; and the artist-husband's hand was visible in a couple of plaster busts, one of the wife, and another of a neighbor

he corner, and presently there stood the clay statue, life size-a graceful girlish creature, nude to the waist, and holding up

the image and so remained-a thing I didn't

it's

any an hour-and you can't think how it does tire one! But I don't mind it. He works all day

was perfectly charming, this girl's innocence and purity--exhibiting her naked self, as it were, to a stranger and alone, and never once dreaming that there was the slightest

table family-(I am able to believe anything she says.) And she told me how "Karl" is 26 years old; and how he has had passionate longings all his life

sn't he had

never had

d a noble eye-and he was as simple and natural, and as beautiful in spirit as his wife was. But she

ense of $350. Livy and Clara went there next day and came away enchanted. A few nights later the Gerhardts kept their promise and came here for

s enough in it to make up for them"-whereat the young wife danced around as delighted as a child. When we came away, Champney said, "I did not want to say too much there, but the truth is, it seems to me an extraordinary performance for an untr

way bewitched with those people and marveling at the winning innocence of the young wife, who dropped naturally into model-attitude beside the statue (which is

is full of genius, too. It is such a statue as the man of average talent would achieve after two years training in the schools. And the boldness of the fellow, in going straight to nature! He is an apprentice-his work shows that, all over; but the stuff

with the thing that was in her mind. She said, "Go privately and star

w-storm-and there was a stirring time. Th

he young wife dancing and jubilating behind, this latter cried out imp

k and they were going to tack

hink Livy would mind my telling you these things, b

ev

A

Champney, a portrait-p

sculptor, J

sently off to Paris, w

reality; in due time

m a

of Joel Chandler Harri

ly read them aloud, n

ote Harris, expressing

the negro stories of h

e urged Harris to lo

lec

oud feather in Uncle-

ow what higher honor

rtford public arm in

inality for the storie

rd Uncle Remus are sim

ker and the calendar.

nd asked for the out

out of Mark Twain

dler Harris,

N.Y.,

will bag. In reality the stories are only alligator pears-one merely eats them for the sake of the salad-dressing. Uncle Remus is most deftly drawn, and is a lovable and delightful creation; he, and the little boy, and their relations with each o

ne of your questions with full confidence-thus: Make it a subscription book. Mighty few books that come strictly under the head of literature will sell by subscription; but if Uncle Remus won't, the gift of p

I should have recommended Osgood to you. He inaugurates hi

d to interrupt my yarn about "The Gol

e not written it so, for I can't spell it in your matchless way. It i

and the impressive pauses and eloquent silences, and subdued utterances, toward the end of the yarn (which chain the attention of the child

this one. By this time there was but a ghastly blaze or two flickering about the back-log. We would huddle close about the old man, and begin to shudder with the first famil

t is as common and familiar as the Tar Baby. Work up the at

e a body garrulous-b

ly

. CL

was one that Clemens

as very effecti

Tell a Story," it app

iving the outlines of

hat he had dug up its

, as we gather from

dler Harris,

FORD

wn upon the negro estimate of values by his willingness to risk his soul and his mighty peace forever for the sake of a silver sev'm-punce. And this f

ll in a day or two. Meantime you must not take it ill if I d

r two at our house in Hartford. If you will, I will snatch Osgood down from Boston, and you won't ha

rely

. CL

d, to whom the next le

literary crowd, a grac

iving at the success b

a gentle, irresponsi

always, by one or an

remember that durin

London, winter of 1873

ecretary. At a later

s with the great telep

of this letter, Stodd

fort of the Sandwich I

iterary

Stoddard, in the

D, Oct.

not only slide off to Heaven before you have earned a right to g

and shut ourselves up in the healing solitudes of the crater of Haleakala and get a good rest; for the mails do not intrude there, nor yet the telephone and the telegraph. And after resting, we wou

sake of the children; whereas, I have always had a tenderness for parents too, so, for her sake and mine, I sigh for the incendiary. When the evening comes and th

s on the stocks all the time, but I seldom add a satisfactory chapter to one of them at home. Yes, and it is all because my time is taken up with answering the letters of strangers. It can't be done through a short hand amanuensis-

when I can't work; I am resolved that hereafter I won't be. What I have always longed for, was the pri

rs

A

y good: up to your very best I think. I

Howells,

D, Oct.

