LetⒶtextual note us go back three months, now, and take up—no, let him wait. I could not do him justice this morning, for I feel at peace with all the human race. It is best to wait for a more favorable time. We must not be inadequate with that man—we must boil him in oilⒺexplanatory note. I know I get these soft spells too often, but I was born so—I cannot change my disposition. By my count, estimating from the time when I began these dictations two years ago, in Italy, I have been in the right mood for competently and exhaustively feeding fat my ancient grudges in the cases of only thirteen deserving personsⒺexplanatory note—one woman and twelve men. It makes good reading. Whenever I go back and re-readⒶtextual note those little biographies and characterizations it cheers me up, and I feel that I have not lived in vainⒶtextual note. The work was well done. The art of it is masterly. I admire it more and more every time I examine it. I do believe I have flayed and mangled and mutilated those people beyond the dreams of avarice.

Those chapters will not see print for fifty or seventy-five years to come—but that is no matter, myⒶtextual note enjoyment was in the writing of them, not in the unhappiness they could afford to those people or their children. I should like to read them privately to those people, and I shall hope for that opportunity; butⒶtextual note their families have done me no harm, and my heirs and assigns must not publish any of those chapters while any of the wives and children are still living. They have my permission to publish them after that. I don’t mind grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and they themselves won’t mind. I did not write those malignant chapters in malice entirelyⒶtextual note—a part of my motive was to do those people good. It seemed to me that if I could read the chapters to them privately it would go far to acclimate them for the Hereafter.

No, I could not do that man justice this morning. Let him go. I seem to be out of vitriol;Ⓐtextual note I suppose I have sprung a leakⒶtextual note somewhere. I seem to be full of peace, affection, and the joy of life. Let us go back to history, and resume where we left off,Ⓐtextual note six or seven weeks ago, with the failure of Charles L. Webster and Company.Ⓐtextual note

My wife and I realized that we were really ruined this time, and quite completely. In my account, in a previous chapter,Ⓐtextual note of the many fortunes which I had for years been wasting in foolish speculations, I have not intimated that the lossesⒶtextual note ever seriouslyⒶtextual note embarrassed us, and indeed they did not. But the case was different now. In six or seven years Charles L. Webster and CompanyⒶtextual note and James W. PaigeⒶtextual note the composing-machine adventurer, had between themⒶtextual note swallowed up a quarter of a million dollars, half of it mine, half of it my wife’s. The great panic of ’93–’94Ⓐtextual note was on. Our incomes, like most other people’s, were crippled.Ⓐtextual note Moreover, we were under the heavy burden of debt left behind by the dead Webster firmⒺexplanatory note. It was in these black days that I stumbled accidentally upon H. H. Rogers one evening in the lobby of the Murray Hill Hotel, whither Dr. Clarence C.Ⓐtextual note RiceⒺexplanatory note and I [begin page 159] had gone on some errand or other, I do notⒶtextual note now remember what. However, Henry Rogers interested himself in my troubles at once, and set himself the task of piloting me out of them. It was not a holiday job, for even a Standard Oil veteran; butⒶtextual note his was a cool and capable head, and he was not disturbed by the complications and perplexities that were driving me toward insanity. It cost him several weeks of diligent hard work,Ⓐtextual note and one trip to Chicago, to pull me out of the Paige entanglement and set that matter permanently straight. It cost him fiveⒶtextual note years of intricate and bothersome work to pull me out of the Webster complications and abolish them out of my life for good and all.

PersonallyⒶtextual note I never had anything to do with straightening out those involvedⒶtextual note and vexatious Webster complexities. I sat around idle;Ⓐtextual note sometimes here, sometimes with the family in Europe, and latterly decorating the globe’s circumference with a garland of lectures, delivered in the interest of the Webster creditorsⒺexplanatory note.Ⓐtextual note He did the whole of it himself. We were not legally liable for much ofⒶtextual note that great Webster indebtedness, but Mrs. Clemens and I considered ourselves morally liable for the whole of it,Ⓐtextual note and we believed that if I could haveⒶtextual note four years’ time I could earn enough to pay it all off atⒶtextual note a hundred cents on the dollar. I was only fifty-eight; I was in good repair; and we elected to pay a hundred cents. Now I wish to make particular note of this fact:Ⓐtextual note of all our business friends,Ⓐtextual note there was only one Ⓐtextual note who approved the hundred cents proposition,Ⓐtextual note encouraged us in it, and said “Hold your grip and go ahead.” That was Henry Rogers. WeⒶtextual note held our grip and went ahead. In something short ofⒶtextual note three years we earned the money—Ⓐtextual noteforwarding it to Mr. Rogers as fast as we acquired it—and then we were out of debt. We had paid a hundred cents on the dollar, and owed no one a pennyⒺexplanatory note.Ⓐtextual note

In the beginning Mrs. Clemens wanted to turn over her house to the creditors—Ⓐtextual noteland, furniture and all—a property which had cost more than a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and which she had paid for out of her own pocket. She was determined to do this, but Mr. Rogers would not permit it—and of course I wouldn’t. It cost her a pang to relinquish that idea, but she was not able to help herself.

IⒶtextual note have said in a previous chapter that at the meeting of Webster creditors Mr. Rogers insisted on making Mrs. Clemens a preferred creditor, and in giving her my copyrights in satisfaction of an indebtedness of sixty-five thousand dollarsⒶtextual note which she had lent to Webster and Company upon the firm’s notes, from time to time. HeⒶtextual note secured his point, and the copyrights went to Mrs. Clemens. That was the far-sightedest thingⒶtextual note Mr. Rogers hasⒶtextual note ever done for me. All values were flat at that time; no kind of property was salableⒶtextual note; you couldn’t evenⒶtextual note give it away to a really bright and intelligent person. My books were no exception to the rule. They seemed permanently dead. I was not able to regard them as property. But Mr. Rogers stood to it that when the panic should be over they would revive, and would presently furnish a steady income and be as valuable as before.Ⓐtextual note It turned out that he was right.

ItⒶtextual note is odd that he, a man of affairs, a purely business man, a man whose intellectual activities had been concerned all his life solely with finance and vast material commercial operations, should have been able to forecast with such certainty and such confidence the future of such a thing as a pile of paralysedⒶtextual note old books. It is odd, and yet it is hardly surprising, for he carries a most remarkable head upon his shoulders, and it has long [begin page 160] ago ceased to surpriseⒶtextual note me when it does surprising things. I think he was the only person alive who considered those old books a valuable asset, but the result has verified his judgment. Within two or three years after the predictionⒶtextual note the books had revived and hadⒶtextual note begun to furnish my family an ample support; time has not diminished the figure, but enlarged it.Ⓐtextual note My wife and I couldⒶtextual note have been persuaded to let the copyrights go; butⒶtextual note nothing would have come of it, for Mr. Rogers would not have allowed the books to get away from us, and he is a very willful man.Ⓐtextual note He Ⓐtextual note is the reason that my literature affords a generous support for my childrenⒺexplanatory note, and will continue to afford it after I am gone until the Government needs their bread and butter and takes it from them under the only dishonorable copyright law that exists upon the planet outside of England.Ⓐtextual notel