Private.

You were right, when you said in the Brunswick hotel last summer that I would draw better all by myself. It is true. I thought Cable would be a novelty, but alas he has been everywhere, & is a novelty nowhere. He is a distinct I wish I could pay him $200 a week to withdraw, & pay the little Russian musician a reasonable sum to take his place. I would do it in a minute. Personally I like Cable immensely; & in his right place he ought to be a good card—but he is not in his right place now.

If any programs have been printed for the rest of our season, it will be necessary to destroy them; for I must invent some way to curtail Cable. His name draws a sixteenth part of the house, & he invariably does two-thirds of the reading. I cannot stand that any longer. He may have 35 inserted in pencil: or 38 minutes on the platform, & no more. He must either reduce his second piece to 10 minutes (it is now 21) or strike it out altogether. The latter is the only safe course, I judge, for the reason that his constant disposition is to lengthen his pieces—he never shortens one. At first the “night ride” was 7 minutes long—it is now 13. His present program is:

1. —————————— 15 minutes.

2. —————————— 21 " inserted in pencil: (sometimes 25)

3. Songs (with encore)— 10

4. Night ride —————— 13

____

59 inserted in pencil: —an hour. 

Generally the performance can’t begin u till 12 minutes after 8. Add that to 59 & it makes 71 minutes out of 120 (2 hours) & it apparently leaves me 49 minutes. But my real program is:

1. —— —— 9 minutes.

2. ———— 9       "

3. —— — 15       "

4 ———— 5       "

____

38 —   "

to C’s 59.

I answer encores—& must answer them; & that often adds 20 minutes to my share, & even 25—& the consequence is, we t make the show too long, & tire the audience. Only one plan is sensible, & that is, to never tire the audience—always send them away hungry. This we have never done in a single instance.

But we’ll do it after this, for our show will close 25 minutes earlier than heretofore, every time .—that is to say, it will close 10 to 15 minutes before 10.

Hereafter, I wish to allow myself & Cable as follows:

Waiting for audience — numbers canceled and inserted in pencil: 10 12 Ⓐemendation minutes.

1. Cable ——————————— 15 min.

2. Twain ——————————— 15 "

3. Cable ——————————— 10 "

4. Twain inserted in pencil: (2 pieces— a & b) ——— 25 "

5. Cable ——————————— 13 "

6. Twain ——————————— 12 "

______

102

After Cable’s Night Ride, he can answer the usual encore & sing 5 minutes—which runs the time up to 107 minutes—nearly about a quarter to 10, & we send the audience home hungry instead of stuffed, surfeited, bored, weary & cursing.

squeezed in at the bottom of the page in pencil: written in pencil on a new sheet, with the bottom two-thirds cut away, presumably to cancel additional text: