19 or 21 November 1865
Clemens' burlesque report of the fashions at the ball of the Society of California Pioneers was probably written shortly after it took place on 16 November 1865: the savage bluntness of his final paragraph, and his repeated allusions to female nudity, suggest temporarily relaxed inhibitions. The sketch was published in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise several days later, probably on November 19 or 21 (November 20 was a Monday). Although the original Enterprise printing has been lost, the sketch was reprinted by the Californian on November 25, and by the Golden Era (and the California Weekly Mercury) on November 26. The present text is reconstructed from two of these reprintings.1
The Society of California Pioneers—an exclusive group founded in 1850—claimed approximately eight hundred members in 1865. Its purpose was to collect and preserve the memory of the pioneers, defined as those who were in California before 1 January 1850. They held their ball at the Occidental Hotel. It was the first given by the society in almost three years and was intended to inaugurate a series of social events planned for the new Pioneer Hall on Montgomery Street. For Lewis and Jerome Leland, the proprietors of the Occidental and Clemens' good friends, it was the climax of a busy fall season that had included an elegant reception for Schuyler Colfax and his party of visiting eastern nabobs.2
[begin page 368]Clemens' sketch is less elaborate than “The Lick House Ball” and “Mark Twain—More of Him” (nos. 65 and 64), but it follows in the somewhat bolder tone set by his recent “San Francisco Letter” (no. 125). Bret Harte called it a “characteristic description of ‘noticeable costumes’ ” and a “clever satire on Jenkins.”3 (“Jenkins” was the generalized name for any platitudinous journalist who placed conventional respectabilities above honest reporting. To “Jenkins,” for example, went the credit for initiating the “style of initials only” in society reports.)4
Clemens and Webb reprinted part of this sketch in the 1867 Jumping Frog book, and Clemens continued to revise (chiefly to shorten) and reprint it in 1872, 1874, and 1875. The version that appeared in the last year in Sketches, New and Old was probably edited by Elisha Bliss for use as filler on page 256 of that book. The original text, as reconstructed here from two independent reprintings of the Enterprise, has not been reprinted before.
It was estimated that four hundred persons were present at the ball. The gentlemen wore the orthodox costume for such occasions, and the ladies were dressed the best they knew how. N. B.—Most of these ladies were pretty, and some of them absolutely beautiful. Four out of every five ladies present were pretty. The ratio at the Colfax partyⒺexplanatory note was two out of every five. I always keep the run of these things. While upon this department of the subject, I may as well tarry a moment and furnish you with descriptions of some of the most noticeable costumes.Ⓐemendation Ⓐhistorical collation
Mrs. W. M. was attired in an elegant pate de foi gras Ⓐemendation Ⓐhistorical collation, made expressly for her, and was greatly admired.
MissⒶhistorical collation S. had her hair done up. She was the centre of attraction for the gentlemen, and the envy of all the ladies.
MissⒶhistorical collation G. W. was tastefully dressed in a tout ensemble, and was greeted with deafening applause wherever she went.
Mrs.Ⓐhistorical collation C. N. was superbly arrayed in white kid glovesⒺexplanatory note. Her modest and engaging manner accorded well with the unpretending simplicity of her costume, and caused her to be regarded with absorbing interest by every one.
The charming Miss M. M. B. appeared in a thrilling waterfallⒶemendation, whose exceeding grace and volume compelled the homage of pioneers and emigrants alike. How beautiful she was!
The queenly Mrs. L. R.Ⓐemendation Ⓐhistorical collation was attractively attired in her new and beautiful false teeth, and the bon jour effect they naturally pro- [begin page 370] duced was heightened by her enchanting and well-sustainedⒶemendation smile. The manner of thisⒶemendation Ⓐhistorical collation lady is charmingly pensive and melancholy, and her troops of admirers desired no greater happiness than to get on the scent of her sozodont-sweetenedⒶemendation sighs and track her through her sinuous course among the gay and restless multitude.Ⓐhistorical collation
Miss R. P., with that repugnance to ostentation in dressⒶemendation which is so peculiar to her, was attired in a simple white lace collar, fastened with a neat pearl-button solitaire. The fine contrast between the sparkling vivacity of her natural optic and the steadfast attentiveness of her placid glass eye was the subject of general and enthusiastic remark.
The radiant and sylph-like Mrs. T., late of your State,Ⓐhistorical collation wore hoops. She showed to goodⒶhistorical collation advantage, and created a sensation wherever she appeared. She was the gayest of the gay.Ⓐhistorical collation
Miss C. L. B. had her fine nose elegantly enameled, and the easy grace with which she blew it from time to time, marked her as a cultivated and accomplished woman of the world; its exquisitely modulated tone excited the admiration of all who had the happiness to hear it.Ⓐhistorical collation
Being offended with Miss X., and our acquaintance having ceased permanentlyⒶemendation Ⓐhistorical collation, I will take this opportunity of observing to her that it is of no use for her to be sloppingⒶhistorical collation off to every ball that takes place, and flourishing around with a brass oyster-knife skewered through her waterfall, and smiling her sickly smile through her decayed teeth, with her dismal pug nose in the air. There is no use in it—she don't foolⒶhistorical collation anybody. Everybody knowsⒶhistorical collation Ⓐemendation she is old; everybody knows she is repaired (you might almost say built) with artificial bones and hair and muscles and things, from the ground up—put together scrap by scrap—and everybody knows, also, that all one would have to do would be to pull out her key-pin and she would go to pieces like a Chinese puzzle.Ⓐhistorical collation There, now, my faded flower, take that paragraph home with you and amuse yourself with it; and if ever you turn your wart of a nose up at me again I will sit down and write something that will just make you rise up and howl.Ⓐhistorical collation
Historical Collation
Texts collated:
P1 “The Pioneer Ball,” Californian 3 (25 November 1865): 12.P2 “ ‘Mark Twain’—The Pioneers' Ball,” San Francisco Golden Era 13 (26 November 1865): 5.