here, will convince anybody that reads it; a body cannot help being convinced by it. That is th

t. There was an opulent abundance of things I didn't know; and consequently no need t

earn, here, the more of them God throws at his head. This fellow's postal card has set the vision of those gracious islands before my mind, again, with not a leaf withered, nor a rainbow

ve and

ev

A

in this letter was

"blunder" about the b

oes not know; but per

st in the early editi

without lo

ound it necessary to p

his copyright. He usua

vishly entertained by

r, 1881, he made one o

e and the Pauper, thi

In letters written ho

ur Frechette mentioned

tion. "Clara" was Mi

anied Mr. and Mrs. Cle

ter she became Mrs. J

e has already appeared

me

lemens, i

L, Nov.

h female faces, distinctive English costumes, strange and marvelous English gaits-and yet such honest, ho

of Mount Royal, it being a cold, dry, s

lovi

A

lemens, i

nday, Novemb

lock-so I am lying abed this morning. I would not give sixp

n in the form of a rebus illus

that they could read writing; especially je

ing their feet and thrashing their arms on the corner yonder: but I also look out upon the spot where the first white men stood, in the neighborhood of four hundred years ago, admiring the mighty stretch of leafy solitudes, and bei

anded in, a minute ago, but it was only that note from Sylveste

e children, and ask them to g

A

lemens, i

, Sund

ursday, and by Osgood's advice I accepted it. I would have accepted anyway, and very cheerfully but for the delay of two days-for I was purposing

their affairs-especially the children, who were wallowing around everywhere, like snow images, and having a mighty good time. I wish I could describe the winter costume of the young girls, but I can't. It is grave

ight, last night, these were very picturesque. I did wish you were here to see these

art, and give my re

A

at W. D. Howells wou

was not very well tha

e weeks, "most of the

e been to begin with.

ave a good appetite,

" Clemens, returning t

at explai

Howells,

D, Dec.

-your inability to connect, on the Canadian ra

mising myself half an hour's look at you, in Belmont; but you

ly before me. There's a man who can tell such things himself (by word of mouth,) and has as sure an eye for detecting a th

, and was cleaning up and fixing around, diligently. Joe conceived the idea of getting some talk out of him. Now that never would have occurred to me. So he dropped in under the man's elbow, dogged him patiently around, prodding him with questions and getting irritated snarls

see the living spectacle, the flash of flag and tongue-flame, the rolling smoke, and hear the booming of the guns; and for the first time also, he heard the reasons for that wild charge delivered from the mouth o

produce that giant's picturesque and admirable history. But dern h

While Away,") who educated Yung Wing in her family when he was a little boy; and I came near not getting to bed at all,

; so, congratulations upon your mending health, and

s

A

er-I spare

OWELLS. WASTED FURY. OLD SCENES

profession and promine

wspaper comment. Jest,

s disturbed him, as

receive favorable noti

as not grieved by adve

ll written, usually a

sarcasms and innuendo

he believed them prom

ers he ever wrote,

his confession of vio

his acknowledgment o

n weakness. It should

generally very good f

act seemed to mag

Howells,

D, Jan.

feel that, at this moment. Not a single profane word has issued from my lips this mornin-I have not even had the impuls

substance, this: Since Reid's return from Europe, the Tribune had been flinging sneers and brutalities at me with such persistent frequency "as to attract general remark." I was an angered-which is just as good an expression, I take it, as an hungered. Next, I learned that Osgood, amon

When I got my plan finished, it pleased me marvelously. It was in six or seven sections, each section to be used in its turn and by itself; the assault to begin at once with No. 1, and the

of me, knowing that a malignant book would hurt nobody but the fool who wrote it. I got thoroughly in love with this work; for I saw that I was going to write a book which the very devils and angels themselves would delight to read, and which would draw disapproval from nobody but the hero of it, (and Mrs. Clemens, who was bitter against th

t be well to make sure that the attacks have been 'almost daily'?-and to also make sur

ference which had been made to me in the Tribune from Nov. 1st to date. On my ow

me indignant Englishman in the Pall Mall Gazette who pays me the vast compliment of gravely rebuking some imaginary ass who has set me up in the neighborhood of Rabelais; 3. A remark of the Tribune's about the Montreal dinner, touched with an almos

affronts? The whole offense, boiled down, amounts to just this: one uncourteous remark of the Tribune about my book-not me between Nov. 1 and Dec. 20; and a couple of foreign criticisms (of my writings, not me,) between Nov. 1 and Jan. 26! If I can't stand that amount of friction, I certainly need reconstruc

ning the New York New England dinner, while merely (in the same breath,) mentioning that similar let

houldn't have done it, for I am too lazy, now, in my sere and yellow leaf, to be willing to work for anything but love..... I kind of envy you people who are permitted for your righteousness' sake to dwell in a boarding house; not that I should always want to live in one

rs

A

ady known something o

was an immense relie

that you would get si

il I knew that yo

appears again in the

p South about this tim

osition or suggestion

lic, and tell, or read

ris was abnormally di

yest full-grown man" h

rought home evidently

form

dler Harris,

D, Apl.

