5 April 1876 • Hartford, Conn. (Hartford Courant, 6 April 1876: UCCL 13021)
A shocking state of affairs exists in that part of our beautiful city where Niles street used to be. This street is now no more. For some weeks past it has been gradually sinking. Here &Ⓐemendation there large openings appeared. Gutter stones disappeared, hitching posts unearthed floated in the mire. About a week ago the road became impassable, & since that time the residents not being able to get fresh meat & groceries, have subsisted on codfish, ham, & such salt victuals as they might have had on hand. Some are now out of the necessities of life, & unless a way is found to reach them soon, dreadful results are to be feared. During the great rain on Tuesday matters grew much worse, & Tuesday night the street disappeared entirely. Nothing now remains but a broad muddy canal. It is feared that the houses will soon begin to crumble & fall in also. Many accidents are said to have occurred. On Saturday last a charcoal man attempted to go to No. 31. When within a few rods of his destination he disappeared, horse, wagon & all. His basket floated ashore near Gillette street. On Sunday morning a newsboy attempted to cross the street near the school house, the ground gave way & he would have been lost had it not been for a hitching post floating close by. On Monday the orange man was lost; horse & wagon disappeared entirely. Fragments of wagon, baskets, barrels, &c.Ⓐemendation, indicate that many more accidents may have occurred. The scene of horror may be reached from Gillette or Sigourney streets.
This letter and the next one (UCCL 13022) were almost certainly by Clemens: they are very much in the mode of his mischievous letter of 30 March 1873click to open link, about street flooding, to the editor of the Courant (20 Mar 1873 to the editor of the Hartford Courant, L5 , 325–28). The editor in chief of the paper was Joseph R. Hawley (1826-1905), a Republican congressman from Connecticut since 1872. He was in Hartford for the 3 April 1876 Connecticut state and Hartford city elections, but it is not known if he was a party to the present letter. Charles Dudley Warner, the paper’s associate editor, was still abroad at this time (see 1 Jan 76 to Howellsclick to open link, n. 1). The “great rain” had hit Hartford and its environs on the night of Tuesday, 28 March, causing flooding and damage that were still a problem a week later. The Courant’s reports did not specifically mention Niles Street, which was about two blocks from the Clemens house on Farmington Avenue (Hartford Courant: “Brief Mention,” 29 Mar 1876, 2; “Full and Overflowing,” 30 Mar 1876, 2; “Meeting To-Night,” 1 Apr 1876, 2; “Brief Mention,” 3 Apr 1876, 1; “Last Republican Rally of the Campaign,” 3 Apr 1876, 2; “The State Election,” “The City Election,” 4 Apr 1876, 2).
“Miraculous Disappearance of Niles Street,” Hartford Courant, 6 April 1876, 2.
Scharnhorst 2014, 96–97.