Susy’sⒶapparatus note BiographyⒶapparatus note mentions little Langdon—The change of residence from Buffalo to Hartford—Mr. Clemens tells of the sale of his Buffalo paper to Mr. Kinney—Speaks of Jay Gould, McCall, and Rockefeller.
From Susy’s Biography.Ⓐapparatus note
WhileⒶapparatus note Langdon was a little baby he used to carry a pencil in his little hand, that was his great playthingⒶapparatus note; I believe he was very seldom seen without one in his hand. When he was in Aunt Susy’sⒶapparatus note Ⓔexplanatory note arms and would want to go to mamma he would hold out his hands to her with the backs of his hands out toward her instead of withⒶapparatus note his palmes out. (About a year and five months) after Langdon was born I was born, and my chief occupation then was to cry, so I must have added greatly to mamma’s care. Soon after little Langdon was born (a year) papa and mamma moved to Hartford to live. Their house in Bufalo reminded them too much of dear grandpapaⒺexplanatory note, so they moved to Hartford soon after he died.
SoonⒶapparatus note after little Langdon was born a friend of mamma’s came to visit her (Emma Nigh) and she was taken with the typhoid feverⒺexplanatory note, while visiting mamma. At length she became so delirious, and so hard to take care of that mamma had to send to some of her friends in Elmira to come and help take care of her. Aunt Clara came, (Miss Clara L. Spaulding). She is no relation of ours but we call her Aunt Clara because she is such a great friend of mamma’sⒺexplanatory note. She came and helped mamma take care of Emma Nigh, but in spite of all the good care that she received, she grew worse and died.Ⓐapparatus note
SusyⒶapparatus note is right. Our year and a half in Buffalo had so saturated us with horrors and distress that we became restless and wanted to change, either to a place with pleasanter associations or with none at all. In accordance with the hard terms of that fearful law—the year of mourning—which deprives the mourner of the society and comradeship of his race when he most needs it, we shut ourselves up in the house and became recluses, visiting no one and receiving visits from no one. There was one exception—a single exception. David Gray—poet, and editor of the principal newspaperⒺexplanatory note,—Ⓐapparatus notewas our intimate friend,Ⓐapparatus note through his intimacyⒶapparatus note and mineⒶapparatus note with John Hay. David had a young wife and a young baby. The Grays and the Clemenses visited back and forth frequently, and this was all the solace the Clemenses had in their captivity.
When we could endure imprisonment no longer, Mrs. Clemens sold the house and I sold my one-third interest in the newspaper, and we went to Hartford to live. I have some little [begin page 364] business sense now, acquired through hard experience and at great expense; but I had none in those days. I had bought Mr. Kinney’s share of that newspaper (I think the name was KinneyⒶapparatus note) at his price—which was twenty-five thousand dollars. Later I found that all that I had bought of real value was the Associated Press privilege. I think we did not make a very large use of that privilege. It runs in my mind that about every night the Associated Press would offer us five thousand words at the usual rate, and that we compromised on five hundred. Still that privilege was worth fifteen thousand dollars, and was easily salable at that price. I sold my whole share in the paper—including that solitary asset— for fifteenⒶapparatus note thousand dollarsⒺexplanatory note. Kinney (if that was his name) was so delighted at his smartness in selling a property to me for twenty-five thousand that was notⒶapparatus note worth three-fourths of the money,Ⓐapparatus note that he was not able to keep his joy to himself, but talked it around pretty freely and made himself very happy over it. I could have explained to him that what he mistook for his smartness was a poor and driveling kind of thing. If there had been a triumph, if there had been a mental exhibition of a majestic sort, it was not his smartness; it was my stupidity; the credit was all due to me. He was a brisk and ambitious and self-appreciative young fellow, and he left straightway for New York and Wall Street, with his head full of sordid and splendid dreams—dreams of the “get rich quick” order; dreams to be realized through theⒶapparatus note dreamer’s smartness and the other party’s stupidity.