iv

would ever be able to muster a sufficiency of reckless daring to make you comfortable and at ease before an audience

id say; but he intimated the trip could be delayed a while, if necessary. If this is so, sup

pyright] when he gets there; he will find himself in a hopeless confusion as to what is the correct thing to do. Now Osgood is the only man in

h of April-thence we propose to drift southward, stopping at

nd use a fictitious name (C. L. Samuel, of New York.) I don'

op me a line, now, and as we approach that city I

't be able. We shall go back up the river

ential because my movements must be kept secret, else I s

ne-agent. He makes those people pay three or four times as much as an artic

Sinc

. CL

n affliction," wrote

age would be a terribl

ident man does beco

ore impudence than hi

et

d, but his courage b

and assembled listener

aught unawares at a Ti

his agony was such th

ton he avoided that c

rgia an

ion with Osgood, as pl

little party took the

toward New Orleans.

and his assumed name

the trip to New Orlean

d we may believe that

ose Southern author

mens also met his ol

up the river with him

use, as in the old d

. Louis, he continued

nnibal an

lemens, i

ILL. May

e promised Osgood, and must stick it out; otherwis

Garth, three miles from town, in their spacious and beautiful house. They were children with me, and afterwards schoolmates. Now they have a daughter 19 or 20 years old. Spent an hour, yesterday, with A. W. Lamb, who was not married when I saw him last. He

hery and wrinkled, the fire is gone out in its eyes, and the spring from its step. It will be dust and ashes w

with a heart brimming full of thoughts and images of you and S

A

en saddened by learni

Dr. John Brown, of

had known as "Jock,"

urn to

n Brown, i

D, June

mourning for your father were not uttered that morning, for his works had made him known and loved all over the land. To Mrs. Clemens and me, the loss is personal; and our grief the grief one feels for one who was peculiarly near and dear. Mrs. Clemens has never ceased to

My wife and I join in affectionate remembrances and greetings to

fully

. CL

l "Megalops." He

r father? We have none but the on

at the age of forty-

st point of achievemen

Silas Lapham, which w

er of 1882, attracted

took first place amon

d of his life, loved

he said: "Most authors

lls's moon shines and

f The Rise of Silas La

es, the sincerity of w

open criticisms of

ive

ells, in Bel

ading and your writing is-remarkable. I mean, in the effects produced and the impression left behind. Why, the one is to the other as is one of Joe Twichell's yarns repeated by a somnambulist. Goodness gracious, you read me a chapte

the form of it as being familiar-but that is all. That is, I remember it as pyrotechnic figures which you set up before me, dead and cold, but ready for the match-and now I see them touched off and all a

riter take note of before. And they are set before the reader with amazing accuracy. How very drunk, and how re

alleck was so deliciously humorous when you read it to me-but dear me, it's

catch it in the magazine, I give a page 20 or 30 minutes in which to gently and thoroughly filter into me. Your humor is so very subtle, and elusive-(wel

er oblit

d schoolmates in Hann

n those early days he

d another schoolmate,

ly respected and a gr

dy been mentioned in t

arth, in

D, July

and in fact we all had to fly around in a lively way and undo the patient preparations of weeks-rehabilitate the dismantled house, unpack the trunks, and so on. A couple of days later, the eldest child was taken down with so fierce a fever that she w

bachelors-and they probably wanted to carry the disease to the children of former flames of theirs. The house i

your

. CL

owells was in Europe,

his Mississippi book,

e. It was usually so

them was not cumulati

the menace of his pub

letters, meant to be

always contribute to

Humor which they had

g, Howells had writte

he reading at Elmira,

sissipp

on, Howells writes of

Osgood, Hutton, John

o Oxford, feasting, es

et you choose your d

r, and have passages t

go to your room....

r a little while?...

