Redpath and the jayhawker chief at the pressⒶtextual note dinner in Boston.
I broke off there yesterday, in the middle of a sentence, because I saw that my word-stream was dammed up again, and I couldn’t make it flow.
I can’tⒶtextual note think of the name of that dare-devilⒶtextual note guerrilla who led the jayhawkersⒺexplanatory note and chased Redpath up and down the country, and, in turn, was chased by Redpath. By grace of the chances of war, the two men never met in the field,Ⓐtextual note though they several times came within an ace of it.
Ten or twelve years later, Redpath was earning his living in Boston as chiefⒶtextual note of the lecture business in the United States. Fifteen or sixteen years after his Kansas adventures I became a public lecturer, and he was my agent. Along there somewhere wasⒶtextual note a pressⒶtextual note dinner, one November night, at the Tremont Hotel in Boston, and I attended it. I sat near the head of the table, with Redpath between me and the chairman; a stranger satⒶtextual note on my other side. I tried several times to talk with the stranger, but he seemed to be out of words and I presently ceased from troubling him. He was manifestly a very shy man, and, moreover, he mightⒶtextual note have been losing sleep the night before.
The first man called up was Redpath. At the mention of the name the stranger started, and showed interest. He fixed a fascinated eye on Redpath, and lost not a word of his speech. Redpath told some stirring incidents of his career in Kansas, and said, among other things:Ⓐtextual note
“Three times I came near capturing the gallant jayhawkerⒶtextual note chief, and once he actually captured me Ⓐtextual note, but didn’t know me and let me go, because he said he was hot on Redpath’s trail and couldn’t afford to waste time and rope on inconsequential small-fryⒶtextual note.”
My stranger was called up next, and when Redpath heard his name he, in turn,Ⓐtextual note showed a startled interest. The stranger said, bending a caressing glance upon Redpath and speaking gently—I may even say sweetly—Ⓐtextual note
“You realize that I was that jayhawker chief. I am glad to know you now and take you to my heart and call you friend”—then he added, in a voice that was pathetic with regret, “but if I had only known you then, what tumultuous happiness I should have had in your society!—Ⓐtextual notewhile it lasted.”
I lost my sleep again last night; it is plain thatⒶtextual note the mill will not grind, to-day;Ⓐtextual note I give it up and shall not try to dictate again until next Monday.
dare-devil guerrilla who led the jayhawkers] This guerrilla leader—correctly called a “bushwhacker,” not a jayhawker—has not been identified.
Source documents.
TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1343–45, made from Hobby’s notes and revised.TS1 carbon (lost) Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1343–45, revised (conjecturally); now lost.
NAR 24pf Galley proofs of NAR 24, typeset from the revised TS1 carbon (the same extent as NAR 24), ViU.
NAR 24 North American Review 186 (November 1907), 330–31: ‘Friday . . . 1906’ (256 title); ‘I can’t . . . it lasted.” ’ (256.8–33).
Clemens made a few revisions on TS1 ribbon, and evidently transferred them to TS1 carbon, which served as printer’s copy for NAR 24 but is now lost. Variants between TS1 ribbon and NAR 24pf indicate that he further revised TS1 carbon, and that an NAR editor (probably Munro) added a few changes as well. (In the section of this dictation used in NAR, the galley proofs bear no corrections.) NAR 24 supplies some undoubted authorial revisions; the variants deemed to reflect NAR house styling are rejected. The NAR installment grouped this dictation with the ADs of 9 October, 16 October, and 11 October 1906 (partial), and 23 January 1907.