Frightful Accident to Dan De Quille | The Writings of Mark Twain (beta)

Explanatory Notes Ⓔ

Apparatus Notes Ⓐ

MTPDocEd

[begin page 357]

73. Frightful Accident to Dan De Quille
20 April 1864

Although the original printing of this sketch in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise is not extant, both the text and the probable date of publication can be retrieved from three contemporary reprintings: the Nevada (Calif.) Gazette of 26 April 1864, the San Francisco Golden Era of May 1, and the Unionville (Nev.) Humboldt Register of May 14. The Gazette reprinting establishes that the Enterprise must have appeared shortly before April 26, and the Era reprinting allows us to conjecture that the date was actually Wednesday, April 20. Along with Mark Twain's sketch the Era also reprinted two sequels from the Enterprise, both written by Dan De Quille, which must have appeared about the same time. The first of these was Dan's humorous response to Mark Twain's exaggerated account of his accident, titled “An Infamous Proceeding.” The second was “Mark Twain Takes a Lesson in the Manly Art,” which was Dan's elaborate revenge for the ridicule of “Frightful Accident.”

“An Infamous Proceeding” must have appeared within two or three days of Mark Twain's sketch. Dan wrote in part:

Some three days since, in returning to this city from American Flat, we had the misfortune to be thrown from a fiery untamed steed of Spanish extraction—a very strong extract, too. Our knee was sprained by our fall and we were for a day or two confined to our room—of course knowing little of what was going on in the great world outside. Mark Twain, our confrere and room-mate, a man in whom we trusted, was our only visitor during our seclusion. We saw some actions of his that almost caused us to suspect him of contemplating treachery towards us, but it was not until we regained in some degree the use of our maimed limb that we discovered the full extent—the infamousness of this wretch's treasonable and inhuman plottings. He wrote such an account of our accident as would lead the public to believe that we were injured beyond all hope of recovery.

[begin page 358]

Dan went on to allege that Mark Twain subsequently stole his toothbrush, clothes, stocks, and indeed most of his belongings, and he closed his sketch with a mock threat to have Mark Twain arrested if he failed to “shell out our tooth-brush and take off our socks and best shirt.”1

Dan's second sketch, “Mark Twain Takes a Lesson in the Manly Art,” clearly alluded to what he had said in “An Infamous Proceeding” and so must have followed it within a few days. In the second piece Dan apologized for having “said some harsh things of Mark Twain” and reported that “yesterday” his friend had “brought back all our things and promised us that he intended hereafter to lead a virtuous life.” Dan went on, however, to describe how Mark Twain had suffered a bloody and swollen nose while taking his “first lesson in boxing,” an elaborate tall tale which, like “Frightful Accident,” was nevertheless based on the facts.2

The Era said only that all three items it reprinted were taken from “recent issues of the Territorial Enterprise.” But it is apparent from other evidence that Mark Twain's boxing accident and Dan's description of its consequences must have occurred shortly before Monday, April 25: in 1893 Dan recalled that Mark Twain had been so sensitive about his swollen nose that he volunteered for an assignment that would take him to Silver Mountain (in Alpine County, Calif.) away from the kidding he was getting in Virginia City.3 We know from a letter that Mark Twain wrote the Enterprise on Monday, April 25, that he must have left Virginia City no later than Sunday or Monday, April 24 or 25, and that he went first to Carson City, from which he intended to “depart for Silver Mountain” the next day.4 Since “Mark Twain Takes a Lesson” must have appeared no later than Sunday, April 24, and since all three pieces appeared within days of each other, “Frightful Accident” must have been published in the early part of the week preceding April 24. Monday can be excluded because the Enterprise did not publish on that day. In the first sentence of the Era text of the sketch Dan is alleged to have met with his accident on “Tuesday,” but in the Gazette and Humboldt Register texts his accident is said to have happened “yesterday.” In all probability the Enterprise actually read “yesterday”—certainly this was the normal style of such local items—which suggests that the Era editor or compositor supplied “Tuesday” because his source, the Enterprise, had appeared on a Wednesday. We have [begin page 359] therefore conjectured that Mark Twain's sketch was first published in the Enterprise for Wednesday, April 20.