Jay Gould had just then reversed the commercial morals of the United StatesⒺexplanatory note.Ⓐapparatus note He had put a blight upon them from which they have never recovered, and from which they will notⒶapparatus note recover for as much as a century to come. Jay Gould was the mightiest disaster which has ever befallen this country. The people had desired money before his day, but he taught them to fall down and worship it. They had respected men of means before his day, but along with this respect was joined the respect due to the character and industry which had accumulated it. But Jay Gould taught the entire nation to make a god of the money and the man, no matter how the money might have been acquired. In my youth there was nothing resembling a worship of money or of its possessor, in our region. And in our region no well-to-do man was ever charged with having acquired his money by shady methods.
The gospel left behind by Jay Gould is doing giant work in our days. Its message is “Get money. Get it quickly. Get it in abundance. Get it in prodigious abundance. Get it dishonestly if you can, honestly if you mustⒶapparatus note.”
This gospel does seem to be almost universal. Its great apostles, to-day, are the McCurdysⒶapparatus note, McCalls, Hydes, Alexanders, and the rest of that robber gang who have lately been driven out of their violated positions of trust in the colossal insurance companiesⒶapparatus note of New YorkⒺexplanatory note. President McCall was reported to be dying day before yesterday. The others have been several times reported, in the past two or three months, as engaged in dyingⒺexplanatory note. It has been imagined that the cause of these death-strokes was sorrow and shame for the robberies committed upon the two or three million policy holders and their families, and the widow and the orphan—but every now and then one is astonished to find that it is not the outraged conscience of these men that is at work; they are merely sick and sore because they have been exposed.
Yesterday—as I see by the morning paper—John A. McCall quite forgot about his obsequies and sat up and became impressive, and worked his morals for the benefit of the nation. He [begin page 365] knew quite well that anything which a prodigiously rich man may say—whether in health or moribund—will be spread by the newspapers from one end of this continentⒶapparatus note to the other and be eagerly read by every creature who is able to read. McCall sits up and preaches to his son—ostensibly to his son—really to the nation. The man seems to be sincere, and I think he is sincere. I believe his moral sense is atrophied. I believe he really regards himself as a high and holy man. And I believe he thinks he is so regarded by the people of the United States. He has been worshipedⒶapparatus note because of his wealth, and particularly because of his shady methods of acquiring it,Ⓐapparatus note for twenty years. And I think he has become so accustomed to this adulation, and so beguiled and deceived by it, that he does really think himself a fine and great and noble being, and a proper model for the emulation of the rising generation of young men.
John D. Rockefeller is quite evidently a sincere man. Satan, twaddling sentimental sillinesses to a Sunday-school, could be no burlesque upon John D. Rockefeller and his performancesⒶapparatus note in his Cleveland Sunday-school. When John D. is employed in that way he strikes the utmost limit of grotesqueness. He can’t be burlesqued—he is himself a burlesque. I know Mr. Rockefeller pretty well, and I am convinced that he is a sincere man.
I also believe in young John D.’sⒶapparatus note sincerity. When he twaddles to his Bible ClassⒶapparatus note every Sunday, he exposes himself just after his father’s fashionⒺexplanatory note. He stands up and with admirable solemnity and confidence discusses the Bible with the inspiration and the confidence of an idiot—and does it in all honesty and good faith. I know him, and I am quite sure he is sincere.
McCall has the right and true Rockefeller whang. He snivels owlishly along and is evidently as happy and as well satisfied with himself as if there wasn’t a stain upon his name, nor a crime in his record. Listen—here is his little sermon:
FEBRUARY 16, 1906.
WORK, WORK, SAYS McCALL.
Tells of His Last Cigar in a Talk with His Son.
Special to The New York Times.
lakewood, Feb. 15.—John A. McCall felt so much better to-day that he had a long talk with his son, John C. McCall, and told many incidents of his career.
“John,” he said to his son, “I have done many things in my life for which I am sorry, but I’ve never done anything of which I feel ashamed.
