Oliver Hazard Palmer (1814–84) was a lawyer, former judge, Civil War veteran, and, since 1863, the secretary and treasurer of the Western Union Telegraph Company. William Orton (1826–78) became president of the company in July 1867. Among other changes, early in 1870 he “pushed into operation the sending of messages at half rates at night” ( NCAB , 7:502). The “855” written at the top of the printed form was a record number indicating the count of telegrams received. The numbers “547” and “1050” were probably the time of receipt and time of delivery in Boston—presumably in the morning, since this was a half-rate message sent at night. At the bottom of the telegram, the operator noted that the “114” words of the message (address and signature were not counted) had been paid for at “½” rate, and appended his telegraphic initials, or “sign” (Gabler, 52, 80; New York Times: “Improving the Telegraph,” 30 Oct 70, 6; “Gen. Oliver Hazard Palmer,” 4 Feb 84, 2; Western Union, 3, 28, 40; James D. Reid, 487, 535, 547–56).

On 6 January Clemens left for Wooster, where he was to lecture that evening (see the next letter, n. 3). The “7” on the line above and the “Jan 7” here show that the telegram was sent from Wooster and received in Boston on the same date. Clemens probably sent it after his lecture, in the early morning hours of 7 January.

Howells became “chief-editor” of the Atlantic Monthly on 1 July 1871 (Howells 1979, 375). Although he and Clemens first met in late 1869, they had only recently become better acquainted, dining several times in November 1871 with Thomas Bailey Aldrich and Ralph Keeler and, on at least one occasion, with James T. Fields and Bret Harte as well ( L3 , 382 n. 6; L4 , 485–86 n. 3, 489). Howells first met Harte and his family in February 1871, when they were his house guests for a week, during which time Harte met and was lionized by the Boston literati. On 6 March 1871 Harte accepted a one-year, $10,000 contract to write a dozen stories for the Atlantic and other journals published by James R. Osgood—a contract that would soon end and would not be renewed. Clemens may well have been unsure about where to find Harte at this time, for in 1871 the Hartes moved frequently among several addresses in New York City, Rye (New York), and Newport (Rhode Island). As one of Harte’s editors, Howells was likely to be informed of his current whereabouts (Merwin, 222–29, 232–33).

The numbers below “Van Buren” were added by the receiving operator to indicate that the name had been counted as two words (Western Union, 16).

William Andrew Kendall (1831?–76), a native of Massachusetts, had been a schoolteacher in Petaluma, California, before moving to San Francisco in about 1861 to pursue a literary career. He worked first as an editor for the Golden Era, to which he contributed poems signed “Comet Quirls,” then from about 1865 to 1868 as a reporter and editor on the Morning Call. The “tall, black-eyed, longhaired poet” remembered by Charles Warren Stoddard (Stoddard 1907, 642) published his poems chiefly in San Francisco journals like the Evening Bulletin, Puck, and the Californian. In November 1868 he published The Voice My Soul Heard, a sixteen-page pamphlet containing two admonitory poems about the vanity of wealth and earthly power. It is not known when Kendall traveled to New York. Despite their years in common as San Francisco journalists (1864–66), Clemens claimed not to “know” Kendall; in any event, he did not remember him. Joaquin Miller’s 1892 recollection of having seen both men in the offices of the Golden Era—along with several other celebrities—is not conclusive, even if accurate. Harte, however, had known Kendall and his work, and had included three of his poems in the notoriously choosy Outcroppings: Being Selections of California Verse (1866). The much more catholic selection in Mary Richardson Newman’s Poetry of the Pacific (1867) also included three. During Harte’s tenure as editor of the Overland Monthly from 1868 to 1871, he published five Kendall poems in the magazine. Clemens’s effort to enlist the charity of Harte, Howells, and “the other boys” (presumably other members of the Atlantic fraternity) was successful. In December 1872, a well-informed reporter for the San Francisco News Letter and California Advertiser wrote:

Kendall apparently sailed from New York on 31 January aboard the Pacific Mail Steamship Company’s Henry Chauncey, arriving in San Francisco (after changing ships in Panama) on 6 March aboard the Alaska: he is probably the “J. H. Kendall” and “W. H. Randall” on the passenger lists published in New York and San Francisco newspapers. He survived in San Francisco until 1876, but “as a sort of literary waif ... utterly prostrated in health ... poor and destitute, living on weekly contributions from newspaper men,” according to an obituary in the San Francisco Chronicle. He committed suicide in January 1876, leaving a note that reflected with great bitterness on “these last eight years.” For Kendall’s further efforts to enlist Clemens’s help, see 13 Mar 73 to Howellsclick to open link (San Francisco Chronicle: “Poor Kendall,” 20 Jan 76, 1; “A Forgotten Poet,” 14 July 89, 8; “Poem by W. A. Kendall,” San Francisco Evening Bulletin, 7 Nov 68, 1; Kendall 1868, 1869 [bib12808], 1869 [bib12809], 1869 [bib12810], 1869 [bib12811], 1870; Miller; Harte 1866, 74–85; Newman, 99–106; Langley: 1862, 224; 1863, 209; 1865, 255; 1867, 280; “Passengers Sailed,” New York Tribune, 1 Feb 72, 3; “Shipping Intelligence,” San Francisco Morning Call, 7 Mar 72, 4).