11 September–15 October 1876 • Hartford, Conn. (Paraphrase and transcript: New York Times, 29 October 1876, UCCL 01380)
A letter addressed to Mr. S. L. Clemens, (Mark Twain,) Hartford, Conn., notifying him that he had been elected a member of the New-York Press Club, and inviting him to be present at their Fall reception on Thursday last, was inadvertently dropped into the letter-box without the required stamp. Postmaster James kindly paid the postage and forwarded the letter, which, in the ordinary course, would have gone in the Dead-letter Office. After thanking Mr. James for his courtesy, Mr. Clemens inclosed a copy of the Postmaster’s letter to the President of the Press Club, and expressed regret that he could not be present at the reception.1explanatory note He closed with a compliment to Mr. James as follows:
“By the inclosed printed letter to Postmaster James you will perceive that the term ‘civil’Ⓐemendation service is not a sarcasm when applied to the New-York Post Office. Had your unpaid letter passed through the average Post Office of the land I should have received my invitation about three months from now through the Dead-letter Department, after much correspondence &Ⓐemendation ruinous outlay of postage. I would that there were more Postmaster Jameses in the land.”2explanatory note
The letter notifying Clemens of his election to membership in the New York Press Club is lost. Bladen (1841–99), president of the club in 1876, was on the city staff of the New York Times from 1870 until about 1885. Clemens’s election had begun with the following letter, sent to Hartford and forwarded to Elmira (CU-MARK):
On the envelope of Hammann’s letter Clemens wrote “Membership proposed | accepted.” He might have been elected to membership at either of the club’s two meetings before its Thursday, 26 October, fall reception—on 2 September or 7 October. In either case, allowing time for the election notification and reception invitation to reach him, his response can reasonably be dated between 11 September, the day the Clemens family returned to Hartford from Elmira, and 15 October (Agnew 1894, 184; New York Times: “The Press Club Reception,” 27 Oct 1876, 2; “Death List of a Day: Charles H. Bladen,” 4 July 1899, 4).
Neither New York Postmaster Thomas L. James’s letter to Clemens nor his reply to James has been found. The “inclosed printed letter” to James may have been a newspaper printing of Clemens’s own letter or of someone else’s letter praising post office civility. James’s courtesy may have been prompted by Clemens’s 22 July complaint, to the New York Evening Post, about the dead letter office. James and Clemens had had a less cordial exchange, through the press, in 1874 (SLC and OLC to Brown, 4 Sept 1874, L6 , 223, 226 n. 11).
Paraphrase and transcript, “Mark Twain Compliments Postmaster James,” New York Times, 29 October 1876, 12.