I would have answered yours of Dec. 9th earlier but have been under the doctor’s hands and not well able to write.3explanatory note
When I subscribed it was the understanding that I should pay my subscription at my
convenience; and so I supposed I should never be called upon at all but would be left
to determine for myself when the convenient time should arrive—since no one but myself
could possibly name that date. But I have been written to several times for my subscription
already, and although I would like to pay it and clear it away it still is not convenient
to do so, and my conscience easily justifies me in standing by my privilege.
I have intended several times to inquire among my friends for some one who would take
my subscription off my hands upon condition that I pay a hundred dollars of it myself
and leave that friend to pay the other four hundred.
If I could find some person willing to do that I willwould ratify the bargain at once both for my own relief and because I do not wish to seem
a stumbling block to the prosperity of the Association.
Very Truly Yours,
Samℓ. L. Clemens
Textual Commentary
Source text(s):
MS, revised and signed by SLC, CtHi, call no. 84608.
Explanatory Notes
1 This notation—like all of the letter except the revision in the last paragraph and
the signature, indicated by a gray background—is in the hand of Clemens's stenographer.
2 Clemens's stenographer mistakes the first initial and misspells the last name of Morgan
G. Bulkeley. The 9 December 1876 letter to which Clemens replies has not been found.
The son of the founder of Hartford's Aetna Life Insurance Company, Bulkeley (1837-1922),
a banker, was president of the United States Trust Company, incorporated in Hartford
in 1872. In 1875 he had been elected to the Hartford common council and in 1876 was
placed on the board of aldermen. Subsequently he was a four-term mayor of Hartford
(1880-88), governor of Connecticut (1889-93), and U.S. senator (1905-11), all as a
Republican. He also was an enthusiastic sportsman. He helped bring professional baseball
to Hartford in 1874, and in 1875 became president of the Hartford Dark Blues. He and
Clemens reportedly “had known each other since the humorist first came to Hartford,
as he attended many of the Hartford Dark Blues' baseball games when Bulkeley owned
the team” (Kevin Murphy 2010, 75). Bulkeley was an aficionado of harness racing at Hartford's Charter Oak Park,
which opened in 1873. In 1876 he was treasurer of the Connecticut Stock Breeder's
Association, formed in 1871, which managed the races at the Charter Oak track. He
later became president of the track and also was a vice-president of the National
Trotting Association, organized in New York City in 1870 to codify and regulate the
sport (Kevin Murphy 2010, 45, 56-59, 175; Geer 1875, 41, 297; Geer 1876, 41, 297; “Trotting at Hartford,” New York Times, 9 June 1875, 7; Adelman 1981, 5-6, 24-25). It probably was the association of stock breeders that Clemens refers
to in the last paragraph of the letter, with his “subscription” being a promised investment
in it (see 11 Oct 1876 to Bulkeley).
3 The illness that delayed Clemens's reply was dysentery, as indicated by his letter
of 29 or 30 December 1875 to Joseph H. Twichell (L6, 606). On 3 January Clemens's neighbor Lilly Warner wrote her husband, George: “Mr.
Clemens is still miserable—wasn't dressed yesterday when I ran in at noon. I should
really think it might run into some serious trouble” (CU-MARK). But the following day she was able to tell him: “Mr. Clemens is much better & out
again” (CU-MARK).
MS, revised and signed by SLC, CtHi, call no. 84608.