been most pleasantl

in my face, and talk f

to the best house o

t this could not be en

t and a book that ref

Howells,

CONN. Oc

ments of the story are prodigious. All along I was afraid it would be impossible for you to keep up so splendidly to the end; but you were only, I see now, striking eleven. It is in these last ch

of the night, until the thing is done, or break down at it. The spur and burden of the contract are intolerable to me. I can endure the irritation of it no longer. I went to work at nine o'clock yesterday morning, and went to bed an hour after midnight. Result of the day, (mainly stolen from books, tho' cred

s as

A

otor,' "which is to enrich us beyond the dreams of avarice.... We could have a lot of fun writing it, and you could go home with some of the good old Etruscan malaria in your bones,

some measure, at least, around the character, or rather from the peculiarities, of Orion Clemens. The Cable mentioned in Mark Twain's reply is, o

wells, in S

, Nov. 4

me, I should swiftly finish this now apparently interminable book. But I cannot come, because I am

the book. However, at last I have said with sufficient positiveness that I will finish the book at no particular date; that I will not hurry it; that I will not hurry myself; that I will take things easy and comfortably, write when I choose to write, leave it alone when I so prefer. The printers must wait, the artists, the canvassers, and all the rest. I have got everything at a dead standstill, and that is where it ought to

it would be to me, to hire him on a good salary not to manage it. Do you observe the same old eagerness, the same old hurry, springing from the fear that if he does not move with the utmost swiftness, that colossal opportunity will escape him? Now just fancy this same frantic plunging after vast opportunities, going on week after week with this same man, during fifty entire years, and he has not yet learned, in the slightest degree, that there isn't any occasion to hurry; that his vast opportunity will always wait; and that whether it waits

nnocence, and utterly blemishless piety, the Apostles were mere policemen to Cable; so with this in mind you must imagine him at a midnight dinner in Boston the other night, where we gathered around the board of the Summerset Club; Osgood, full, Boyle O'Reilly, full, Fairchild responsively loaded, and Aldrich and myself

ence; but we have to leave these delights to you; there is n

s as

A

. A GUEST OF THE MARQUIS OF LORNE. THE HIST

son, finished the Miss

or publication. It was

Clemens was to furnis

percentage for handli

ark Twain's advent

ppy in Florence as he

rwhelmed him. In Febr

e been the most ridicu

assed. We have spent

we cared nothing, an

d yet, and what part o

nd distraction. Of cou

ay. I wring my hands a

weeks have been waste

y the infernal social

dn't e

m the burden of his o

s and news; also of sy

his time was "A Woma

, was Marshall Jewell,

ter, he was Minister

tates Postma

owells, in

, March

ments upon them. But all the world go there to look and listen, and are apparently well satisfied. And they ought to be fully satisfied, if the lecturer would only keep still, or die in the first act. But he described how retired tradesmen and farmers in Holland load a lazy scow with the family and the household effects, and then loaf along the waterways of the low countries all the summer long, paying no visits, receiving none, and just lazying a heavenly life out in their own private unpestered society, and doing their literary work, if they have any, wholly uninterrupted. If you had hired such a boat and sent for us we should have a coupl

raise. I hear no dissent from this verdict. I did not know there was an untouched personage

slave." Of course the highest pleasure to be got out of freedom, and having nothing to do, is labor. Therefore I labor. But I take my time about it. I work one hour or four as happens to suit my mind, and quit when I please. And so these days are days of entire enjoyment. I told Clark the other day, to jog along c

idely and sincerely regretted. Win. E. Dodge, the father-in-law of one of Jewell's daughters, dropped suddenly dead the day before Jewell died, but Jewell died without knowing that. Jewell's widow went down to New York, to Dodge's house, the day after Jewell's funeral, and was to return here day before yesterday, and she did-in a coffin. She fell dead, of heart disease, while her trunks were being packed for her return home. Florence Strong, one of Jewell's daughters, who liv

you several times. I shall try

st regards t

s as

A

r trip to Canada in th

the Mississippi book

ess, the Marquis of

m to be his guest at R

ourse, and was handsom

oria and her husband,

na

ord he found that Osgo

Clemens had prepared

gh originally issued w

uide of the Conversat

uide of the Conversa

olino, with an introd

]-Evidently the "New

e soul with but sligh

uld be obtained from

English idioms are of

is one, take

e happies enough for

n the lit

s quaint book might am

n what he considered t

o

inton, in Ot

D, June

will amuse her "some at most" if she has not seen it before, and will still amuse her "some at least," even if she has inspected it a hundred times already. So I will send the book to you, and you who know all about the proper observances will protect me from indi

e?-and I beg to make my sincere compliments to you, also, for your infinit

ly

. CL

tes a year back, the book is only

L

Venice, in April, mani

"Something that would

ne nights," so perha

hat they devote the m

letter from Mallory

hurchman, but also the

Howells play. Twenty y

and he wrote, now: "T

ncing. I feel like th

the Cardi

a in July. Clemens se

f his own undertakings

The Adventures of Hu

t Quarry Farm. He ha

d taken it up again in

clusion. This time, h

and the story w

Howells,

July 2

ver travel again, till you go aloft or alow. Charley Clark has gone to the other sid

