2 April 1862 • Carson City, Nev. Terr. (MS: NPV, UCCL 00041)
Yours of March 2d, has just been receivedⒶemendation. I see I am in for it again—with Annie.1explanatory note But she ought to know that I was always stupid. She used to try to teach me lessons from the Bible, but I never could understand them. Don’t she remember telling me the story of Moses, one Sunday, last Spring, and how hard she tried to make explainⒶemendation it and simplify it so that I could understand it—but I couldn’t? And how she said it was strange that while her ma and her grandma and her uncle Orion could understand anything in the world, I couldn’t was so dull that I couldn’t understand the “ea-siest thing?” And don’t she remember that finally a light broke in upon me and I said it was all right—that I knew old Moses himself—and that he kept a clothing store in Market street? And then she went to her ma and sh saidⒶemendation she didn’t know what would become of her uncle Sam—he was too dull to learn anything—ever! And I’m just as dull yet. Now I have no doubt her letter was spelled right, and was correct in all particulars—but then I had to read it according to my lights; and they being inferior, she ought to overlook the mistakes I make—especially, as it is not my fault that I wasn’t born with good sense. I am sure she will detect an encouraging ray of intelligence in that last argument.
Lord bless me, who can write where Orion is. I wish he had been endowed with some conception of music—for, with his diabolical notions of time and tune he is worse than the itch when he begins to whistle. And for some wise not a but notⒶemendation apparent reason, p ProvidenceⒶemendation has ordained that he shall whistle when he feels pleasant—which notwithstanding the fact that the barbarous sounds he produces are bound to drive comfort away from every one else within in hear-shot of them. I have got to sit still and be tortured with his infernal discords, and fag-ends of tunes which were worn out and discarded before “B “RollⒶemendation on—Sil-ver Moo-oonⒶemendation” became popular, strung together without regard to taste, time, tune melodyⒶemendation, or the eternal fitness of things,2explanatory note because, if I should boil over and say I wish his music would bust him, there’d be a row, you know. For I discovered, by accident, that he looks upon his Variations as a so as somethingⒶemendation of an accomplishment, and when he does warble, he warbles very complacently. I told him once, on the plains, that I couldn’t stand his cursed din—that he was worse than a rusty wheel-barrow—and if he did not stop it I would get out of the coach. Now he didn’t say “get out and be d—d,” but I know he thought it, Ma, and if I were you I would just touch him up a little, and give him a some advice about profane swearing—not so as to hurt his feelings, you know, but just to give him to understand, in a general way, that you don’t lend your countenance to that sort of thing. You’re his mother, you know, and consequently, it is your right, and your d businessⒶemendation and comes within the line of your duties, as laid down in the Articles of War. Now I could do it— I could stir him up in such a way— I could read him a lecture that would make him “grit his teeth” and d—n all creation for a week, bless you. But then I am not his mother, you know, consequently it is not in my line—it must come from you—don’t you see?
