28 December 1862
Dan De Quille (William Wright) left Virginia City by overland stagecoach on 27 December 1862 for a nine-month visit to his home in Iowa. “The Illustrious Departed,” written as a mock eulogy, is Clemens' farewell to him, and it survives in an undated clipping from the Territorial Enterprise, now in the William Wright Papers. Since Clemens says that Dan “left for Carson yesterday,” the item must have appeared on December 28. With the exception of a brief period in early February 1863, and again in May and June of that year, Clemens took over Dan's chores as editor of the local items column in the Enterprise until he returned in September.1 The heading “Daily Territorial Enterprise,” at the top of the clipping, shows that it began the first local column that Clemens wrote. Appropriately, the sketch records the transfer of responsibility: Dan “said ‘Et tu Brute,’ and gave us his pen.”
“The Illustrious Departed” is followed in the present collection by seven more local items (ending with “Territorial Sweets,” no. 39)—a selection of unsigned pieces retrieved from the columns Clemens wrote between 28 December 1862 and 29 January 1863, just before he assumed the name “Mark Twain.” Some of these items are taken from original Enterprise clippings, others from reprintings in California newspapers whose editors apparently were struck by the vigorous originality of the new Enterprise “local.”
Dan De Quille had already become a close friend and helpful colleague of Clemens', and when he returned in the fall, the two men became still better [begin page 172] friends.2 He was born in Ohio in 1829, moved to Iowa with his family in 1847, and ten years later migrated to California. He prospected in California and Nevada, and contributed articles to the San Francisco Golden Era. From May 1862, when he joined the Enterprise as the local editor,3 until 1893, when the newspaper suspended publication, Dan was a mainstay of the Enterprise staff. By the time of this “eulogy” he was already one of the best-known and best-liked journalists in the West, and his reputation would continue to prosper. In addition to voluminous newspaper correspondence, including humorous sketches as well as straight reporting (especially about mining), he wrote portions of Myron Angel's History of Nevada (1881) and a small guidebook called A History of the Comstock Silver Lode & Mines (1889). His major work, encouraged by Clemens, was The History of the Big Bonanza (1876), issued by the American Publishing Company. He died at the home of his daughter in West Liberty, Iowa, on 16 March 1898.4
Old Dan is gone, that good old soul, we ne'er shall see him more–for some time. He left for Carson yesterday, to be duly stamped and shipped to America, by way of the United States Overland Mail. As the stage was on the point of weighing anchor, the senior editorⒺexplanatory note dashed wildly into Wasserman'sⒺexplanatory note and captured a national flag, which he cast about Dan's person to the tune of three rousing cheers from the bystanders. So, with the gorgeous drapery floating behind him, our kind and genial hero passed from our sight; and if fervent prayers from us, who seldom pray, can avail, his journey will be as safe and happy as though ministering angels watched over him. Dan has gone to the States for his health, and his family. He worked himself down in creating big strikes in the mines and keeping all the mills in this district going, whether their owners were willing or not. These herculean labors gradually undermined his health, but he went bravely on, and we are proud to say that as far as these things were concerned, he never gave up—the miners never did, and never could have conquered him. He fell under a scarcity of pack-trains and haywagonsⒺexplanatory note. These had been the bulwark of the local column; his confidence in them was like unto that which men have in four aces; murders, robberiesⒶemendation, fires, distinguished arrivals, were creatures of chance, which might or might not occur at any moment; but the pack-trains and the hay-wagonsⒶemendation were certain, predestined, immutable! When these failed last week, he said “Et tu Brute,”Ⓔexplanatory note and gave us his pen. His constitution suddenly warped, split and went under, and [begin page 174] Daniel succumbed. We have a saving hope, though, that his trip across the Plains, through eighteen hundred miles of cheerful hay-stacks, will so restore our loved and lost to his ancient health and energy, that when he returns next fall he will be able to run our five hundred mills as easily as he used to keep five-score moving. Dan is gone, but he departed in a blaze of glory, the like of which hath hardly been seen upon this earth since the blameless Elijah went up in his fiery chariotⒺexplanatory note.
The first printing appeared in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, probably on 28 December 1862. The only known copy of this printing, in a clipping in the William Wright Papers, carton 1, folder 120, Bancroft, is copy-text. There are no textual notes.