per Telegraph Operator
31 August 1874 • Elmira, N.Y. (Rochester [N.Y.] Democrat and Chronicle, 1 Sept 74, UCCL 12080)
Telegram just received. We are threatened with scarlet fever Ⓐemendation, & Ⓐemendation I fear to leave my family.1explanatory note
No outbreak of scarlet fever in Elmira has been documented. Clemens Ⓐemendation had been expected at the Rochester, New York, Opera House on the evening of 31 August for the first performance of the Gilded Age play. (The play was later billed as The Gilded Age; or, Colonel Sellers and, ultimately, as just Colonel Sellers.) The next day the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle printed this dispatch to Raymond, remarking: “Considerable disappointment was experienced that ‘Mark Twain,’ the author, did not make his appearance. His absence is explained by the following telegram.” The telegram from Raymond, who had arrived on 30 August, does not survive (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: “Personal,” 31 Aug 74, 4; “‘The Gilded Age,’” 1 Sept 74, 4).
The Rochester Union and Advertiser described the Gilded Age play, performed as a prologue and four acts, as
simply an incoherent jumble of scenes and acts, without any sequence or continuity whatever.... We presume it was the intention of the author, as the piece was written expressly for Raymond, to make “Sellers” the leading character, but this had not been effected. The prominent character being “Laura Hawkins” ... with “Sellers” as the principal adjunct.
It advised Clemens to “revise it thoroughly from beginning to end, cutting out some of the dialogues that are much too ‘talky,’ putting in more situations and above all a considerably larger dose of ‘Sellers.’” Raymond was
as absurdly comical as it was possible to be, and presented a perfectly life-like picture of the pompous, grandiloquent but good-hearted speculator. It is in this character that the humor of the author is prominently presented, and it is indeed only in “Sellers” that his handiwork can be recognized at all. Into it he has thrown all the fun-loving humor of his nature, and has succeeded in making him the very acme of unconscious wit, the only fault being that there is not enough of him. In selecting Mr. Raymond to perform this part the author could have selected no one from the American stage who would be so likely to make it a success, and right well does he fulfill his part in every particular. He appears to have caught the very inspiration of the author’s meaning.... With a different wrapping, this character, in Raymond’s hands, could be made the greatest success on the stage. (“The Opera House.—Initial Performance of the ‘Gilded Age’ Last Evening,” 1 Sept 74, 2)
The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle made some suggestions for improving Raymond’s costume and the closings of the acts, but marveled that
Mr. Clemens has been able to evolve so good an acting piece, and to construct so coherent a plot, from a book which, although abounding in the broadest humor and the most incisive wit, and containing a number of thrilling descriptions, makes no pretensions to the skillful unfolding of scenes in due subordination to an artistic climax. Mr. Clemens is to be congratulated upon his success as a dramatist.
Colonel Sellers, the paper observed, “although not essential to the plot becomes in the hands of Mr. Raymond the most important personage.” Recognizing Sellers as “a compound of the Missouri ‘Pike’ and ‘Wilkins Micawber,’” it called him “unique in conception and irresistible in effect” and predicted Raymond’s “immense success in this rendition” (“‘The Gilded Age,’” 1 Sept 74, 4). The Rochester Evening Express called the play “a very clever drama” that needed to be “toned down in some features, and thus be made more attractive.” It thought that Clemens “evinced genuine genius” in conceiving Colonel Sellers, who, as played by Raymond, “is of a better and higher type than any humorous part now upon the stage” (“The Gilded Age,” 1 Sept 74, 2). Raymond probably sent Clemens clippings of all three notices. Clemens certainly saw the Union and Advertiser’s review, since it was reprinted in the Elmira Advertiser on 4 September (“The Opera House—Initial Performances of the ‘Gilded Age,’” 1). The Gilded Age continued at the Rochester Opera House through 5 September, drawing large and appreciative audiences (Rochester Union and Advertiser: “Opera House,” 29 Aug 74, 31 Aug 74, 2–5 Sept 74, 2; “Amusements,” 31 Aug–5 Sept 74, 1).
“‘The Gilded Age,’” Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle, 1 Sept 74, 4. Copy-text is a microfilm edition of the newspaper at the University of Rochester (NRU).
L6 , 215–217.