28 November 1876 • (Wilkes-Barre [Pa.] Record of the Times, 2 December 1876, UCCL 13800)
My Dear SirⒶemendation:—I never have heard of this monk before.1explanatory note When he says he was guide to our party of Pilgrims in 1867 he ought to state which division of it—if he speaks the truth—for there were sixty persons in that party, &Ⓐemendation is he ass enough to think he can make any body believe that one guide can take care of such a multitude?
If he means that he did perform so impossible a service he is simply uttering an untruth. If he says, or means, that he guided my division of the Pilgrims during three weeks in the Holy Land he is speakingⒶemendation falsely again: we never used any guide but our dragoman but once, & that was for one week in Jerusalem.2explanatory note I believe this man is a miserable fraud. Suppose you drop a line to Daniel Slote, 121 Williams Street, New York, & question him. He was with me in Palestine & will know everything.3explanatory note
The Wilkes-Barre (Pa.) Record of the Times (2 Dec 1876, 4), the source of this letter, explained its contents:
THAT BULGARIAN MONK.
Mark Twain Denies the Guideship of the Eccentric Individual—Is A. N. Experidon a Blank Fraud?
The readers of the Record will doubtless remember an article which appeared in our columns some time ago under the caption of “Mark Twain’s Guide,” and also the queer individual who is a Bulgarian monk, speaks fifteen langauges and makes a most fantastical appearance in his attire, to whom the articles referred.
He accounted for his presence in America by stating that he had come as a representative Bulgarian to the Centennial exhibition, and capped the climax of centered interest in himself by stating that he was the guide of our celebrated American humorist Mark Twain when on his trip to the Holy Land as described in “The Innocents Abroad.”
Even the last named claim would have been granted and no suspicions as to his veracity occurred had he not in one of his lectures made an unscrupulous attack upon the man whom he claimed he had led through Palestine. Monsieur A. N. Experidon found that his defermations were a hard pill for the lovers of the Hartford laugh-maker to swallow, and one of the said admirers of the genial Mark, an attache of this paper, took pains to direct an inquiry to Mark Twain at once as to whether this individual’s claims to having been his guide were bogus or not. The answer arrived on Wednesday, and we give it herewith as it will fully explain all the genial humorist knows of the Bulgarian Monk.
The Record of the Times did contact Slote at Slote, Woodman and Company, his New York blank-book and stationery firm. The paper printed his reply on 4 December 1876 (“That Bulgarian Monk,” 4):
New York, Dec. 2d., 1876.
Dear Sir: Your favor of the 1st. inst. referring to a certain person by the name of the Rev. A. N. Experidon, received.
I fully concur in the opinion of my travelling companion, Mark Twain, that said Experidon is a “travelling fraud,” as no such person acted in the capacity as guide to our party of eighty in our pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Our dragoman or guide being a native of the island of Malta, and prior to his engagement with us a resident of Alexandria, Egypt. His name being Abraham and he a Roman Catholic by profession. Our assistant dragoman being a mussulman by the name of Mahomet, also a resident of Alexandria in 1867. Both of the above parties returning with us on the “Quaker City” from Joffa to Alexandria
Should you require any further corroboration, please write to Col. William R. Denny, of Winchester, Virginia, who was the originator of our special trip through Syria and the Holy Land and one who can give you more positive information regarding our journey than any of the party.
Truly Yours,
Daniel Slote
The Record of the Times warned its readers that Experidon was “taking up collections for the Greek church which is situated in his pockets” and advised them “to treat him as a most transparent humbug deserves to be treated, and teach him that Americans will not swallow all the foreign trash sent from beyond the Atlantic, although it be flavored with a little American interest.” Despite such local reaction, Experidon continued to travel throughout the United States on a “self-appointed mission of preaching the gospel of Christ,” making unsubstantiated claims about his background and education and bogus remarks about his association with Mark Twain and Brigham Young (“A Bulgarian Monk,” San Jose [Calif.] Evening News, 28 Mar 1889, in Namee 2009a; see also Namee 2009b, 2010, and 2012).
“That Bulgarian Monk,” Wilkes-Barre (Pa.) Record of the Times, 2 December 1876, 4.