15 January 1879 • Munich, Germany (Transcript by Albert Bigelow Paine of correspondence card:
CU-MARK, UCCL 12752)
Dear Aldrich—When a man has been absorbedly meddling for half an hour trying to get into a dainty thing which he takes to be a lady’s jewel-box, & all at once it lets go & blows the top of his head off, he feelsⒶemendation a brisk sense of surprise. IⒶemendation had to go back & read that whole bird story over again to see how the trick was done & why the mechanism didn’t show before. Bayard Taylor was a lovely character—we all felt your poem.
WithⒶemendation kindest remembrances to Mrs. Aldrich,
Transcript by Albert Bigelow Paine, CU-MARK. Paine or his typist indicated that the letter was written on a “(Card.)” Clemens most often used a monogrammed correspondence card during this period and the transcript has been emended to include the monogram.
See Paine Transcripts in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.