20 December 1876 • Hartford, Conn. (MS, postal card, in pencil: CtHMTH, UCCL 01395)
(SUPERSEDED)
Shall go to New York tomorrow & return Saturday.1explanatory note I hope the Parsloe contracts will be ready then. He will probably run up here with me.2explanatory note
us postal card. write the address on this side—the message on the other | Chas. E. Perkins, Esq | 14 State st | City postmarked: hartford conn. dec 20 ◇pmⒶemendation
Clemens had agreed to speak to the New England Society in the City of New York, at Delmonico’s restaurant, on the evening of Friday, 22 December. The society had been founded to commemorate the landing of the pilgrims on Plymouth Rock and to promote friendship, charity, and mutual assistance. Its president had written (CU-MARK):
The New York Times noted that “Mark Twain provoked a storm of laughter by his rambling talk about ‘New-England Weather’” (“Forefathers’ Day,” 23 Dec 76, 1). For the Times’s verbatim report of the speech, see Clemens’s Speech to the New England Societyclick to open link. The New England Society’s dinner chairman possibly was Thomas Gold Appleton (see 29 Jan 76 to Twichellclick to open link, n. 3; Brief History 2005).
On 16 December Harte met with Charles T. Parsloe in New York and then reported to Clemens in a letter that same day:
I read him those portions of the 1st & 2nd act that indicated his role, and he expressed himself satisfied with it, and competent to take it in hand. As nearly as I could judge he was pleased.
Of the contract, its nature, what would be his share of the profits, and generally what we should expect from him I said nothing. In fact I was only too glad to leave all that business with you. He talked,—a little prematurely I thought and with a certain egotism that I had not noticed before—about his having made the fortunes already of certain people to whom he had been subordinate, and of his intention now of trying to make his own. He intimated that he was hereafter “going to look out for himself.” To all of which I said nothing, and shall deliver him into your hands without committing you to even a single suggestion. He is to go with me to Hartford on such day as I may name early next week, and I shall give you notice by telegraph of our coming twelve hours before. You can, if you like, meet us at the station, and we can go to your lawyer’s at once. (CU-MARK; published with one error [“had noticed” instead of “had not noticed”] in Harte 1997, 143–44)
Presumably Harte and Parsloe had not come to Hartford between 16 and 20 December, nor did Parsloe accompany Clemens to Hartford on Saturday, 23 December, since the Ah Sin contract was not then ready for signature. (Clemens signed it on 30 December, and Harte and Parsloe both signed on 5 January 1877: for Clemens’s copy, see Contract for Ah Sinclick to open link.) Clemens must have conferred with both men in New York, however, before returning home accompanied by his cousin, Tip Saunders, whom he had invited for the holiday. In a letter of 18 December (replying to his 16 December invitation, which no longer survives) she had agreed to meet him “at the appointed time, & place,” probably Grand Central Station, in order to take the 11 a.m. train (CU-MARK). On 23 December 1877 Saunders, once again in New York, wrote Clemens that “as the holidays approach it reminds me of the pleasant week I spent at your house one year ago.” No evidence has been found that he invited her again (CU-MARK; 19 Oct 76 to Saundersclick to open link; Scharnhorst 1992, 35–37, 59–60).
MicroPUL, reel 1.
See Perkins Collection in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.