15 July 1884 • Elmira, N.Y. (MS, in pencil: MH-H, UCCL 01529)
I meant to write you that I told Webster to let Raymond see the play, but I have fooled around & neglected it. This fooling around has been done in the dental chair. I go down every other day & have one or two teeth gouged out & stuffed. I have been in the dental chair ten days, a couple of hours a day; & shall be there 3 days this week & I suppose as many more next week. The dentist is a bright man, & gouges & digs & saws & rasps & hapmmers, & kept keeps up a steady stream of entertaining talk, all the time, like his professional ancestor the barber; & so these have been very pleasant relaxations to me, & I shall be rather sorry to see them come to an end. They have been a vast improvement to me, too—an education; I can stand the most exquisite pain, now, without outward manifestation; & indeed without any very real discomfort. The Indian has fallen, in my estimation; he is no better than you or me—he is merely a product of education. I have picked up a lot of good dental stuff, & I wish I had the time & energy to write it up.
On my off days I work at a new story (Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer among the Indians 40 or 50 years ago).
MS, in pencil, MH-H.
MTHL, 2:495–97.
see Howells Letters in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.