“My counsel to young men who would succeed is that they should take the world as they find it, and then work—work!”
Mr. McCall thought the guiding force of mankind was will power, and in illustration he said:
“Some time ago, John, your mother and I were sitting together, chatting. I was smoking a cigar. I liked a cigar, and enjoyed a good, quiet smoke. She objected to it.
“ ‘John,’ said she, ‘why don’t you throw that cigar away?’
“I did so.
“ ‘John,’ she added, ‘I hope you’ll never smoke again.’
“The cigar I threw away was my last. I determined to quit then and there, and did so. That was exactly thirty-five years ago.”
[begin page 366]Mr. McCall told his son many stories of his business life and seemed in a happier frame of mind than usual. This condition was attributed partly to the fact that he received hundreds of telegrams to-day congratulating him on his statement of yesterday reiterating his friendship for Andrew Hamilton.
“Father received a basketful of dispatches from friends in the North, South, East, and West commending him for his statement about his friend Judge Hamilton,” said young Mr. McCall to-night. “The telegrams came from persons who wished him good health and recovery. It has made him very happy.”
Mr. McCall had a sinking spell at 3 o’clock this morning, but it was slight, and he recovered before it was deemed necessary to send for a physician.
Milk and bouillons are now his sole form of nourishment. He eats no solids and is rapidly losing weight.
Drs. Vanderpoel and Charles L. Lindley held a conference at the McCall house at 5 o’clock this evening, and later told Mrs. McCall and Mrs. Darwin P. Kingsley, his daughter, that Mr. McCall’s condition was good, and that there was no immediate danger.
John C. McCall gave out this statement to-night: “Mr. McCall has had a very favorable day and is somewhat better.”
Following it comes the kind of bulletin which is given out, from day to day, when a king or other prodigious personage has had a favorable day, and is somewhat better—a fact which will interest and cheer and comfort the rest of the human race, nobody can explain why.
The sons and daughters of Jay Gould move, to-day, in what is regarded as the best society—the aristocratic society—of New York. One of his daughters married a titled Frenchman, ten or twelve years ago, a noisy and silly ruffian, gambler, and gentleman, and agreed to pay his debts, which amounted to a million or so.Ⓐapparatus note But she only agreed to pay the existing debts, not the future ones. The future ones have become present ones now, and are colossal. To-day she is suingⒶapparatus note for a separation from her shabby purchase, and the world’s sympathy and compassion are with her, where it belongs.
Kinney went to Wall Street to become a Jay Gould and slaughter the innocents. Then he sank out of sight. I never heard of him again, nor saw him during thirty-fiveⒶapparatus note years. Then I encountered a very seedy and shabby tramp on Broadway—it was some months ago—and the tramp borrowed twenty-five cents of meⒺexplanatory note. ToⒶapparatus note buy a couple of drinks with, I suppose. He had a pretty tired look and seemed to need them. It was Kinney. His dapperness was all gone; he showed age, neglect, care, and that something which indicates that a long fight is over and that defeat has been accepted.
Mr. Langdon was a man whose character and nature were made up pretty exclusively of excellencies. I think that he had greatness in him also—executive greatness—and that it would have exhibited itself if his lines had been cast in a large field instead of in a small and obscure one. He once came within five minutes of being one of the great railway magnates of America.
Aunt Susy’s] Susan Crane’s.
dear grandpapa] Jervis Langdon.
(Emma Nigh) . . . typhoid fever] See the Autobiographical Dictation of 15 February 1906, 362.21–28 and note.
(Miss Clara L. Spaulding) . . . great friend of mamma’s] Spaulding (1849–1935) was the daughter of a prosperous Elmira, New York, lumber merchant; in 1886 she married lawyer John Barry Stanchfield (9 and 31 Mar 1869 to Crane, L3, 182 n. 6). She is further discussed in the Autobiographical Dictation of 26 February 1906.
David Gray . . . editor of the principal newspaper] Gray (1836–88) was born in Edinburgh and came to the United States in 1849. Settling in Buffalo in 1856, he worked as a secretary, librarian, and bookkeeper before becoming a journalist. When Clemens moved to Buffalo in 1869, Gray had just married Martha Guthrie and was managing editor of the Courier, a rival paper to Clemens’s Buffalo Express. Gray rose to be editor-in-chief of the Courier, but in 1882 ill health forced him to retire; in 1888 he was fatally injured in a railway accident (SLC and OLC to the Langdons, 27 Mar 1870, L4, 102 n. 9). Clemens talks of him further in the Autobiographical Dictation of 22 February 1906.
bought Mr. Kinney’s share of that newspaper . . . I sold . . . for fifteen thousand dollars] Clemens bought his share of the Buffalo Express not from “Mr. Kinney” but from Thomas A. Kennett (1843–1911) in August 1869, and sold it again in March 1871 (for details of the purchase and sale see 12 Aug 1869 to Bliss, L3, 294 n. 2, and 3 Mar 1871 to Riley, L4, 338–39, n. 3). Clemens returned to Kennett (still calling him Kinney) later in this dictation: see the note at 366.29–32.
Jay Gould had just then reversed the commercial morals of the United States] Gould (1836–92) was an unscrupulous financier and railroad speculator whose name became a byword for ruthless greed. As a director of the Erie Railroad, with James Fisk (1834–72), he looted the company; his attempt to corner the gold market in 1869 triggered the panic of “Black Friday,” ruining many investors. For part or all of the next two decades he controlled several major railways and the Western Union Telegraph Company, and owned the New York World from 1879 to 1883. At his death his estate was valued at $72 million. Clemens’s attitude toward Gould was not unusual: Gould was denounced early and often as the poisoner of the American republic. And when Daniel Beard pictured the slave driver in A Connecticut Yankee, he used Gould as a model—with Clemens’s enthusiastic endorsement (“Jay Gould’s Will Filed,” New York Times, 13 Dec 1892, 10; see Budd 1962, 44, 84, 114, 204; CY , 17, 405, 567).
McCurdys, McCalls . . . insurance companies of New York] See the Autobiographical Dictation of 10 January 1906, note at 257.6–9.
President McCall was reported to be dying . . . The others . . . engaged in dying] Clemens presumably refers to reports such as the following, all from the New York Times: “M’Call, on Deathbed, Defends Hamilton,” 15 Feb 1906, 1; “President M’Curdy out of the Mutual,” 30 Nov 1905, 1; “John A. McCall Quits N. Y. Life Presidency,” 1 Jan 1906, 1 (where James W. Alexander is said to be “a physical wreck”).
John D. Rockefeller . . . after his father’s fashion] See the Autobiographical Dictation of 20 March 1906, where Clemens discusses the Rockefellers and their Sunday school classes at length.
Kinney went to Wall Street . . . borrowed twenty-five cents of me] Kennett worked briefly as a Wall Street broker, then returned to journalism, editing various trade publications. He died in a Bronx clinic for destitute consumptives (12 Aug 1869 to Bliss, L3, 294 n. 2; New York Times: “Editor Kennett Dead,” 30 June 1911, 9; “Praise for St. Joseph’s Hospital,” 26 May 1895, 17).
Source documents.
TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 331–40, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.Times Clipping from the New York Times, 16 February 1906, 1, attached to TS1: ‘FEBRUARY 16 . . . somewhat better.” ’ (365.23–366.18).
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 472–81, made from the revised TS1 (with the attached Times clipping).
At the top of the first page of TS1 Clemens wrote ‘Not for Mc’, referring to possible publication through Samuel McClure’s newspaper syndicate (see the Introduction, p. 29). Hobby transcribed the Times clipping into TS2; the readings of the Times are adopted, and the accidental variants she introduced in TS2 are not reported. On TS1 Clemens wrote ‘solid’ next to text from Susy’s biography to suggest extract styling.