t she is pulling up, now. The children are booming, and my health is

f ago. Why, it's like old times, to step right into the study, damp from the breakfast table, and sai

ouple of days and read and smoke, and then go it again for 6 or 7 days. I have finished one small book, and am away along in a big 433 one that I half-fi

re's a raft episode from it in second or th

aste-got an overplus; and if I were at home, we wou

then maybe a week at Indian

you are all back; and

s

A

ns and family,

July 2

iv

urishing. I haven't had such booming working-days for many years. I am piling up manuscript in a really astonishing way. I believe I shall c

rk and carried it out. It took me all day. I measured off 817 feet of the road-way in our farm grounds, with a foot-rule, and then divided it up among the English reigns, from the Conq

om the front door-some of them close together, like Richard II, Richard Cromwell, James II, &c., and some prodigiously wide apart, like Henry III,

it indoors-in a far more voluminous way, as to mu

supper'

to

d b

A

turally get excited ov

ssibilities. Not more

ly employed him to a

the game was to teach.

became a sort of mi

holds, at Keokuk and a

the idea of "learning

, even if unintentiona

me of speed as w

as noticed that the ne

tion of a history game

this h

Howells speaks of an E

of introduction. "He s

a good taste in litera

books in his pockets,

Howells,

w, but revise. I've written eight or nine hundred MS pages in such a brief space of time that I mustn't name the number of days; I shouldn't believe it myself, and of course couldn't expect you to. I used to restrict myself to 4 or 5 hours a

note from him saying he was going to print part of my letter, and was going to do it b

kind. When I wrote you, I thought I had it; whereas I was only merely entering upon the initiatory difficulties of it. I might have known it wouldn't be an easy jo

ith them. And much obliged to you, too. There's plenty of worse people than the nobilities. I we

ittle tribe will give us the necessary furlough; and if we can't get it, you

ink I see W

rom Clark, which

you all

MEN

l has become of that man. He was to spend t

e shipwreck and the mystery-I like it. Mrs. Crane thinks it's the best story you've written y

says I haven't. Damn it, a body can't think of everything; but a woman

, yet. Well, we do send the love of

L

delay and postpone

ells and Clemens a

entire month of O

id put in a portion

ng out their old i

Colonel Sellers, o

rted old visionary

actor Raymond had

onel Sellers's char

nce never belied h

s in his dramatic

let their imaginat

The reader can jud

American Claimant

later build

ey thought it a gre

es" laughing over

and they thought th

ormance. They deci

haughtily, indiffe

actors would b

scalculation. Ray

orable to the idea

id not present his

he end he returned

already been made

ould continue

ABLE'S GREAT APRIL FOOL. "HUCK FINN" IN PRESS

gering attack of the

play of the Prince

"too thin and sligh

another of Tom Sa

trace of the MS. ex

these ventures, fo

ad sickness in

Howells,

7,

er, once domesticated, is a permanent member of the family. Money may desert you, friends forsake you, enemies grow indifferent to you, but the

amily makes me shudder; I believe I would alm

thy. Oh, the intrusion of this hideou

den motive will illustrate a but-little considered fact in human nature; that the religious folly you are born in you will die in, no matter what apparently reasonabler religious folly may seem to have taken its place meanwhile, and abolished and obliterated it. I start Bill Ragsdale at 12 years of age, and the he

r business. When we came to dramatize, we can draw a

s

A

Sandwich Islands sto

er. His head filled u

plans, reading-tour

oes not appear in the

ant factor, neverthe

lars a month for con

rk Twain's finances

nxiety for a profitab

bring a quick and gen

his

d Charles L. Webster,

as selling agent for t

also planning to let W

Huck

oven his ability as a

ding combination, whic

and Howells, an

ls did not warm to th

an. Cable came to visi

the mumps, so that

tpo

ellers play were most

In February, Howells

to our play I wish you

so

ime, and out of grat

r his host. He was a s

gh way. He sent a "pri

red and fifty of Mar

distinguished literar

them should send a re

so that it would arri

sponded. Mark Twain's

ed with letters, aski

able autograph." The

: "I am making a coll

iters, and having re

ould like to add yo

n this was that Gabri

e was thoroughly detes

the letters puzzle

and character of the j

e letters was from Bl

ocents Abroad. Cutte

say, doggerel. Mark T

leasan

Bloodgood H. Cutt

ECK, LON

, TO HIS FRIEND AN

L. CLEM

gest in each

nd ask your

that, I wi

ong voyage

time You wrote in pro

each place, And the qu

in my me

live I'll

hink of t

that were w

nds think it

Autograph w

u will it

nd cheer your d

s tr

OOD H.

