Working Notes and Related Matter
Because Mark Twain's notes bear directly on the texts and branch out in so many imaginative paths indirectly, the notes are translated into type as faithfully as possible.
They have been grouped on the basis of physical characteristics, comparisons with the manuscript, the matter treated within each set, internal cohesion, and topical references. When Mark Twain numbered his pages, his numbers have been printed. In addition, I have given a number to each manuscript leaf within a sequence.
No emendations have been made in Mark Twain's holograph notes. His ampersand has been retained, except in the case of the notebook entry. Single underlinings are presented as italics, double underlinings are rendered in small capital letters. Cancellations are included and marked by angle brackets, thus <>; substitutions by vertical arrows, thus ↑↓, though context usually makes substitutions clear without the arrows; added words or phrases, by carets, thus ; additions at some later date in pencil or ink different from the original by boldface, thus Marie; and editorial explanation by square brackets, thus . Mark Twain's alternate readings are separated by slashes, thus Fischer/Stein. Doubtful readings are in square brackets, preceded by question marks.
Group A
These notes, on two sheets of Hotel Metropole stationery in black ink, were probably written just after Mark Twain's arrival in Vienna in 1897.1 The notes on p. A-2 eventually found expression in “Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes” ( WWD , pp. 433–553).
1
Human Race,
Destroy Moral Sense; or
“ the Race?
———
Brings Terry & Fields in out of the storm
———
But before that, explains who he is.
Takes 1000 books out of pocket;
microscope to examine microbes which he gets out of his pocket.
Makes instant trips to China, heaven
&c
Consultation with Crazy Fields & Oliver & Dr. Terry the great surgeon who hung his daughter in the cave. They make an (with Injun Joe, average intellectual forms of human insanity
Harem, 800 women
S. Is Sandwich Islands copulation common
Xn one wife
———
C. F. Always comparing himself with God.
People discussed: An Atheist now Catholic Why? Catholic now Atheist. Why?
[begin page 416]Crazy Fields lost wife, then child; because wife nursed sm. pox patient who had no friend;
Tom Nash's mother took in a deserted child; it gave scarlet-fever death to 3 of her children & deafness to 2.
But don't look at merely the unhappy—consider the happy. Answer: Happiness is merely a preparation (a trap); their turn is coming; absolutely none escape.
The King? The young queen with her P Albert? Her turn will come. None escape.
CRAZY
VANITY
No support like it. Flattery—to think you are doing or suffering under the immediate notice of God & as a compliment to him & a glory—well, it will enable a man to be comfortable with the pains & rottennesses of 50 vile diseases upon him.
———
The first thing to do is to feed this vanity—show, by microbes he is God's especial pet
———
He is to find the diseases & tortures & microbes, & old Ferg will explain their function in rushing the glory of God
[begin page 417]This first group is probably the earliest set of working notes for “The Chronicle of Young Satan.” It was written in pencil on a sheet of heavy buff paper identical to the original pp. 1–96 of the manuscript, probably in November 1897 before the composition of the first chapter. Later notes were added in ink after the first chapter was written, but before the second was begun.2 These ink additions have been rendered in boldface type. A-2, on the verso, includes notes and a canceled paragraph from Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health.
1
Plenty Jews
Marie
Father Lueger, a drinking, spiteful, prying, over-godly, malicious priest, supplanter of Kitchelt last 3 words circled in pencil
Father Kitchelt (Black).
Margarethe (niece)
Nikolaus (Nick) Baumann (Hank) Tom Sawyer Master Miller's son of judge.
Seppi Wohlmeyer (Pole) good but simple the innkeeper's
Thereodor Fischer Tom Huck (I. Son of Hans —sexton, organist, leader of the village band, commune tax collector & some other things
Wilhelm Meidling (Tom Andrews)
[begin page 418]Philip Traum
The Bishop
Procession to quiet Satan (table-rapping)
Bridge—(Satan built it)
B. Langenau's tale of the Virgin—
Wayside shrines—crown & nails & paint
Old women & dogs harnessed —& carrying bricks & mortar
The great noble Princeowner of the estate.
His hunting—stags destroy crops.
The forester (game-keeper)
———
Village Hasenfeld. Eseldorf.
———
Castle park wide
———
Other side river in a rich plain, monkery in a grove.
———
Castle on heights—precipice
—long winding road to it—
it over looks river—boats &
rafts. Inn with garden in front
on bank.
New Jerusalem
Stephan
Edmund
Lehrer
Herold
Bochner
Ghetto
Jew
J. Goldschmidt
I. Nussbaum
Blumenduft
Ch. V.
We'll sing the wine-cup & the lass
Finite belief can never do justice to tTruth in any direction. It limits all things & would compress Mind, which is infinite, beneath a skull-bone. Such belief can neither apprehend nor worship [begin page 419] the Infinite, & seeks to divide the one Spirit into many, to accommodate its finite sense of the divisibility of soul & substance.
lashes
members
O witching are her pansy eyes
& silken are her
And chaste/coy/pure as is the mountain goat
And cold as last 4 lines written with page reversed
This group of notes is composed of five half-sheets of lightweight, cream-colored stock identical to MS pp. 86–376 and 387–392. B-1, written in ink, is a plan for continuing the story, and was apparently written before Mark Twain reserved ten pages from his first section of the story and began the second section of manuscript in May 1899.3 The other four pages are written in pencil. The note “Tell me my fortune for one day ahead—& Sep's for life. Did it.” and the notes about Satan's glimpses into the past and future anticipate the episodes in the manuscript written after June 1900. Thus, the notes were probably written after Mark Twain laid the manuscript aside in October 1899, but before he resumed work in June 1900.
NOTES.
Public inquire, Who is he?
Police want his details in their
book. Refuses. Arrested.
S. will come “every day.”
Jealousy of Wilh
S. after 3 days furnishes details of the 4 games, with notes to Wil, whose envy & jeal are further inflamed.
———
S. gets generally acquainted—also with Peter.
[begin page 420]W. tattles about the extraordinary music, to array pub. opinion against S. Talks this to draw fury away from Marget & settle it upon S.
S. associates freely with the worst & the best—they are all trivialities to him.
Says animals are far below the angels, but far above men.
———
The days go on. People want to deed the village to the Virgin—but Prince Königsberg objects, being owner.
———
Young princess Adelheid falls in love with S. He is indifferent, of course.
———
Trial of Peter—he not present. Is begged by the boys to go & confer an immense happiness upon him to pay for his captivity & make him forget it. “I will—what shall it be?” “You choose it.” He confers a happy insanity—imaginary kingship. Will not restore him—knows a happy insanity is best for all men. (Uses the figure of temporary kingship in a play as difference bet. man & angel, whose glory is permanent.
God has never kept the Sabbath. Doesn't even bank his fires Sat night, like the furnaces. Written on separate MS page used by ABP to identify the working notes, and with the notation in his hand “Notes Mys. Stranger.”
1
On a trip to the Garden of Eden the eating of the apple is reproduced, & they notice that it is bitter, for Adam makes a wry face. He eats but half & throws it away. F. picks it up, furtively, & long afterward gets Satan drunk & he eats it—the idea being to give him the Moral Sense & Christianise him.
When sober he recognizes what has happened, & bitterly re- [begin page 421] proaches them. His great powers are gone, disease invades him, he has no way to earn his living; he begs it; will not accept help from them; becomes swiftly old & feeble; people no longer afraid of him; he is persecuted, but remains a heretic; so they torture him, convict him, damn him & burn him.
2
Adam's Fall.
Did the higher animals eat of the apple? No. But Adam's eating it brought suffering & death to them? Yes. Where is the justice in that?
———
Tell me my fortune for one day ahead—& Sep's for life. Did it.
———
Stoning the Jews. (passing remark)
———
Disease-germs. (Plague)
———
The make is a large part, & cannot be changed—from rabbit to tiger.
———
Seawonhake & Stella. Dana & chambermaid. The one's manliness was theory unsolidified by experience—& barren.
1
Nobility.
Let us make a trip into the future & see what they've got.
———
Civ. has advanced in many ways & you must grant that the nobility have assisted by notice & encouragement? No. They have never helped in any progress. Nor the priest. (religion). The church the aristocracy & the King stand for obstruction—they chock the wheels [begin page 422] whenever they can. Progress moves in spite of them—then you lickspittle slaves get down on your knees & give them the praise—just as you do God for mercies never received.
Aristocracies are bred from villainies & whores.
These notes, in pencil, are on five consecutively numbered half-sheets of lightweight ochre stock, 7 15/16″ by 4 15/16″, with vertical chain-lines 1⅛″ apart. Mark Twain was reviewing pp. 1–85 of the manuscript; the numbers in the notes refer to manuscript pages. He may have written these notes just before his resumption of work in the summer of 1900.4 Additions in ink have been rendered in boldface type.
1
Date, 1702.
———
The Host passes—Satan does
not uncover. Is tried & imprisoned
—in vain half-circled in pencil
Eseldorf, the village.
Gretel Marx, the dairyman's widow.
Prince Königsberg.
Young princess Adelheid his daugh, 22 18.
“ prince Adelbert, 17 ignorant & insolent.
The Hussite Woman Adler
Father Adolf, the villain; belonged to the village Council & lorded it there, he is called “Town Bull” & “Hell's Delight” privately. Drunken & witty blackguard. Sings in a thundering bass “We'll sing the wine-cup & the lass.” Swears “by God” & generally. profane words.
No fear of the Devil—celebrated for it
[begin page 423]Church of Our Lady of the Dumb Creatures
They try to burn the Hussite Adler as a witch; Satan enters into her & the fires do him no harm. circled in pencil
Boy—Gottfried Narr added diagonally across the beginning of the entry above
The village is solemnly deeded to the Virgin & she collects the taxes to a farthing. circled in pencil
Make an incident of Host & Suicide (11) Satan enters into the suicide & walks away
2
with the stake through him. circled in pencil
Make incident of plague-procession half-circled in pencil (12.)
The Interdict circled in pencil
The Dev. is always assuaged Dec. 9 (12)
14. One pilgrim to Rome got 14,000 years' for climbing steps of St. John Lateran on his knees, & came back & sold out in detail, 500 years at a time, & got rich.
Father Peter, village priest.
Marget, his niece—18.
Bishop Aloysius. (old fool)
21. Peter out 2 yrs—Adolf has his flock
Wilhelm Meidling, lawyer & M's sweetheart
22. Solomon Isaacs the creditor
The 3 boys:
Hansel, tinker
Fuchs, brewer
Rupert
Marie5
23. Nikolaus Baumann, logy, son of judge
Seppi Wohlmeyer bright son of “Golden Stag” & I, Theordor Fischer, son of organist &c &c &c.
[begin page 424]3
24. Felix Brandt, oldest serving man in Castle Konradsburg.
Castle Allerheiligenburg.
29 Satan appears. circled in pencil
44. In hell.
The boys go there with him, & find lost friends, who beg for help. circled in pencil
45 circled in pencil
Satan on Human Race
———
46. Make him build a city & drown it with a bucket of water.
Creating the future circled in pencil
And railways
steamships
bikes
Modern cannon & guns
smokeless powder
bombs
4
The village toughs pick a row with Satan, & make him fight. half-circled in pencil
S. as horse, dog, cat, &c.
EMPEROR (or Gd. Duke?)
sends for him—has heard of him—is curious to see him. S. contemptuous—won't go. “Let him come here if he wants to see me.” “Arrest him, guard!” They fail. Garrison sent for. It fails. Report to Vienna. Emperor comes—not in good humor—long journey. Satan talks plainly to him—laughs at his office & his Church & priests.
———
49. S's music.
———
[begin page 425]5
50. PHILIP TRAUM (Satan's public name.
———
Satan shall proclaim & fully set forth the doctrine of SELFISHNESS whether it be printable or not.
And the rest of it. Moral Sense &c
———
64
1100 ducats odd. (1107) He will use 200 & put the rest at interest.
———
72. Father Peter wears specks.
73. Marie Lueger, Marget's influential pupil
Marget falls in love with S. He plays spinet & speaks of the “Music of the spheres”
76. Adolf's “ancient priory up the valley.”
80. Papas & the rest think the boys are lying about the 1107 ducats.
83. Old Ursula, Peter's cook &c
These notes, on two half-sheets of Joynson Superfine paper, numbered consecutively, contain a reworking of Father Peter's trial and what seems to be an anticipation of the love-rivalry episode. They were probably written some time after Mark Twain's resumption of work in May 1899 but before June 1900. On the verso are canceled pp. 42–43 of an unidentified manuscript about publishing.
1
Tell how he displaced Father Peter
Plan.
———
Father Adolf (Lueger) summons the Devil to explain about that money. Grand time. (night)
Devil, frightened, says he stole it from 5 sacks one within the other (sacks produced) in court) which he kept in a secret hole in his sleeping room (secret hole produced)—900 of it was given him 2 years before when he went on pil to Rome by a traveler whom he protected from robbers & raised from the dead temporarily with St. John's tooth (his own) Adolf was only waiting till he could ? by increase the sum to 13500, when he was going to start a home for foundlings (“He's had a factory, this long time.” “Right—charity begins at home” “He'll supply the foundlings, too”) Two strong parties—one for, the other agst Adolf.
Satan whispers “examine the date”—for the money was siezed the first 2d day & brought into Court. Tableau—none of it is 2 yrs old. Crowd goes over to Peter. Judge is afraid of the Church, & yields when Adolf wants to inquire further of the Devil.
Does so. Devil confesses he changed date. Wonderful! Crowd goes back to Adolf.
2
Satan maddens Adolf—makes fun of him always. Adolf privately warms up Meidling's jealousy agst Satan
Meidling is the wonder of the region—the Admirable Crichton. Does all the old sleight of hand tricks & plays spinet—at exhibition Satan defeats him. Is a boxer & swordsman—Satan defeats him. Is the strong man—defeated again—finally, seeing Marg is in love [begin page 427] with Satan, in a fury stabs him. S says, “It seems to me 6 laughs at him.
Adolf has Satan arrested & condemned to be burnt. They jail him; he comes out; they burn him, he doesn't mind it; they excommunicate him, they banish him he comes back. He is the terror of the place. Marg confesses her love—he despises it—says all human impulses are selfish & despicable. He comprehends them intellectually—no one can realize them but by eating the apple.
[begin page 428]This sketch for the adventures of “little Satan, jr” with Huck and Tom, in St. Petersburg and in hell, immediately precedes in time the composition of “Schoolhouse Hill,” but bears a relationship to the “Schoolhouse Hill” fragment in only a few particulars. It was written shortly after 8 November 1898 in Notebook 32.
Story of little Satan, jr, who came to Petersburg (Hannibal) went to school, was popular and greatly liked by Huck and Tom who knew his secret. The others were jealous, and the girls didn't like him because he smelt of brimstone. This is the Admirable Crichton He was always doing miracles—his pals knew they were miracles, they others thought them mysteries. He is a good little devil; but swears, and breaks the Sabbath. By and by he is converted, and becomes a Methodist. and quits miracling. In class meeting he confesses who he is—is not believed; his new co-religionists turn against him as a ribald humbug. He believes it is his duty as a Christian to forgive the people who despitefully use him; thinks it also his Xn duty to hope for his father's pardon by God, and to pray for his papa—tries it; the church can't stand it. As he does no more miracles, even his palss fall away and disbelieve in him. When his fortunes and his miseries are at the worst, his papa arrives in state in a glory of hellfire and attended by a multitude of old-fashioned and showy fiends—and then everybody is at the boy-devil's feet at once and want to curry favor. He is grateful to hug his child to his breast once more, chides him gently for leaving hell without leave—but it was well enough to go out and try his hand at business and be competent for his future sovereignty—finds he has been rejected by Mary Lacy, who took him for crazy and who is now horribly sorry she didn't jump at the chance, since she finds that the Holy Family of Hell are not disturbed by the fire, but only their guests. Satan is glad his boy didn't marry beneath him—he is arranging with the shade of Pope Alexander VI to marry him to a descendant—and pending this he has allowed Aleck out on [begin page 429] bail; and he is in his present traveling-suit with a vast position Lord Great Master of the Luggage—and he has another pope along who carries a cold stove-lid for Satan to sit on to keep from scorching the furniture. Satan gets drunk at a wedding banquet and promises to forever keep Cold Storage for any that come from that hellish and hospitable town—Jews included—he is no respecter of sects, if Xns are—(no applause) fact is he wouldn't give a damn for the average Xn's magnanimities (no applause)
When little Satan first came he was dreadfully profane, but good-natured, and would goodnaturedly thrash raftsmen, bullies, etc without letting it be seen that it was by miracle—and at jugglery shows he would go on the stage and not only make an omelet in a hat, but go on and make ice cream in it out of pounded glass, and mincepies out of sand and sawdust, and so on. But after conversion he bore brutal mistreatment without resentment, he tried to win the raftsmen to Christ, he talked goody-goody sappy Sunday school talk to them and was in all ways an unattractive person and suitable to a heaven of the Petersburg average breed of Xns.
In the early days he takes Tom and Huck down to stay over Sunday in hell—gatekeeper doesn't recognise him in disguise and asks for tickets—then is going to turn them out (it is raining) when LS privately tells who he is and is obsequiously received.
They see papa Satan on his throne under the vast crimson dome flaming with reflections from the pleasure Lake and they see the limitless red halls, palatial, full of sufferers swimming ashore but can't climb out—marble border too slippery. They help one or two out but the police interfere. They wipe the tears of the unbaptised babies roasting on the red hot floors—one is Tom's little niece that he so grieved to lose—still, as she deserves this punishment he is able to bear it (like Baxter looking over the balusters of heaven.)
These notes, in pencil, on a single sheet of mourning stationery, were probably written after Mark Twain laid aside the “Chronicle” manuscript in October 1898, but before he began composition of “Schoolhouse Hill” in November.
Loafer slips hand in his pocket to steal money—is grabbed by a harmless snake.
———
Animals are always infesting him.
He enters wounded tiger's cage & heals & pacifies it.
Being urged (it is a trick) he takes bare-back rider's place, & beats him & the jugglers out of sight
Proposes to join Pres. ch. Can't.
Starts cch of Society for Eradication
of the Moral Sense.
———
Faith Cure
Utterback
He preaches.
———
Incantations (witch)
Holy relics
But takes up no collection.
———
Virgin of this & that (cure)
Laying on of hands
This fills his pews.
Electric hands (Livy)
In the MS, a bracket to the right of the words “Allopathy," “Homeo," and “Water-cure" indicates that they are conceptually linked. SLC wrote the phrase “Enemies call frauds" to the right of the bracket.
Enemies call frauds
Allopathy
Homeo
Water-Cure
Pocket-potato for rheumatism
10,000 religions—& you not mad
You—intellectual!
If you had the sanity of the rats & other animals you would need no king
It is only madmen who need masters & looking after.
[begin page 431]These notes, on an uncut sheet of Joynson Superfine paper, in black ink, probably preceded the composition of “Schoolhouse Hill.”
1
Jim Colby (telegraph)
Becky Thatcher (Laura Hawkins)
Lucy Wright (L) Capt. Wright (Bowen)
Nancy Pratt (Mary Lacy) Mrs. Pratt
Cathy Pratt (Mary Miller Squire Pratt, postmaster
Sally Fitch—(Bowen Sally)
In the MS, a bracket to the left of the names “Margaret Stover" and “Olive Stover" indicates that they are conceptually linked.
Margaret Stover (Ousley) Merchant
Olive
Stover—(hunchback)
Fanny Brewster (Helen Kercheval) tailor above ‘Helen’
Cassy Gray (Artemissa Briggs).
Louisa Robbins (Mary Nash, bad.
Jenny Mason (Brady)
Sadie Hotchkiss (Hellfire) 15
In the MS, a bracket to the left of the names “Hank Fitch" and “Sam" indicates that they are conceptually linked.
Hank Fitch (Will Bowen
Sam “ (Sam “
Frank Robbins (Tom Nash, deaf & d.
Sid Sawyer
In the MS, a bracket to the right of the names listed, from “Crazy Fields" to “Flip Coonrod," indicates that they are conceptually linked. SLC has written “Sid Sawyer" to the right of the bracket.
Crazy Fields
George Pratt (Bill Pitts)
Flip Coonrod
fool—½ idiot (Ben Coontz)
In the MS, a bracket to the left of the three names, from “Buck Johnson" to “Bib," indicates that they are conceptually linked.
Buck Johnson Charley Flanders
(Charley
Buchanan)
Little Bob Turner— “
Bib “ “ “
Harry Slater (John Garth)
[begin page 432]2
Jack Stillson (John Garth)
Henry Bascom (Beebe) the bully new rich man & slave trader
Jake his nigger
Ed. Sanders (Stevens) watch-maker
Kaspar Helder (poor little German cigar (Garth's d—dest.
David Gray (John Briggs).
Gill Ferguson (Dawson, pop-eyed)
H Sammy Wheeler (the timid)
Aunt Polly
Miss Pomeroy (Newcomb)
Torrey Foster (Torrey)
Widow Dawson (Aunt Betsy Smith)
“Guthrie (Mrs. Holliday)
Mrs. Wheelright (Dutchka)
Dr. Wheelright (Dr. Peake)
Judge Taylor (pa) (Draper) magistrate
Deacon Hotchkiss & wife (Orion & Pamela)
interested in quack ways of curing
change religions
As were most of the working notes for “Schoolhouse Hill,” this sheet was written on the same paper and in the same ink as the manuscript. It was interleaved between MS pp. 18 and 19 at 181.9–10 in the text, and evidently was written as those pages were composed.
In school he must do all those books—200 30—in average of 3 5 minutes each—300 p. each—1 p. per second. Does the 30 books in 2½ hours.
This group consists of sixteen half-sheets of Joynson Superfine paper, in faint black ink, with later additions and corrections in pencil which have been rendered in boldface type. There is a break in the notes between D-5 and D-6. Forty-four appears in the notes as “404” or “94” through D-5, which is on the verso of a draft-letter to Henry Rogers dated 17 November 1898. D-1 through D-5 were probably written before the composition of “Schoolhouse Hill” and D-6 through D-16 after the first chapters were composed.
1
He is courteous to whores & niggers.
Has been a week a month 2 days in Paris & knows French, Spanish Italian German Latin & Greek. &c
Learns English in 2 days.
He is 15. Pretty mature, though.
Smiles “our property” when he sees Injun Joe & Jimmy Finn.
Cheery & good-natured, with an immortal's contempt for evanescent mortals, & can no more be angry with such, or insulted by them than by the tumble-bug to which he compares them.
Wonders at their interest in life—not worth the trouble; & at their childish ambitions to be circus clowns or kings or constables or Congressmen.
[begin page 434]And they have to work so hard with clumsy hands & minds & their almost non-existent memories, to acquire & keep knowledge or an accomplishment of any kind—whereas
2
The cat & dog & mice X
he masters the principles of an art or a science in a few hours, then in a few more he is perfect in it—piano, flute, skating, shooting, swimming, diving, astronomy, mathematics, drawing, painting, boxing, the bow (gauging the wind & distance by feet & inches).
Reads a book once & can never forget a detail of it, nor on what page & p line any detail is.
Recites in school. Takes all prizes.
X Always doing miracles—sometimes unconsciously. Does Indian jugglery—makes flowers & fruits spring up; makes clay birds & animals & gives them life.
X Gives life to a child's dough chickens & cats.
People who try to strike him (schoolmarm) & roughs—can't. Bricks, sticks & bullets don't har get to him.
3
He is made of air X
X Walks through fire. Saves child—building falls in, he walks out.
Spins top.
Smells of brimstone at first.
X food.
Appears & vanishes through bolted doors, like nothing.
On Lovers' Leap has a witches Sabbath & Tom & Huck see myriad devils &c
When he comes he knows nothing about men—has seen them in hell only. Never been from home before. Has run away this time.
[begin page 435]By & by falls in love with Annie Fleming the Pres. pastor's girl child.
Can't understand prayer; “if you want a thing, have it.”
He doesn't feel fire or pain, & can't comprehend how papa's prisoners or any one else can. Thinks it is all imagination.
Says men are moved by one impulse—selfishness—tries to prove it. This talk is with Rev. Fleming.
X Finds papa in books & Bible
4
He is Admirable Crichton—by & by all but Tom & Huck jealous & hostile. Conspire against him—he doesn't care.
Finally gets religion & stops doing miracles—allows himself to be struck, abused & insulted—turns the other cheek.
Prays for papa. All has gone well till then. He is turned out of the church for this.
X Is always transporting Tom & H to the ends of the earth in a jiffy—to fetch things needed to get them out of difficulties.
Animals are afraid fond of him & slink away when he comes.
They all follow him. He can talk with them.
X
No one knows where he eats & sleeps but H & T—it is in Paris.
Papa has his chief agency there.
X
5
Slaughterhouse Point
Arrives at school. Calls himself 404—gives no other name. Dresses well. Pocket full of money
X Always has a half dollar & $5 & no more—but it never fails; pays his way; wants no change. Says his people are rich.
X Turns himself into birds, animals, fleas, &c. Sometimes electric blue flames play about him
[begin page 436]Takes to T & H at once, & they to him. Want to cross river, go fishing; no boat; wants them to fly over; can't understand why they can't; very well, he will fetch a boat,—disappears suddenly & comes rowing back from over river.
Has no fear of crosses & holy names—says papa hasnt. Says his papa has not been cheated by monks &c—a lot of Middle-Age lies. T & H go to hell on a visit. He doesn't know in margin
Papa doesn't buy souls—can get plenty for nothing.
He is No. 404 94 Prince of the vintage of a certain century—doesn't know which one—no curiosity—hasn't inquired. X
Soon picks up all languages.
6
Old Ship of Zion
Cross's schoolhouse on P. S.
S. H. Hill
A coasting hill.
Cadets of Temperance
Sunday school procesh & picnic
Campbellite revival
Campmeeting
I O O F
Masons (procesh)
Fire Company Big 6 Joe Buckner (Raymond
Mesmerism
Nigger Minstrels
In the MS, SLC has drawn a bracket on both sides of the section of this list, from “Spirit rappings" to “Knot-tying (Davenport)."
Spirit rappings
Materializing
Knot-tying (Davenport)
44 joins the Cadets
Often wishes he was in hell.
Tells his secret in confidence to everybody in town—with an awful threat—so each thinks he alone possesses it—& each tries to get an advantage out of it.
Bessie Strong tries to convert him.
[begin page 437]A Barnum wants to exhibit him
He must perform for a ch charity. Would it be right to use such money.
7
Why has he come to the world?
———
635 years ago he saw for the third time a human being thinks, a man; ages before he had seen two at wide intervals of time, but they were too far away to be clear: one a man, he thinks, the other he thinks a child, but only head & shoulders showing, & they tossing so, in their torment (he sees now it was torment, but that was only a name to him then, he has had no personal experience of pain or unhappiness, papa's crime has not descended) couldn't make much out; they soon disappeared behind the billows.
But he talked with the third, & determined to go to the world next day & examine this curious race—& he has done it. “But this isn't next day.”
“Yes, by our count it is.”
8
He has come out of mere curiosity to see what perishable men are like; but now that he has read all about them, he hopes to find a way to rid them of the Moral Sense; they can not get to heaven without that, still, it is worth while, because without it this life wd be innocent & happy, &, brief as it is it would be better to be happy than unhappy. He must think out a way. half-circled
His associates have always been his devil-relatives brothers & sisters.—a vast multitude, not named, but numbered. They have no wives nor children—there is no third generation.
They probably do not know their papa's history, as they have [begin page 438] never mentioned it in his hearing. They are happy & busy. So is papa. Has seen papa 2 or 3 times per million years but has not talked with him.
9
Has never seen a human girl or woman until now. Except in heaven
X Hellfire Hotchkiss./Annie Fleming. He feels a strange & charming interest in her. By the books he gathers that this is “love”—the kind that sex arouses. There is no such thing among his brothers & sisters. He studies it in the books. It seems very beautiful in the books. Presently the passion for Hl grows—becomes absorbing—is mutual. Papa uneasy—he is the only person who knows 44's secret. 44 sees that the happiness of hell —which is purely intellectual— is tame compared to this love. emphasis added in pencil He has found more in this random visit to earth than he bargained for. X
In time he is obliged to tell his secret to Hl—horror! S Heartbreaking scene. He has done wrong? Denies it. The word has no real meaning to him, but only a
10
pallid dictionary meaning. The thing does not exist to his feeling & comprehension. How?
Thought is merely a clumsy & inadequate translation of feeling into speech. If we are so made that we can't feel right & wrong then the words are mere air to us—the same as they would be to a grasshopper.
“It is like pain (physical). You may talk about it all you like, I get only the dictionary/intellectual meaning, not the shadow of a real comprehension, for I have never felt a pain. You must feel a [begin page 439] thought or the word that represents it has no value—talk to a stone of pain? No use. I You have coarse combinations of sounds which you blandly call music. Then you speak of the
11
music of the spheres. Is it actual music to your ear? No. Then the term is empty to you. To me it is ravishing—forever changing, never silent. How do you know, when a comet has swum into your system? Merely by your eye or your telescope—but I, I hear a strange sweet minor tone brilliant far stream of sound come singing winding across/through the firmament of majestic sounds & I know the splendid stranger is there without looking. Don't you see that to you people the phrase music of the spheres is wholly meaningless, wholly unfeelable,—like right & wrong to me?
(He suffers when they play piano, guitar, violin, banjo, flute—& sing. But he makes divine music himself. It is because he is listening to the music of the spheres & reproducing it. It makes the audience drunk
12
with delight—this is because his translation of it is coarsened & brought down to the low grade of their feeling; just as you can dilute champagne with milk until a cat will like it, & prefer it to straight milk, & get drunk on it. What is champagne? I don't know; but by reading I perceive that it is the finest & most delicate of wines.
D Vast dimensions of hell—which is a pigmy to heaven. Only our Adam fell—hl is for his chn alone; in the other worlds the Adams & the rest live millions of years till burnt out like the moon, then are ferried over to heaven with their animals. All our our animals go [begin page 440] to heaven for they have no Moral Sense; also the Presbyterians; the rest go to hell.
Thinks if he can remove man's vanity, his Moral Sense may follow; his vanity in attributing merits to himself; & his fool idea that Selfishness is shameful; he didn't make it, & can't be the wisest thing
13
he can do is to raise its ideals & make it help toward making this life pleasant for all.
He has examined Selfishness by the books & found out that men have a misconception of the thing, consequently they have clothed the word with the rags of that misconception & made it a whereas they should clothe it in its proper garb the white of innocence. For it is innocent & remains so—it can do no wrong.
He has been in heaven; so vast; meet plenty of people from other worlds; & at long, long intervals a Presbyterian. They are not popular—avoided. