5 July 1869 • Elmira, N.Y. (MS: CSmH, UCCL 00324)
I haven’t got up yet. It is an hour or two to breakfast. But I hate sluggards. I prefer to devote those precious hours to reading & study which some parties i waste in repose. All the bummers in town are busting fire-crackers & otherwise glorifying G Ⓐemendation Him to whom, above all others, we owe this precious Washington’s Birth-Day. And so I couldn’t sleep if I were to try.
I had expected to be with you before this—several days before this—but as I came booming along in innocent mirth, I unexpectedly got aground here. And so I have been “sparring off” ever since.2explanatory note They left Livy in New York,—up to Mrs. Brooks’s—& I brought her along, as I was coming this way. , anyhow. She helps me spar. Been at it a week. But it is slow effort work, because I like sparring off better than going off—& besides, I am writing next winter’s lecture. It takes me every day to do it, & it isn’t finished yet. I write up on top of the house, where it is cool & solitary.3explanatory note I have written more than enough for a lecture, but it must be still i Ⓐemendation added to & then cut down. I shall have it ready for your inspection in margin: over in almost no time, maybe less, & then I shall advance out there & read it to you. I shall telegraph you first, so you cant be out if not receiving company that day.
I pray you remember me to Mr. Fairbanks, whose last note I did not answer because I intended to answer it in person before this date.4explanatory note Unto all my brother & sister cubs5explanatory note I send greeting, & great love. And Livy, the new cub—your cub-in law, so to speak—adds her love.
Good-bye—
Because the Fourth of July fell on a Sunday in 1869, most celebrations in Elmira were postponed until Monday (Elmira Advertiser: “City and Neighborhood,” 3 July, 5 July 69, 4; “No Paper To-Morrow,” 5 July 69, 1).
A riverboat term meaning to aid a vessel over a shallow bar by the use of long, stout poles, or spars, and tackles (Whitney and Smith, 9:5795).
Clemens was working on “Curiosities of California,” which he eventually decided not to use, in the cupola of the Langdon home (see the illustration, p. 505).
Clemens had received Abel Fairbanks’s latest word concerning the Cleveland Herald between 23 and 26 June (see 26 June 69 to JLC and PAM, n. 1click to open link). At Jervis Langdon’s suggestion, before going to Cleveland he spent 13 and 14 July in Buffalo, presumably investigating the possibility of a partnership in the Buffalo Express. While there, staying at the Tifft House, he also toured the city. On 15 July he at last went to Cleveland, where he doubtless stayed as usual with the Fairbankses. It was during this visit that Abel Fairbanks “astonished” and “disheartened” him by proposing that he assume the role of Herald political editor, and by asking $62,500 for the one-third interest he wanted, a price Fairbanks in effect raised with his next offer (see 1 Aug 69 to Bliss, n. 2click to open link, and 14 Aug 69 to the Fairbanksesclick to open link) (“Personal,” Buffalo Express, 14 July 69, 4; “City Notes,” Buffalo Express, 15 July 69, 5; “Personal,” Cleveland Herald, 16 July 69, 3; 19 Aug 69 to OLLclick to open link).
Charles Mason Fairbanks (1855–1924), Alice Holmes Fairbanks, and Mary Paine Fairbanks, the latter two previously identified (Fairbanks, 552; “Charles M. Fairbanks, Newspaper Man, Dies,” New York Times, 30 May 1924, 15).
MS, Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif. (CSmH, call no. HM 14252).
L3 , 280–281; MTMF 99–100.
see Huntington Library, pp. 582–83.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.
Although Clemens used a sheet of Jervis Langdon’s business stationery for this letter, he made some effort to avoid emphasizing its letterhead (see 26 June to Reidclick to open link for a transcription of an identical pre-printed letterhead). He first folded the sheet lengthwise so that the letterhead was positioned inside and not visible. After filling both front and back of the folded sheet, he opened it, turned it over, and, with the letterhead positioned upside-down and at the bottom of the page, completed the letter.