Explanatory Notes        Apparatus Notes (Ⓐ)

Source: Columbia University, New York ([NNC])

Cue: "I think, but"

Source format: "MS, correspondence cards"

Letter type: "[standard letter]"

Notes:

Last modified:

Revision History: Paradise, Kate

Published on MTPO: 2022

Print Publication:

This edited text supersedes the previously published text
MTPDocEd
To Moncure D. Conway
6 August 1877 • Elmira, N.Y. (MS, correspondence cards: NNC, UCCL 01466)
Elmira, N.Y., Aug. 6 (I think, but do

slc not know.)—Can’t you do a fellow a kindness? I want a gold watch that will tell the minutes, the hours, & the days of the month. Stemwinder. “Stops” & second-handⒶemendation no object. If it will simply tell me the day of the month, & wind in the stem, I will manage to guess the time of day. To cost not more than £100. (& as much less as is reasonably possible for a good article.[)] My wife makes me a present of this watch. I suppose it can’t be had for the money, but some time when you are down in the city or over in Switzerland or Paris I wish you’d see. If you succeed I’ll send the money & you wear the watch till you find a friend willing to wear it over-sea & gouge the duty.

Bret Harte & I are cordial enemies; so I had to rehearse & bring out our play by myself at the Fifth Avenue last Tuesday. It is proving a bigger success, even than “Col. Sellers” was.1explanatory note Chatto was there. Chatto is a fine man & a gentleman. I like him. We had a chat at the Lotos Club next day. I have left precious little of Harte in “Ah Sin,” & what there is he stole from other people. He is an incorrigible literary thief—& always was. I saved a raft of newspaper notices to send to you—saved them so carefully I can’t put my hand on them now. But when found will send.

I’ve written a new play, by myself, but shall let it lie & ripen under correction several months. Judges say the chief character is enormous. (I’m one of those judges.)2explanatory note

If Raymond should go to England, I can show him a trick or two.3explanatory note

Love to you all. Madam says we go to Germany (via England) next year. (She is boss.)

Yrs Ever
Mark.

P.S.—Have offered to “simultane” 4 Atlantic articles with Temple Bar, beginning with October number. You look out for them. The two last are good. I wish there were enough for Chatto or Bentley to make a 6d primer out of.4explanatory note

SLC.

The enclosed, from N.Y. Evening Post is a fair sample; they all abuse the play, & that fills the house.5explanatory note The audiences are exceedingly enthusiastic.

Textual Commentary
Source text(s):

MS, correspondence cards, Conway Papers, NNC.

Previous Publication:

MicroPUL, reel 1.

Provenance:

The Conway Papers were acquired by NNC sometime after Conway’s death in 1907.

More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.

Explanatory Notes
1 Clemens was hasty in proclaiming the success of Ah Sin. In a letter of 5 August, Charles T. Parsloe was more cautious. “Business has drop[p]ed since the second night,” he reported, “but I am in hopes it will pick up again the coming week, still I believe we are doing the best business of any theatre in the city” (CU-MARK). Audiences did not increase, however, and after only five weeks in New York Parsloe took the play on the road for a brief and unsuccessful tour (see 15 Oct 1877 to Howells, n. 3).
2 

For John Brougham’s comment on Cap’n Simon Wheeler, The Amateur Detective, see 3 Aug 1877 to Howells, n. 4. Clemens also showed his manuscript to William Jermyn Florence (born Bernard Conlin, 1831–91), a prominent actor, producer, and writer. Florence gave Clemens his assessment in a letter of 3 August (CU-MARK):

UCLC37790
Friday a.m.
My dear Mr Clemens

Have read the play—the idea of the old detective is a capital one—but the balance of the characters are “sketchy” while many of the scenes are impracticable and need reconstruction—I can see a grand success in the piece though I feel I could do nothing with the part—it is not in my way.


John Owens was in my mind while I read the piece—he would do it capitally—I am obliged to you for the pleasure you have given me permitting me to read it—


I would suggest your making some one of the Ladies parts strong to stand out as a feature

W J Florence

John E. Owens was arguably the most popular comic actor if his day, known primarily for his role as the eccentric old farmer, Solon Shingle, in J. S. Jones’s The People’s Lawyer. Both Augustin Daly and Horace Wall, Florence’s agent, also saw the manuscript: see 31 Aug 1877 to Howells, n. 3.

3 For John Raymond’s English tour with Colonel Sellers see 29 Dec 1876 to Conway, n. 1.
4 Andrew Chatto, not George Bentley, published “Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion” in London (7 Nov 1877 to Chatto, n. 1).
5 The clipping that Clemens enclosed does not survive with the letter. The text, transcribed from the New York Evening Post of 1 August 1877, is in the Appendix “Enclosures with the Lettersclick to open link.”
Emendations and Textual Notes
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