18 September 1864
The author of “Due Warning,” which appeared in the San Francisco Morning Call, identified himself in the text as “Mark Twain.” The sketch elaborates on the similar dire warnings that Clemens had issued in “Unfortunate Thief” (no. 36) twenty months earlier, when his hat was stolen in Gold Hill, Nevada. His statement that the hat was “made by Tiffany” indicates that it was purchased from Tiffany's Eagle Hat Store on Washington Street in San Francisco.1
Langley, Directory for 1864, p. 388.
Some one carried away a costly and beautiful hat from the Occidental Hotel, (where it was doing duty as security for a board bill,) some ten days ago, to the great and increasing unhappiness of its owner. Its return to the place from whence it was ravished, or to this office, will be a kindness which we shall be only too glad to reciprocate if we ever get a precisely similar opportunityⒶemendation, and the victim shall insist upon it. The hat in question was of the “plug” species, and was made by Tiffany; upon its inner surface the name of “J. Smith” had once been inscribed, but could not easily be deciphered, latterly, on account of “Mark Twain” having been written over it. We do not know J. Smith personally, but we remember meeting him at a social party some time ago, and at that time a misfortune similar to the one of which we are now complaining happened to him. He had several virulent cutaneous diseases, poor fellow, and we have somehow acquired them, also. We do not consider that the hat had anything to do with the matter, but we mention the circumstance as being a curious coincidence.Ⓐemendation However, we do not desire to see the coincidenceⒶemendation extend to the whole community, notwithstanding the fact that the contemplation of its progress could not do otherwise than excite a lively and entertaining solicitude on the part of the people, and therefore we hasten, after ten days' careful deliberation, to warn the public againstⒶemendation the calamity by which they are threatened. And we will not disguise a selfish hope, at the same time, that these remarks [begin page 61] may have the effect of weaning from our hat the spoiler's affections, and of inducing him to part with it with some degree of cheerfulness. We do not really want it, but it is a comfort to us in our sorrow to be able thus to make it (as a commodity of barter and sale to other parties,) something of a drug on the market, as it were.
The first printing in the San Francisco Morning Call for 18 September 1864 (p. 3) is copy-text. Copies: PH from Bancroft and from Yale. There are no textual notes.