“Frightful Accident” is in Mark Twain's best vein—a typical product of the mutual raillery that he carried on with Dan De Quille, resembling his earlier “feuds” with the Unreliable. It will be recalled that Dan had begun reporting for the Enterprise in May 1862, several months before Clemens joined the staff. By December 1862, when Dan left Nevada for his long visit to Iowa, the two men had already become friends.5 But only after his return in September 1863 and after Clemens' return from a visit to San Francisco did the friendship ripen. Probably in late October they began rooming together in a second-floor apartment in the Daggett and Meyers brick building on B Street. They got along well and their relationship provided ample material for good-natured mutual ridicule. In December 1863, while Clemens was in Carson City reporting the first Constitutional Convention, Dan raised the curtain on their housekeeping arrangements in an article for the Era.6 And between December 1863 and April 1864 there were probably other such items in the Enterprise, by both men, that are now lost. As we have seen, Dan's “An Infamous Proceeding” and “Mark Twain Takes a Lesson” were typical specimens of this mock feuding—and within days of Clemens' departure for Silver Mountain Dan had published a further installment (see the next sketch, “Dan Reassembled,” no. 74).

Editorial Notes

1 Golden Era 12 (1 May 1864): 5. The Nevada (Calif.) Gazette also reprinted the piece on 28 April 1864, p. 1, two days after it reprinted Mark Twain's sketch. All three items are reprinted in WG , pp. 50–53.

2 Golden Era 12 (1 May 1864): 5.

3 “Salad Days of Mark Twain,” San Francisco Examiner, 19 March 1893, p. 14.

4 MTEnt , p. 182.

5 See the headnote to “The Illustrious Departed” (no. 32).

6 “No Head nor Tail,” Golden Era 12 (6 December 1863): 5.

Textual Commentary

The first printing in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise for 20 April 1864 is not extant. The sketch survives in three contemporary reprintings of the Enterprise, all with the title adopted here.

P1       Nevada City (Calif.) Gazette, 26 April 1864, p. 1.
P2       San Francisco Golden Era 12 (1 May 1864): 5.
P3       Unionville (Nev.) Humboldt Register, 14 May 1864, p. 1.

Copies: PH from Bancroft. The sketch is a radiating text: there is no copy-text. All variants are recorded in a list of emendations and adopted readings. In this case there are no I-C emendations.

P1 precedes all other known reprintings and cannot therefore derive from them. P2 cannot derive from P1 because of the superior reading also found in P3, “noble old friend” instead of P1 “noble friend” (361.14). P3 cannot derive from P1 for the same reason, and cannot derive from P2 because of three superior readings: “yesterday” instead of P2 “Tuesday” (360.2); “one of his legs” instead of P2 “one leg” (360.20); and “hash-house proprietors” instead of P2 “hash-proprietors” (361.9–10). It is always possible that unidentified reprintings intervened between known reprintings and the lost Enterprise, but even if the distance from the original printing is greater than can now be documented, all three reprintings appear to derive independently, and each may therefore preserve authorial readings among its variants.

The diagram of transmission is as follows:

[begin page 360]