Howells,

D, Apl

n't recovered it yet, entirely-I mean the generosit

n pile it on. It will cost me a pang every time I think of it, but this anguish will be eingebusst to me in the joy and comfort I shall get out of the not having to read the verfluchtete proofs myself. But if you have repented of your augenblichlich

he P & P cost me the l

that he would be gla

fs of Huck Finn, wh

and. Replying to C

now, he wrote: "It i

y, unless I am goin

bby motives which I

if I examine it.

e may be permitted

e fewer and less s

d in g

wells was reading p

mer, he wrote: "if I

k Finn I shouldn't

roofs; even as it

ill always find

of the Blaine-Clev

y with many othe

supporting Clevel

mething of the aspe

s one of scandal a

e young sculptor, K

years' study in Pa

qualifie

Howells,

Aug. 2

l his aspects? Man, "know thyself "-and then thou wilt despise thyself, to a dead moral certainty. Take three quite good specimens-Hawley, Warner, and Charley Clark. Even I do not loathe Blaine more than th

burned down in Hartford the other day, uninsured-for who in the world would ever think of ins

weeks hard work gone to the dogs. The news flew, and everybody on the farm flocked to the arbor and grouped themselves about the wreck in a profound and moving silence-the farm-help, the colored servants, the German nurse, the ch

ldn't word it, I suppose. But he went to work, and by dark had everything thoroughly well under way for a fresh start in the morning; and in three days' time had built a

s

A

wants a bust, be sure and re

erminedly for Blain

. "I do not believe

him of, and I know

Cleveland, his pri

f most men, but a

ritical, lop-sided

ll the shame of unch

destroyed politica

ould take their wive

t, but if he marrie

n' they would not

d th

sound logic, in tha

mens far fr

Howells,

Sept.

y and the party. Certainly allegiance to these is well; but as certainly a man's first duty is to his own conscience and honor-the party or

But you know now that they are proven, and it seems to me that that bars you and al

for an improper man) even though the party and the country go to destruction in consequence. It is not parties that make or save countries or that build them to

his country and not to his party. Don't be offended; I mean no offence.

E

A

to be any further di

emens. Their letters f

ion of

wn political conscienc

his party; at least

Cleveland enthusias

a Republican who woul

of an eleventh-hour

whatever

ierce, i

D, Oct.

te for Blaine is because they feel that they cannot help themselves. Do not you believe that if Mr. Edmund

him? since his protest would relieve him from all responsibility; and he couldn't surely find fault with people for forcing a compliment upon him. And do not yo

the feet of the adversary at the eleventh hour; would it not be wholesome to vary this

teeth of all the protesting and blaspheming he could do in

ef Independents, and see if they won't call a sudden convention and whoop the thing

gards to you an

T

. CL

t out on their readi

ly-assorted pair: C

to habits, neat, pr

inning Cable undert

ch evening, but thi

tly omitted by req

ble was up bright an

and Sunday-school

hotel, in bed, r

ND CABLE. PUBLICATION OF "HUCK FINN."

ome respects the most

ng, in Mark Twain's li

into the publishing b

r of all publishing ad

. S. Grant. Clemens

when he arranged wi

ississippi book, and

es; he had intended

pretty thoroughly di

s. Even the Library of

rant, had put together

blisher failed, duri

dreamed of undertak

s of the G

ed that Grant could

et, he had urged the

n. Howells, in his 'My

see Grant, then a memb

how they lunched on b

-by restaurant. It was

at Clemens-very like

great commander to p

nancier, as he believ

however large, di

nvinced that he was wi

by him would p

ame a failure more dis

nfall of his firm th

neral Grant was utter

arently without the me

the great War Series

eral Grant, hard-pres

or more articles, and

interested in the i

here the story of how

into the hands of Mark

Webster & Co., the de

e Mark Twain: A Biog

the moment to other m

s. Clemens and Cabl

nada, and in Februar

re invited by the Toqu

ir weekly excursions

reasons given by Mar

is to Mr. George Il

e Camera, and many

the Toque Blew Snow-

February

ight

ll day in order to be rested and equipped for talking an hour at night, and yet in my case and Cable's it is so. Unless I get a great deal of rest, a ghastly dulness settles down upon me on the platform, and turns my performa

world would delight me more than to come to their house without naming time or terms on my own pa

gards to the Cl

incere

. CL

reach the end of the C

summing up of Mark Tw

of his travels. It mu

ark Twain's attitude t

was as rigidly ortho

were never anything b

Howells,

. Feb.

