8 May 1869 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00292)
Patience! Fortitude! These are rare virtues. I possess them, little darling—for it is now exactly 9 PM & for nearly an hour & a half I have had your precious letter in my pocket, yet behold, even at this very moment the seal is unbroken! I am suffering to know what is in it, but I am determined to enjoy the luxury of reading it in bed, with the added delight of a cigar. I tell you, dearie, it is a hard task to carry one of your letters an hour & a half without opening it. But then the pleasure I shall have will repay all my patience. I am writing now, because I cannot consent to rob myself of the solace of writing you every day; & you see, ever so many things may occur tomorrow to lose me that pleasure. Bless your dear little heart, my own darling! The more I think of you the better I love you & the more bitter Ⓐemendation this see separation Ⓐemendation seems. Livy Ⓐemendation, you are so interwoven with the very fibres of my being that if I were to lose you it seems to me that to lose memory & reason at the same time would be a blessing to me. God preserve you, my little jewel. I felt very thankful this morning when “our” good mother’s letter to Charley said your cold was growing better, albeit a little impatient that it was only growing better “slowly.”
Charley drove up to the depot with me & I left him in good spirits—& forgot to retain the carriage & send him back in it. I never thought of it until this moment, & now I am so ashamed of myself that the pleasure of reading your letter is going to be marred by my upbraiding conscience. I will write him & apologize. Oh, this is too bad. I would give anything if this had not occurred. Charley don’t like to walk is all kindness & thoughtfulness, & I am all stupidity & carelessness. He never would have been so inconsiderate of my comfort as to serve me such a scurvy trick as this. I won’t add another Ⓐemendation line to this until I have asked his pardon.
Well, I have written Uncle Cholley a most humble letter, & I begin to feel better already.
Livy, one of those New York papers said “Mark Twain is at the St Nicholas, & we have seen him & he is only one.”—a play upon Twain & our reported marriage. How’s thim?1explanatory note
That squib I wrote about the Wilson murder case was in the New York Tribune this morning. Did my little business manager cut it out & preserve it? It isn’t important, but then it comes under the head of the s especial duty I assign you, & so you must attend to it, honey.1explanatory note
I have seen Mr. Twichell just a moment Ⓐemendation, & he wants me to spend a week with him. His wife is going away Monday. Told him I didn’t Ⓐemendation know. S Am to spend the Ⓐemendation evening with him tomorrow & talk about it.
I am satisfied there is another letter in the post office from you by this time, & I do wish I had it.
I am writing on a marble-top table, & if I don’t quit right away I shall get a scolding from the dearest girl in the world—therefore, with worlds of love, & a kiss & a blessing, I am your devoted,
Miss Olivia L. Langdon Ⓐemendation | Elmira | New York Ⓐemendation return address: allyn house, hartford, conn. r. j. allyn. 3explanatory note postmarked: hartford conn. may 9 docketed by OLL: 62nd
A search of the available files of more than two dozen New York newspapers failed to identify the source of this quotation, which may or may not have been a reference to Clemens’s forthcoming marriage.
The “squib” was:
REMARKABLE MURDER TRIAL.
To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: The Wilson trial came to an end yesterday. In some respects this was the most remarkable case that has ever had a place upon the criminal records of the country. It excited great interest in this part of the State, and, during the last ten days, the court-room has been pretty generally crowded with eager listeners. The facts in the Wilson case were simply these: On the 17th of February last, George L. Roderick provoked a quarrel with Dr. R. Wilson, in front of the Union Hotel in this place. Wilson put up with a good deal of abuse before he even showed temper. He even tried to pacify Roderick, but to no purpose. Roderick called him a thief, a liar, a swindler; yet Wilson bore it all calmly. Roderick grew more excited, and heaped one opprobrious epithet after another upon Wilson, and finally called him a member of the New-York Legislature. At this, Wilson sprang to his feet, and remarking to Roderick that he would not take that from any man, shot him dead with an axe-handle. Such was the evidence elicited upon the trial. The Court acquitted Wilson, upon the ground that the provocation was sufficient. Mark Twain.
Elmira,
N.Y., April 29.
(New York Tribune, 8 May
69, 4)
The events and persons alluded to were entirely fictitious: no Wilson murder occurred in Elmira, nor was there any such trial, nor even any “Union Hotel.” The New York Evening Telegram recognized Mark Twain’s purpose, noting that he “has grown so satirical of late as to awaken the enmity of several pugnacious politicians whose courage he has ventured to doubt. They threaten to toe the Mark in proof of their pluck” (8 May 69, 2). The objects of his ridicule were Republican Senators William Sprague (1830–1915) of Rhode Island and Joseph C. Abbott (1825–81) of North Carolina. In a Senate speech on 22 April Sprague had referred to two political opponents as “a large mastiff and a mongrel puppy.” Abbott assumed he was the puppy (making the mastiff Clemens’s old acquaintance, James W. Nye, a Republican senator from Nevada), and replied to Sprague, threatening him with “physical castigation,” and demanding a retraction or, by implication, satisfaction on the field of honor. But on 26 April, despite what the New York Times described as “the most ferocious face-makings, and terrific threats ever witnessed,” the two men were reconciled in a mild exchange of letters (New York Times: “Washington,” “United States Senate,” 23 Apr 69, 1; “Washington,” 27 Apr 69, 5; “Sprague and Company,” 28 Apr 69, 6). The Elmira Advertiser reported this story in two brief reports that Mark Twain must have read, and it reprinted his Tribune letter, without comment, one week after it appeared (“News By Telegraph,” 23 Apr 69, 1; “The Abbott-Sprague Quarrel Settled,” 27 Apr 69, 1; “Remarkable Murder Trial,” 15 May 69, 4). On 22 May, however, aspiring local author and lecturer James Ausburn Towner (1836–1909) also reprinted Mark Twain’s letter as part of “Ishmael’s Corner” in the Elmira Saturday Evening Review, disparaging its humor as unsubtle and interlarding his own sarcastic remarks (“There’s richness for you; there’s fatness; there is such an air of fresh unctious humor about it”) while evidently failing to recognize that any satire was intended (Towner 1869; “Ishmael,” Elmira Saturday Evening Review, 14 Aug 69, 8).
Richard J. Allyn, proprietor of the Allyn House (Geer 1869, 40).
MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
L3 , 206–208; LLMT , 358, brief paraphrase.
see Samossoud Collection, p. 586.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.