18 or 19 May 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (Hartford Courant, 20 May 75, UCCL 11895)
TWO HUNDRED &Ⓐemendation FIVE DOLLARS REWARD—At the great base ball match on Tuesday, while I was engaged in hurrahing, a small boy walked off with an English-made brown silk UMBRELLA belonging to me, &Ⓐemendation forgot to bring it back. I will pay $5 for the return of that umbrella in good condition to my house on Farmington avenue. I do not want the boy (in an active state) but will pay two hundred dollars for his remains.1explanatory note
Twichell pasted a clipping of this notice in his journal, commenting:
On the 18th I attended a grand Baseball match between the “Hartfords” and the “Bostons” with M. T. who lost his umbrella down through the seats and had the discomfort of presently finding that it had been carried off by somebody who crept under the seats to get it. The next day this advertisement appeared in “the Courant.” (Twichell, 1:102)
it might prove no joke for the boy should it meet the eye of some simple-minded ruffian without a sense of humor. Indeed, by a strict construction of law, when a gentleman, over his own signature, publicly offers a large pecuniary inducement for the commission of murder, the jest might be very unpleasantly turned against its author. (“News Splinters,” 5)
“New Advertisements,” Hartford Courant, 20 May 75, 3. Copy-text is a microfilm edition of the newspaper in the Newspaper and Microcopy Division, University of California, Berkeley (CU-NEWS).
L6 , 481–482; “Mark Twain Loses an Umbrella,” New York World, 21 May 75, 4.