my four-months platform campaign is ended at last. It has been a curious experience. It h

o know and study Cable daily and hourly. Mind you, I like him; he is pleasant company; I rage and swear at him sometimes, but we do not quarrel; we get along mighty happily to

eek. He is very anxious to get our Sellers play and play it under changed names

E

A

re often at the house

885, and it must have

s on the great occa

t was on the last day

ion that the bill wa

ll General with full p

he congressional cloc

ight become a law bef

t had by this time de

in feebl

Mrs. Clemens

K, Mar.

he expiring congress late this morning retired him with full General's rank and accompanying emoluments

. CL

tioned before of Mark

able habit of them. He

lling to invest mo

one of thousands such

then received letters

ter wrote him that he

tford banker and adv

r I made that purchase

red shares and that yo

asking for further in

s fol

. J--, in

TON, Mc

th of the stock at $110, and I own it yet. He sold me $10,000 worth of another rose-tinted stock about the same time. I have got that yet, also. I judge that a peculiarity of B--'s stocks is that they are of the staying kind. I think you should have asked somebody else whether I was a shrewd man or not for two reasons: the stock was advertised in a religious paper, a circumstanc

Truly

. CL

n was having a wide s

e sales were large. I

siastic. Here and the

uck's morals were not

ttees. The first inst

; and would seem not

r-pub

Webster, i

18,

tip-top puff which will go into every paper in the country. They have expelled Huck from thei

L

ee Trade Club had some

slight put upon his bo

the Huck Finn incide

to honorary

"authors' readings,"

isted at these funct

or another. From th

nment given for the L

's opinion of Howells'

rov

Howells,

D, May

ation and thought, I guess. And practice at the Tave

bsolute proof of good reading. But you couldn't read worth a damn a few years ago. I do not say

easy to see that he was still on the verge of it a month or two ago; but I continued to hope-but not expect that h

ou had better send down and get it. I told him, the other day, that an order

us the Wilderness and Appomattox stand for all time in his own word

ty well, thes

s

A

d," wrote Howells, "t

me some hope that I

... but I would never

ld help it. You simply

hat house up in the h

led

Howells,

July 2

nly author; I am restricted to you,

nding flashes of single-sentence poetry, philosophy, wit, and what not, and nearly died from the overwork. I wouldn't read another of those books for a farm. I did try to read one other-Daniel Deronda. I d

d both parts aloud to the family. It is a beautiful story, and makes a body laugh all the time, and cry inside, and feel so old and so forlorn; and gives him gracious glimpses of his lost youth that fill him with a measureless regret, and build up in him a cloudy sense of his having been a prince, once, in some enchanted far-off land, and of being an exile now, and desolate-and Lord, no chance ever to get back there again! That is th

s

A

stand Mark Twain's enj

Daniel Deronda and T

t did not convey its p

. It is interesting t

ment Howells wrote: "W

le as possible; they g

ch I am supposed to be

your eyes..... Did y

read it, not merely f

ng, suffering, sinnin

and most natural Engl

ten

teadily on his book, d

slips of paper when he

t Mt. McGregor and br

hat enough of his boo

for his family, and

twice as much by

July. On the 23d of th

re was a newspaper di

the great chieftain

ebate, though in the f

y of preser

," on the proper pla

k as a place of sepulchre for General Grant, and the objectors are strenuous that Washington i

ider posterity rather than our own generation. We should select a grave which will not m

er past attempts are a fair warning that when the day comes she will do it. Then the city of Washington will lose its consequence and pass out of the public view and public t

ian of a grave which is destined to become almost the most conspicuous in the world's history. Twenty centuries from now New York

on and strongest object

ound." Let us give ours

Grant's body lies, th

. CL

A, Ju

s is very long, but it

omitted in any part.

had long been a matt

ge. Every one had hear

, remarked something

t kind of whisky Grant

other generals. Henry

on the dead soldier,

matter nor to make too

n to the publisher of

advance copy

ard Beeche

. Y. Sept

tracts for the Memoirs. Before he sailed he came to me with a

the Memoirs while I am absent, even tho

it at any time. So I did all of that-said the order should stand undisturbed to the end. If a principal could dissolve his promise as innocently as he can di

.........

e West that Mr. Lincoln said he wished he could find out what brand of whisky that fellow used, so he could furnish it to some of the other generals. Franklin saw Grant tumble from his horse drunk, while reviewing troops in New Orleans. The fall gave him a good deal of a hurt. He was then on the

of the frequent spreeing

........

