8 August 1871 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: IC, UCCL 00642)
I am different from other women. They have their monthly period once a month, but I have mine once a week, & sometimes oftener. That is to say, my mind changes that often. People who have no mind, can easily be steadfast & firm; but when a man is loaded down to the guards with it, as I am, every heavy sea of foreboding, or inclination, or mayhap indolence, shifts his cargo. See?
Therefore, if you will notice, one week I am likely to give rigid instructions to confine me to New England; next week, send me to Arizonia;2explanatory note next week, withdraw my name; next week, give you untrameled swing—& the week following, modify it. You Ⓐemendationmust try to keep the run of my mind, Redpath—it is your business, being the agent—& it always was too many for me. It appears to me to be one of the most delicate finest pieces of mechanism I have ever met with. Now about the West. This week I am willing that you should retain all the western engagements you have made, & make as many more as will cluster well, pay high prices & not cost too hard travel.3explanatory note
But what I shall want next week, is still with God.
Let us not profane the mysteries with soiled hands & prying eyes of sin.
P. S. Shall be here 2 weeks—will run up there when Nasby comes.4explanatory note
letter docketed: Twain Mark | Hartford, Conn | Aug. 8 ’71 and 8/9.71
Clemens had left Elmira on 2 or 3 August. He spent at least two days in New York City, staying at the St. Nicholas Hotel while shopping for clothes and perhaps attending to other unidentified business. He arrived in Hartford on 5 or 6 August, bringing with him his fifth submission of Roughing It printer’s copy, about 272 manuscript pages (460 equivalent pages: see 15 May 71 to Bliss, n. 3click to open link). While in Hartford he planned to give the book its final shape, cutting or adding material as needed (10 July 71 to Blissclick to open link; 10 Aug 71 to OLCclick to open link; 17 Aug 71 to Greeleyclick to open link; RI 1993 , 815, 863).
Arizona Territory, the site of recent Indian wars, was unlikely to be included on any lecture itinerary (Annual Cyclopaedia 1871, 723–24).
Clemens had considered lecturing as far west as Davenport, Iowa. Ultimately no “western engagements” were retained (10 June 71 to Redpath and Fallclick to open link; 12 June 71 to Redpathclick to open link; 23 July 71 to Bowenclick to open link; Lecture Schedule, 1871–1872click to open link)
MS, Chicago Public Library (IC).
L4 , 440–441; Will M. Clemens 1900, 28; MTL , 1:190; Horner, 168–69; “Letters to James Redpath,” Mark Twain Quarterly 5 (Winter–Spring 1942): 20; all with omissions.
donated to IC in 1976 by Mrs. Leon Mandel.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.