Frightful Accident to Dan De Quille

Our time-honored confrere, Dan, met with a disastrous accident, yesterdayⒶtextual note Ⓐemendation, while returning from American CityⒺexplanatory note on a vicious Spanish horse, the result of which accident is that at the present writing he is confined to his bed and suffering great bodily pain. He was coming down the road at the rate of a hundred miles an hourⒶemendation (as stated in his will,Ⓐemendation which he made shortly after the accident,)Ⓐemendation and on turning a sharp corner,Ⓐemendation he suddenly hove in sight of a horse standing square across the channel;Ⓐemendation he signaledⒶemendation for the starboard, and put his helm down instantly, but too late, after all; he was swinging to port, and before he could straighten down, he swept like an avalanche against the transom of the strange craft; his larboard kneeⒶemendation coming in contact with the rudder-post of the adversary,Ⓐemendation Dan was wrenched from his saddle and thrown some three hundred yardsⒶemendation (according to his own statement, made in his will,Ⓐemendation above mentioned,)Ⓐemendation alighting upon solid ground, and bursting himself open from the chin to the pit of the stomach. HisⒶemendation head was also caved in out of sight, and his hat was afterwardsⒶemendation extracted in a bloody and damaged condition from between his lungs; he must have bounced end-for-end after he struck first, because it is evident he received a concussion from the rear that broke his heart; one of his legsⒶemendation was jammed up in his body nearly to his throat, and the other so torn and mutilated that it pulled out when they attempted to lift him into the hearse which we had sent to the scene of the disaster, under the general impression that he might need it; both arms were indiscriminately broken up until they were jointed like a [begin page 361] bamboo; the backⒶemendation was considerably fractured and bent into the shape of a rail fenceⒶemendation. Aside from these injuries, however, he sustained no other damage. They brought some of him home in the hearseⒶemendation and the balance on a dray. His first remark showed that the powers of his great mind had not been impaired by the accident, nor his profound judgment destroyed—he said he wouldn'tⒶemendation have cared a d—n if it had been anybody but himself. He then made his will, after which he set to work with that earnestness and singleness of purpose which have always distinguished him, to abuse the assemblage of anxious hash-house proprietorsⒶemendation who had called on business, and to repudiate their bills with his customary promptness and impartiality. Dan may have exaggerated the above details in some respects, but he charged us to report them thus, and it is a source of genuine pleasure to us to have the opportunity of doing it. Our noble oldⒶemendation friend is recovering fast, and what is left of him will be around the BreweryⒺexplanatory note Ⓐemendation again to-day, just as usual.Ⓐemendation

Editorial Emendations Frightful Accident to Dan De Quille

Ⓐ yesterday (P1,3) ● Tuesday (P2)

Ⓐ hour (P1,3) ● hour, (P2)

Ⓐ will, (P1,3) ● will. (P2)

Ⓐ accident,) (P1,2) ● accident), (P3)

Ⓐ corner, (P2,3) ● corner‸ (P1)

Ⓐ channel; (P1,3) ● channel[:] (P2)

Ⓐ signaled (P2,3) ● signalled (P1)

Ⓐ knee (P1,2) ● keel (P3)

Ⓐ adversary, (P1,2) ● adversary. (P3)

Ⓐ yards (P1,3) ● yards, (P2)

Ⓐ will, (P1,3) ● will‸ (P2)

Ⓐ mentioned,) (P1,2) ● mentioned), (P3)

Ⓐ stomach. His (P1,3) ● stomach; his (P2)

Ⓐ afterwards (P1,3) ● afterward (P2)

Ⓐ of his legs (P1,3) ● leg (P2)

Ⓐ the back (P1,3) ● his back (P2)

Ⓐ rail fence (P2,3) ● rail-fence (P1)

Ⓐ hearse (P1,3) ● hearse, (P2)

Ⓐ wouldn't (P1,2) ● would n't (P3)

Ⓐ hash-house proprietors (P1,3) ● hash-proprietors (P2)

Ⓐ old (P2,3) ● not in (P1)

Ⓐ Brewery (P1,3) ● breweries (P2)

Ⓐ usual. (P2) ● usual.—[Mark Twain.; usual. | ‘Mark Twain.’ (P1,P3)

Textual Notes Frightful Accident to Dan De Quille

Ⓐ yesterday] P1 and P3 concur against P2 in printing “yesterday” instead of “Tuesday.” We conjecture that P2, finding the article in the Enterprise for Wednesday, 20 April 1864, altered the text to read “Tuesday,” while P1 and P3 continued to follow the Enterprise reading (and usual practice) in printing “yesterday.”

Explanatory Notes Frightful Accident to Dan De Quille

Ⓔ American City] A rapidly growing mining town laid out on the flatlands about one and one-half miles southwest of Gold Hill, Nevada (Collins, Mercantile Guide, p. 339).

Ⓔ Brewery] A subtle dig: according to Lucius Beebe, the Enterprise printers and compositors frequented the Philadelphia Brewery opposite Maguire's Opera House on South D Street, whereas the owners and editorial staff preferred the Magnolia Saloon (Comstock Commotion [Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1954], p. 27; Collins, Mercantile Guide, p. 40).

Top