om the service. At last the report had to be made out; and then, so greatly was the captain beloved, that he was privately informed, and was thus enabled to rush his resignation to Washington ahead o

entioned liquor to me was about la

s urge whisky and champagne; but I can't take the

o sore over what had been said about his habit that he wanted to persuade others and likewise himse

hat at the suggestion of his physicians he had reduced his smoking to one cigar a day. T

root, not the trunk. It's the perfect way and the only true way (I speak from experience.) How I do hate those enemies of

tatements without shade or color or malice with a frankness and a child-like naivety, indeed, which is enchanting-and stupefying. West Point seems to teach them that, among other priceless things not to be got in any other col

.......

over a single drink and several cigars with Van Vliet and Sherman and Sena

full of the appreciation of it. I have sat with him by the hour listening to Jim Nye's yarns, and I reckon you know the style of Jim Nye's

General Grant: "Put the drunkenness in the Memoir

k. He was sore, there. As much of the book as I

ints of Gen. Grant's character-s

ace-it is not fair to visit our fault upon them-let him alone;" so they did let him alone, under compulsion, until the great heart that was his shield was taken away; then-well they simply couldn't stand him, and so they were excusable for determining to discharge him-a thing which they mortally hated to do, and by lucky accident were saved from the necessity of doing;) his toughness as a bargainer when doing business for other people or for his country (witness his "terms" at Donelson, Vicksburg, etc.; Fred Grant told me his father wound up an estate for the widow and orphans of a friend in St. Louis-it took several years; at the end every complication had been straightened out, and the property put upon a prosperous basis; great sums had passed through his hands, and when he handed over the papers there were vouchers to show what had been done with every penny) and his trusting, easy, unexacting fashion when doing business for himself (at that same time he was paying out money in driblets to a man who was running his farm for him-and in his first Presidency he paid every one of those driblets again (total, $3,000 F. said,) for he hadn't a scrap of paper to show that he had ever paid them before; in his dealings with me he would not listen to terms which would place my money at risk and leave him protected-the thought plainly gave him pain, and he put it from him, waved it off wi

ey may be of some trifle of use, and they may not-they at least verify known traits of his character. My Autobiography is pretty freely dictated, but my idea is to jack-plane it a little bef

rely

. CL

Library of Humor came

885 Howells associate

contract provided th

ot published by the

sell out his interest

in addition to the fiv

mount considered to b

t author and compiler

rs the details of

Howells,

, Oct. 1

iv

publish or not. Yet I fully recognize that I have no sort of moral right to let that ancient and procrastinated contract hamper you in any way, and I most certainly won't. So, it is my decision,-after thinking over and rejecting the idea of trying to buy permission of the Harpers for $2,500 to use your name, (a proposition which they would hate to refuse to a man in a perplexed po

30 days old (Jan. 1st) before the relief money will begin to flow in. From now till the first of January every dollar is as valuable to me as it could be to a famishing tramp. If you can wait till then-I mean without discomfort, without incon

ng outside the door of plenty-obstructed by a Yale time-lock which is set for Jan. 1st. I can stand it

arpers. I have noticed that good me

rs

A

begin to get some id

ng venture, and a brie

ut of pl

sued in two volumes.

nts' canvass was just

most clairvoyant visio

d sets. The actual sa

February 27, 1886, Ch

largest single royalt

The amount of it was

checks increased the

double this figure. I

midst of the ca

ve days the sales (i.

veraged 3,000 sets (6,

Mrs. Grant's income d

00 a

Howells,

NORM

K, Dec.

he may possibly forget it; so I write lest I forget it too. Remind me, if he should forget. When I postponed you lately, I did it becaus

at you are in Auburndale, bu

of the first edition. I got nervous and came down to help hump-up the binderies; and I mean to stay here pretty much all the time till the first days of March, when the second volume will issue. Shan't have so much troub

while delivering eleven books he took 7 new subscriptions. But we shall b

s

A

r was Mark Twain's fif

ers generally, and esp

er, Stockton and man

ed a fine poem; also

al request of Miss G

as a sort of crowning

time in his life were

r; he had a beautiful

eat prosperity. The r

cess. His latest bo

ad added largely to

e Grant Memoirs had b

e recognized, not on

but as its most envi

hday, had come this la

dd a touch of glory t

in his note of

Wendell Holm

w to see what would happen-well, it was great and fine and beautiful to see, and made me feel as the victor feels when the shouting hosts march by; and if you also could have seen it you would have said the account was squared. For I have brought them up in your company, as in the company of a warm and friendly and beneficent but far-distant sun; and so, for you to do this thing was for the sun to send

d am I, but more because it has drawn the sting of my fiftieth year; taken away the pain

rence and

rely

. CL

own hand: "Did Miss

pread out for answer w

y? I stopped my corre

until the lin