5 October 1868 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CSmH, UCCL 02755)
I have been here two or three days—& staid a day in New York.1explanatory note They sent a letter from here to St Louis for me the day before I arrived—could it have been from you?—& with the heads for my lecture in it? If so, do please hurry & write it again—for I want to go to work. The cold I caught the night I came into Cleveland, is still with me & I can do no work now. I thought it was well, else I would not have left Elmira. They warned me against it, & Miss Livy2explanatory note promised prophesied a relapse if I went. The prophecy was fulfilled within ten hours. It has been a terrible cold. It may take its course though—it can’t last always. After I had been a night & a day at Mr. Langdon’s, c Charley & I got into the wagon at 8 PM, & just to leave Ⓐemendationfor New York, & just as we sat down on the aftermost seat the horse suddenly started, the seat broke loose, & we went over backwards, Charley falling in all sorts of ways & I lighting on exactly on my head in the gutter & breaking my neck in eleven different places. I lay there about four or five minutes, completely insensible—& then the water they the young ladies were pouring on my head brought me to. The seat followed Charley out & split his head wide open, so that you could lookin Ⓐemendationthrough it just as if you were looking through a gorge in a mountain. There wasn’t anything to intercept the view—which Ⓐemendationwas curious, because his brains hadn’t been knocked out. They took us in the library & laid us out—& then came the inquest—& so we were all ready for the funeral in the morning. They buried us both in one grave, but it was too crowded to suit me, because I am not used to sleeping double, anyhow, dead or alive, & so I left, & am here. I despise to be buried along with another man—it is too sociable. I like to be planted by myself—under a monument. But seriously, it came very near being a fatal mishap to both of us. I had rather not take the chances on it again.3explanatory note
I had an exceedingly pleasant time of it at Mr. Langdon’s. I can’t write about that matter that is in your mind & mine, but suffice it that it bears just a little pleasanter aspect than it did when I saw you last & I am just about that much more cheerful over it, you know. The letter I wrote a little while ago was not to you.4explanatory note We must not be too fast with our interpretations—yet still it will seem a little bit—nothing—nothing. The (friendly) correspondence was argued against & objected to before, but not this time. Is—is the sign worth anything? I wish it were—but then all signs fail in a dry time.
We have had a long talk about the book, & concluded that it cannot be illustrated profusely enough & get it out in December, & therefore we shall make a spring book of it & issue it the first of March. The publishers are ready to snatch it out now at once, with the usual full-page engravings, but they prefer to have pictures sandwiched in with the text, & I do too. So I shall have an idle month, now, on my lecture, if I ever get at it.
Give my love to all the family, please. Good-bye—
Mrs. A. W. Fairbanks, | Care “Herald.” | Cleveland | Ohio. return address: from | american publishing co., | hartford, conn. | if not called for within | ten days, please return. postmarked: hartford conn. oct 5
Clemens had returned to Hartford, where he again stayed with the Blisses, to continue preparation of the printer’s copy, particularly the illustrations, for The Innocents Abroad. The exact date of his return and the date of his one-day stay in New York have not been determined.
Olivia L. Langdon.
Olivia gave the following account of this mishap in a letter to Alice Hooker, written just after Clemens’s departure:
Mr Clemens spent two days here on his way back to Hartford from St. Louis, he intended only to remain one day, but as he and Charlie started for the Depot, they were thrown out of the back end of the waggon (it was a democrat-waggon and the seat was not fastened) both striking on their heads, Charlie’s head was quite badly cut Mr Clemens was stunned— It did not prove to be serious in either case— We all enjoyed Mr. Clemens stay with us very much indeed— (OLL to Alice B. Hooker, 29 Sept 68, CtHSD)
Paine reported that at the end of the first day, Clemens confided his love for Olivia to Charles, who did not consider him a suitable match for his sheltered sister and recommended that he leave immediately (MTB , 1:368). Clemens later said that he had exaggerated the seriousness of his injury to gain time with Olivia (AD, 14 Feb 1906, CU-MARK, in MTA , 2:106–9).
That is, 4–5 Oct 68 to OLLclick to open link.
MS, Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif. (CSmH, call no. HM 14233).
L2 , 256–258; Wecter, 34, excerpt; LLMT , 22, excerpt; MTMF , 39–40.
see Huntington Library, p. 512.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.