Now to my thinking, Miss Louisa Conrad n Ⓐemendation and Miss Chipman are young ladies of remarkably fine taste—and an honor to St. Louis. Did Miss Conrad live “opposite” when I was at home? If she did, and you had described her, I would know who you mean. When I was in St. Louis, no young ladies lived “opposite” except those handsome Texas girls who dressed in black. Ⓐemendation 3explanatory note—and they lived opposite Mr. Schroter’s.4explanatory note
I am waiting here, trying to rent a better office for Orion. I have got the refusal for a after next week of a room 16 × 50 on first floor of a fire-proofⒶemendation brick—rent, eighteen hundred dollars a year. Don’t know yet whether we can get it or not. If it is not rented before the week is up, we can.5explanatory note
I was sorry to hear that Dick was killed.6explanatory note I gave him his first lesson in the musket drill. We had half a dozen muskets in our office o whenⒶemendation it was over Isbell’s Music Rooms. I asked Isbells to invite me and the other boys to come every Friday evening and hear his Choral Society, composed of ladies and gentlemen, rehearse—but he refused, and I told him I would spoil their fun. And I did, Madam. I enrolled Dick and Henry and the two Dutch boys into a military Company, took command of it, and ordered them to meet at the office every Friday evening for drill. I made them “order arms” oftener than necessary, perhaps, and they always did it with a will. And when those muskets would come down on the floor, it was of no use, you know—somebody had to have a headache. — Ⓐemendationand nobody could sing. Isbell said he would “give in,” (Civil authorities, you know, are bound to knuckle to the military.) But he begged so hard that I relented, and compromised with. him. Ⓐemendation And “for and in consideration” of certain things expressed between us, I agreed not to drill on a certain special occasion, when he was to have many a number of invited guests. a And we didn’t drill. Ⓐemendation But I was too many for him, anyhow, Madam. We got some round stones and some bottles, and we opened a ten-pin alley over his head, simultaneously with the opening of his concert. He said the ten-pin alley was worse than the drill—so we compromised again. But I wrote a burlesque on his principal anthem, and taught it to the boys. And the next Friday, when we ourⒶemendation Choral Society opened its lungs, the other one had to “dry up.” So we compromised again. And went back to the drill—and drilled, and drilled, until Isbell went into a decline—which culminated in his death at Pike’s Peak. And served him right. Dick enjoyed the sport amazingly, and never missed a drill, no matter how the weather was, although he lived more than a mile from the office. He was a lubberly cuss, like me, and couldn’t march gracefully, but he could “order arms” with any body. I couldn’t very easily forget Dick, for besides these things, he assisted in many a villainous conspiracy against Isbell’s peace of mind, wherein his Choral Class were not concerned.
Tell Carrie Schroter I will give her a lump of gold out of any mine or claim I have got—but she must send Dan Haines after it.7explanatory note I want to see Dan, anyhow.
Of course we can excuse Pamela from writing, while her eyes are sore. It is a pity her eyes distress her so much. She will have to try what Lake Bigler can do for them one of these days. I feel certain that it would cure any-body’s sore eyes, just to look at that Lake.
Ma, if IⒶemendation perceive that you have a passion for funerals and processions yet—and I suppose Annie has, al tooⒶemendation. The paper Pamela sent has not arrived yet, containing an account of the celebration on the 22d, and I am afraid it will not come before I leave here. I would like much to see it.8explanatory note
Orion has heard of Mr. Mayor, but I have not, and I don’t know where the devil to go to look for him. Why don’t he come and see us? He knows we are here. Yes, I remember Miss Adda King.9explanatory note She was very good-looking, too, God forever bless her everlasting soul, but I don’t know her from John the Baptist—or any other man. However, I like to have them mentioned, you know. I must keep the run of every body.
I hope I am wearing the last white shirt that will embellish my person for many a day—for I do hope than thatⒶemendation I shall be out of Carson long before this reaches you. Love to all.
Annie Moffett, Clemens’s niece.
This phrase is from Tom Jones (1749), book 4, chapter 4. “Roll on, Silver Moon” was an anonymous song of English origin. It reportedly was at the height of its popularity in the United States in 1847 (Lax and Smith, 325).
In 1949 Annie Moffett Webster recalled some St. Louis neighbors of 1857–61:
Montgomery Brooks was a young man who lived opposite. He was very intimate with Uncle Sam. . . . He had a couple of sisters. I remember once in later years writing to Uncle Sam about the Brooks girls next door and he corrected me and said, “The Brooks girls live opposite.” . . . The Conrad family was all mixed up. It was not a very large house and the Conrads had a large family of their own and then someone died and the children all came to the Conrads and somebody else died and more children came. . . . There were two older cousins, Lou and another cousin who seemed to be alone. Uncle Sam admired Lou Conrad. (Webster 1949, 1)
The Brooks sisters possibly were the “handsome Texas girls.” Miss Chipman has not been identified.
