29 June 1883 • Elmira, N.Y. (MS: NPV, UCCL 02273)
All right. I will wait till Duncan goes for me individually before I bother. I guess he will not see his way to tackling me at all if Whitford gives his lawyer a hint of what my defense would be.
I enclose a letter from Ogden. I cannot answer letters; I can ill spare the time to read them. I am writing a book; my time is brief; I cannot be interrupted by vineyard business or any other. Explain this to Ogden.
When I turned him over to you & Whitford, I did all I meant to do. You are my business man; & business I myself will not transact, neither will I write letters or consult about it.
As to your going to California, we don’t want any of that.
Now whensoever any determination has been arrived at in this vineyard matter, I shan’t mind hearing about it; but I don’t want to hear another syllable of the preliminaries—not one. Will you make Ogden understand that this must be so, & why I take this position?
I won’t talk business—I will perish first. I hate the very idea of business, in all its forms.
Oh, about Australia. That goes with the English copyright—belongs to Chatto.
unidentified newspaper clipping torn away
Your case of slander has interested me so much that I have set to work hunting up authorities bearing upon it. The above may or may not have a bearing—
If the prosecution should get hold of it they might attempt to prove that the Reporter was your attorney in which event you are a gone coon. It will rest upon the question whether the Reporter was your attorney in fact even tho he did not quote facts
It rests on you to prove him a liar which from your familiarity with their methods you should be easily enabled to do.
“Respectfully submitted”
27th
P S
Yesterday by appointment Mr Rogers & self met Mr Whitby at Websters office and we talked vineyards—I dont think Mr Whitby found any weak points in our presentiment, all the legal points especially were plain & the next question, is it a safe investment, and at this stage in comes Webster. Whitby said if he (W) was satisfied after such the “scouring” we would get, anybody would be, for when Webster had got through with a man there was seldom much left of him, all of which is very satisfactory simply because I think Webster is a man of most excellent good sense, without prejudice & not narrow minded[.] I am perfectly willing & glad to have just such a man to deal with & if I could afford it would pay his expenses to have him run out and investigate it personally[,] go to the vineyards, see it—make his own figures &c—I wish he would go, & I am going to have a talk with him & see if it cannot be fixed somehow—Webster is a man I would like to have struck earlier[.] I could have made money through him for all, and after this goes if it proves as I think it will be to be sound—I can show him one or two other things to go through. You seem to have struck two as good men as I have seen for many a day. Your usual good luck or good judgment?
I hope you wont oppose Websters run[n]ing out to Cal if we so conclude. Wont take long & it will be a vacation for him
MS, Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, Special Collections, NPV, is source text for the letter. MS, Richard L. Ogden to SLC, 26 and 27 June 1883, CU-MARK, UCLC 41584, is source text for the enclosure.
MTBus, 216–17, letter only.
see McKinney Family Papers for the letter, and Mark Twain Papers for the enclosure, in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.