4 June 1863 • San Francisco, Calif. (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00067)
No 3.—$20 enclosed.
My visit to San F is gradually drawing to a close, and it seems like going back to prison to go back to the snows & the deserts of Washoe, after living in this Paradise. But then I shall soon get used to it—all places are alike to me. I have put in the time here, “you bet.” And I have lived like a lord—to make up for two years of privation, you know. I haventⒶemendation written to the paper but twice, I believe.1explanatory note I have always got something more agreeable on hand.
At the opera to-night, I saw some one whom I took to be Bill NashⒶemendation. I know he was to have been here this week, & I am very sure it was him—I never forget faces. I get fooled with them, sometimes, though, & I want to give you an instance of it—a case which I consider very remarkable. The first Sunday after I arrived here, I went, by previous engagement, to take Mrs. J. B. Winters to church (I have a special friendship for her, because she is the very image of Pamela.)2explanatory note She introduced me to a pretty girl—Miss Jennie Woodruff—some relative of Gov Stanford’s, & of course, I showed a particular friendship for the girl, also, for that day. The next day, at noon, I met the young lady on the street, & bowed to her—sweetly. She simply stared at me & looked a little indignant. I didn’t care a cent, & thought no more about it. Two days afterward, I met her again, & kept my eye on her, but never thought of such a thing as bowing to her—and lo! she smiled lovingly, & bowed to me. Shortly afterward—two or three days—when I took my usual seat at the dinner table, I bel beheld Ⓐemendation my fickle darling opposite me. I smiled—bowed—and blast my skin if she didn’t scowl at me as sour as thunder, & went on destroying her hash without ever noticing me again. Well, I just thought to myself, this acquaintance is too spotted—it don’t pan out to suit me, & I’ll move my stakes & drop it. I met her the same afternoon, and she astounded me by bowing to me in the most marked and peremptory manner!3explanatory note I couldn’t do anything
Only one letter written to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise from San Francisco as of this date (4 June) survives; it is dated 16 May 1863 (see ET&S1 , 248–53).
The wife of Clemens’s Carson City friend John B. Winters. On 19 June Mark Twain wrote “All about the Latest Fashions” for the Enterprise, a mock fashion report that included a playful description of “Mrs. J. B. W.” In September 1863, he included a similar fashion report in “The Lick House Ball,” again mentioning Mrs. Winters (ET&S1 , 310, 317).
Clemens may have been thinking of Jennie Woodruff in September 1863 when he alluded to the “lady acquaintance, who, for reasons best known to herself, don’t see you when she looks at you” in “How to Cure a Cold” (ET&S1 , 302).
MS, Moffett Collection, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
L1 , 256–257; MTB , 1:233, brief excerpt; Fender, 746, excerpt not in MTB .
see Moffett Collection, p. 462.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.