29, 30, and 31 January 1862 • Carson City, Nev. Terr. (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00035)
A member of the Academy of Sciences, of
Paris, has discovered a simple and unexpen-
sive process for rendering
muslins, laces and
all sorts of light stuffs incombustible. It sim-
ply consists of adding to the starch used in
stiffening them,
one-half its weight of the car-
bonate of lime, usually known as “Spanish
White.”
1explanatory note
January 29th 1862.
My Dear Wife:—
The Silver Age of this morning, contains an announcement that Governor Nye has received the appointment of Brigadier General, and that he will leave us. The Governor tells me I shall soon be Governor. We will see. 2explanatory note
The Indians prophecy more storms—they say “heap snow,” “heap rain.”
Jan. 30 Poor Mrs. Upton who had a baby last week is very low, and fears are entertained that she will not recover.
January 31—Poor Upton has met with the severest loss a Ⓐemendation that can befall a man. His wife died this evening about two hours ago. Since I commenced this paragraph he came into my office, took my hand, sat down and cried. He says she is happy, for she was a pure, good woman; and he will meet her some day if he behaves himself; that she was too good for him, was the reason she was taken. He has been thoughtless, but not bad. 3explanatory note
It is cold and dry to-night.
I am told that female society here is not much better Ⓐemendation than the male society. There is a fashion of loose language among them that disgusts men of refinement. Loose manners are frequent. In California great numbers of the women are loose characters. Mrs. Upton was among the exceptions, and was an excellent woman.
Dear Mollie:
“Paint-Brush” in the hands of the enemy!4explanatory note God forgive me! this is the first time I have felt melancholy since I left the United
States. And he is doing service for
the enemy. But against his will. Ah, me, Mollie—there would be consolation—priceless
consolation in the fact which I have italicised, were it not that that is a natural failing with the poor
devil—everything
e he Ⓐemendationever did do, he did against his will. His most insignificant Ⓐemendationservices, even for me, were done under protest. Of course I mean that whenever he did condescend to do anything in accordance with my wishes, and that was not an everyday occurrence, at
all, he showed his unwillingness in a marked manner—but
his he Ⓐemendationwas a willing soul to do things after his own fashion. And of course he generally
consulted his own
judgment—because: You remember,
(as I perceive by your language,) that between me and the pillow on the saddle, there
was a very Mine Ⓐemendation of trouble—and between the saddle and the ground
was there Ⓐemendationwas another Mine Ⓐemendation of trouble, viz; the Mule. And the saddle was always loose,—therefore, I was afraid
it might turn; and I could
not cinch it tighter, as
it was the cinch Ⓐemendation was old, and I feared it might break. So, you see, when in the saddle, I lived as
up one Ⓐemendationastraddle of a magazine—for, had I combatted the mule’s wishes to any
a great Ⓐemendation extent, he would have retaliated by jumping gullies, or rolling on the ground, or
running away—and the
consequences, to me, of such conduct, would have been a matter of small concern to
him.
But if I had the “Paint Brush” here, Mollie, I would “feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.”5explanatory note I would f board Ⓐemendationhim on sage-brush, and cinch him till he couldn’t breathe, and ride him sixty miles a day. He would be a wonderfully useful animal to me. However, if he has gone over to the enemy, let him go. Han He Ⓐemendation can’t be depended on anyhow—he’ll desert at the first opportunity; if he don’t fall in a camp-kettle and get drowned.
Well, Mollie, I think July will be soon enough, because I think that by that time
some of our claims will be
paying handsomely, and you can come in “high-tone” style, as Tom Nye, saysⒶemendation. And we could have a house fit to live
in—and servants to do your work. You know it is all very well for a
man’s wife to talk about
w how Ⓐemendationmuch work she can do—but actually doing it is a thing that
don’t suit my notions. That part of the business belongs to the servants. I am not
married yet, and I never will marry until I can afford to have servants enough to leave my wife in the position
for which I designed
her, viz:—as a companion. I don’t want to sleep with a three-fold
b
Being Ⓐemendationwho is cook, chambermaid and washerwoman all in one. I don’t mind sleeping with female
servants as long as I am a
bachelor—by no means—but after I marry, that sort of thing
will be “played out,” you know. (But Lord bless you, Mollie, don’t hint
this depravity to the girls.) No, Madam, I am anxious for you to stay just where you
are until you can live here in a handsome
house and boss your own servants—even if it should be until the first July after the
MilleniumⒶemendation! If you come here before you ought to come, Mollie, and I hear people say “the Secretary’s
wife does
her own cooking”—I’ll tell every such person that the Secretary’s wife is
such subject Ⓐemendation to fits of derangement! Mind, now, I’m not going to have any one-horse business here
after you arrive. D-o-n-’t get in a hurry, Madam. The world wasn’t made in a day.6explanatory note
Orion pasted this clipping, possibly from the Carson City Silver Age of 29 January, in the upper left-hand corner of the first page of the letter.
James W. Nye (1815–76) had formerly been a district attorney (1839) and judge (1844–51) in New York State and the first president of the Metropolitan Board of Police in New York City (1857–60). He reputedly felt that “the job of being governor of the Territory of Nevada was only an interlude between his political activities in New York City and some position he would get out of creating a state of the Territory of Nevada. And when he found that living in frontier Carson City was a drab existence . . . he didn’t intend to spend any more time there than he could help” (Mack 1961, 84). Orion served as acting governor during Nye’s frequent trips to California, Washington, D.C., and New York, the longest such substitution coming between December 1862 and July 1863. Nye later became a Republican senator from the state of Nevada, serving from 1864 to 1873 (McMullin and Walker, 231–33).
M. Upton was a partner, with G. F. Crowell, in Upton and Company, a Carson City grocery and dry-goods establishment (Kelly 1862, 70, 90; Kelly 1863, 98, 111, 115).
Paint-Brush was the mule that Clemens rode during his stint as a Confederate volunteer in June 1861—“a disagreeable animal, in every way” (SLC 1885, 196). According to the recollections of a fellow campaigner, Absalom Grimes, Paint-Brush was a “little yellow mule, as frisky as a jack-rabbit. He had long, erect ears, was about four feet high, and carried his tail sticking straight out on a dead level with his back. . . . His tail was shaved as with a razor to within six inches of the end—which resembled a painter’s only tool. He was promptly christened ‘Paint Brush’ by his master” (Grimes, 6).
The Merchant of Venice, act 1, scene 3.
Mollie Clemens was increasingly eager to join her husband in Carson City, but was deterred by both Orion and Samuel Clemens for the reasons set forth in this letter and because of the difficulty of finding a suitable traveling companion for the long trip to Nevada. Mollie and Jennie Clemens finally made the journey, by way of New York and thence by steamer, accompanied by William Clagett’s wife, Mary, in September 1862. They arrived in Carson City on 12 October 1862 (MEC to OC, 1 Sept 62, CU-MARK; MEC, 13–14).
On a sheet once pinned to the first page of the MS Orion wrote, “The following is from myself to my wife, with an addendum by Sam:”. He canceled the clipping glued to the MS, which is therefore reproduced in type facsimile, and most of his own part of the letter, ‘The Silver . . . 31—’ (143.12–144.7) and ‘It . . . woman.’ (144.13–18).
MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
L1 , 143–146.
date of acquisition unknown. Probably in Moffett Collection; see p. 462. The MS was evidently in the possession of Orion Clemens as late as 1880, when he was preparing his autobiography.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.