“ ‘After’ Jenkins” in the following
JF1 Jumping Frog (New York: Webb, 1867), pp. 85–88. Reprints P1 with editorial and possibly authorial revisions.
JF2 Jumping Frog (London: Routledge, 1867), pp. 79–81. Reprints JF1 with one substantive error.
JF3 Jumping Frog (London: Hotten, 1870), pp. 82–83. Reprints JF2 without substantive error.
JF4 Jumping Frog (London: Routledge, 1870 and 1872), pp. 73–75. Reprints JF2 without substantive error.
MTSk Mark Twain's Sketches (London: Routledge, 1872), pp. 99–101. Reprints JF4 with authorial revisions.
MTSkMT Copy of MTSk revised by Mark Twain, who made no changes in this sketch.
HWa Choice Humorous Works (London: Hotten, 1873), pp. 519–520. Reprints JF3 with few errors.
HWaMT Sheets of HWa revised by Mark Twain, who made one deletion in this sketch.
HWb Choice Humorous Works (London: Chatto and Windus, 1874), pp. 496–497. Reprints HWa with some of the authorial revisions from HWaMT.
HWbMT Copy of HWb revised by Mark Twain, who left this sketch unrevised.
SkNO Sketches, New and Old (Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1875), p. 256. Reprints HWb with editorial revisions imposed in proof.
The first printing in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, probably on 19 or 21 November 1865, is not extant. The sketch survives in two contemporary reprintings of the Enterprise:
P1 “The Pioneer Ball,” Californian 3 (25 November 1865): 12.P2 “ ‘Mark Twain’—The Pioneers' Ball,” San Francisco Golden Era 13 (26 November 1865): 5.
Copies: Bancroft (P1) and PH from Bancroft (P2). The sketch is a radiating text: there is no copy-text. All variants are recorded in a list of emendations and adopted readings, which also records any readings unique to the present edition, identified as I-C. The independence of P1 is guaranteed by its date of publication—one day before P2. The independence of P2 is guaranteed by the first paragraph, which is clearly authorial and occurs only in P2. Since both printings derive independently from the lost Enterprise, each may preserve authorial readings among its variants. It is possible, but very unlikely, that the JF1 text was set from an Enterprise clipping, now lost, taken from the Yale Scrapbook. But collation suggests that JF1 might easily derive from a clipping of P1, and we have therefore not used it to help reconstruct the Enterprise text.
Reprintings and Revisions. The printer's copy for JF1 cannot be certainly established, but it was probably a clipping of P1 that Mark Twain or Charles Henry Webb found in the Yale Scrapbook. If so, either the author or his editor supplied a new title (“ ‘After’ Jenkins”), derived from the introductory remark in P1 that the sketch was “a clever satire on Jenkins.” A new introductory paragraph was also supplied, probably by Webb. The only other substantive revision was the deletion of “late of your State” (370.13). In the absence of distinctively authorial revisions, all of the variants in JF1 are here attributed to Webb.
The reprinting of the JF1 text is described in the textual introduction. Routledge reprinted JF1 in 1867 (JF2), introducing one error: “great” instead of “good” (370.14). Hotten in turn reprinted JF2 in 1870 (JF3). Routledge also reprinted JF2 in 1870 (JF4a) and, using the unaltered plates of JF4a, reissued the book in 1872 (JF4b). None of these texts was revised by the author, and JF2's small error was followed in all subsequent reprintings.
When Mark Twain prepared the printer's copy for MTSk in 1872, he revised a copy of JF4a and presumably deleted the last sentence of the sketch, as well as making two changes: “prancing” instead of “slopping” (370.23) and “deceive” instead of “fool” (370.27). One year later, Hotten reprinted the JF3 text in HWa. When Mark Twain revised this book for Chatto and Windus in the fall of 1873 (HWaMT), he deleted the last two paragraphs but made no verbal revisions. Contrary to the usual pattern, only part of his revisions was followed by HWb: the compositors retained the first of the two deleted paragraphs and omitted only the second, perhaps in an effort to save labor in repaging HWb.
When in 1875 Mark Twain came to reprint the sketch in SkNO, he entered the title “ ‘After’ Jenkins” as item 25 in the Doheny table of contents (see figure 23C in the textual introduction, volume 1, p. 626). The compositors supplied the appropriate page number for the sketch in MTSk (99S), but collation shows that they ultimately set it from the text in HWbMT. (Mark Twain did not revise the sketch in either HWbMT or MTSkMT, although he had canceled it in the table of contents for the latter, indicating his preference for the former.) Notably, the SkNO text contained several revisions, all of them deletions. The sketch did not appear as the twenty-fifth but as the forty-eighth item in the collection, and it was apparently used by Elisha Bliss to help fill out a short page following the last five lines of “Aurelia's Unfortunate Young Man,” an edited version of “Whereas” (no. 94). Four early paragraphs were consolidated into one; part of one and all of two paragraphs were omitted, including the last paragraph, which had been mistakenly included in HWb. Although it is barely possible that Mark Twain helped make such changes in proof, it is far more likely that Bliss took it upon himself to shorten “The Pioneers' Ball” to help him fit it on this short page. All of the revisions in SkNO are here attributed to Bliss. There are no textual notes.
The diagram of transmission is given below.