25? December 1870 • Buffalo, N.Y. (MS: CtHMTH, UCCL 02787)
With this I send you a loving Christmas present to remind you that it atⒶemendation this season of all seasons of the year when babies are important & their acts of great honor & significance, this baby recognizes & approves of his greatgrandma—entirely & completely.
This present is a small personal friend of mine who has gotten over his crimson period, his yaller period & his red-gum period & has bleached out & taken a good complexion.1explanatory note
He has a good many ve virtues,Ⓐemendation but his chiefest one is his mannerly & attractive quietness. He never speaks till he is spoken to—and even then he don’t answer right off. Merry Christmas to you & a great deal of love.
A photograph of Langdon Clemens may have accompanied this letter, although no such early image has been identified. Possibly, however, the enclosure was a drawing, similar to the ones Clemens had recently done for Susan Crane (19–20? Nov 70 to Craneclick to open link).
MS, Mark Twain House, Hartford (CtHMTH).
L4 , 285.
donated to CtHMTH in 1962 by Ida Langdon.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.