George Schroter (b. 1813 or 1814) had been William A. Moffett’s partner in Moffett and Schroter, St. Louis commission merchants, since 1855 or 1856. St. Louis directories indicate that from 1857 through 1860 (no directory was published in 1861) Schroter and the Moffetts lived within a few blocks of each other, but never on the same street. Hence, so far as can be determined, the Brooks sisters could not have lived “opposite” both Schroter, as Clemens here states, and the Moffetts, as he “corrected” Annie Webster. No listing for Montgomery Brooks appears in the St. Louis directory until 1864, at which time his address is given as 183 Locust. In 1860, however, his widowed mother, Maria, lived at 183 Locust with Richard M. Brooks (possibly Richard Montgomery Brooks), while the Moffetts lived “opposite” at 168 Locust, and Schroter lived nearby at 222 Chesnut ( Hannibal Census , 306; Robert V. Kennedy: 1857, 156, 197, 261; 1859, 337, 421; 1860, 75, 362, 456; Campbell and Richardson, 251; Edwards 1864, 159; Edwards 1865, 248).
Clemens was anxious that his brother’s accommodations reflect his position as secretary of Nevada Territory. For the first few months after his arrival in Nevada, Orion Clemens’s office and living quarters were confined to one room in Mrs. Margret Murphy’s boardinghouse in Carson City’s main plaza (Bridget O’Flannigan’s boardinghouse in chapter 21 of Roughing It), which he paid for himself. At the end of November 1861 he rented an office for fifty dollars a month and furnished it, after the close of the first session of the Territorial Legislature, with “tables, chairs, desks and spitoons” from the legislative hall. The office had “one room with a little bed room back. The wind had blown in a large quantity of dust which had settled on the cloth ceiling, and was always sifting down. . . . The snow sometimes blew in and settled on the ceiling, and melted and dripped.” A second office, also costing fifty dollars a month, had “similar annoyances . . . with the addition of a smoking stove, so that sometimes after making a fire in the morning I could not for awhile see from one end of the office to the other” (OC to William Hemphill Jones, 29 Apr 63, NvU-NSP). Attempts to improve Orion’s lodgings continued for several months (see 13 Apr 62click to open link and 11 and 12 May 62click to open link, both to OC).
Richard Higham was a printer employed by Orion Clemens in Keokuk, Iowa, in 1856. He was killed at Fort Donelson in the advance of 15 February 1862, which was led by his regiment, the Second Iowa Infantry. Clemens included an account of Higham’s death in his Autobiographical Dictation of 26 March 1906 (CU-MARK, in MTA , 2:251–52).
Caroline (Carrie) Schroter (b. 1833 or 1834) was the wife of William A. Moffett’s partner. Daniel Haines (b. 1836 or 1837) was her brother (Hannibal Census , 323). According to Jane Clemens, Haines wanted “to go out to Nevada for his health” (JLC to OC and SLC, 17 Nov 61, CU-MARK).
A Washington’s Birthday “Union Jubilee” on 22 February had been highlighted by a grand procession of thousands of “loyal” citizens through the flag-decorated streets of St. Louis. The Missouri Republican was moved to nationalistic fervor in its reaction to the scene: “When a great people, united, move forward in awakened power to the accomplishment of a sacred purpose—and that purpose is the preservation of a time-honored heritage, and that heritage the integrity of the freest and the mightiest government on earth—what shall go before the spectacle in grandeur and sublimity?” (“Washington’s Birthday,” 23 Feb 62, 2). Apparently there was no evidence of the city’s bitterly divided loyalties during the celebration.
Mayor and King have not been identified.
MS, Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, Vassar College Library (NPV).
L1 , 180–184; MTL , 1:69–70, with major omissions; MTBus , 65, excerpt not published in MTL .
see McKinney Family Papers, pp. 459–61. The MS was in the possession of Orion Clemens as late as about 1880, when he marked it for inclusion in his autobiography.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.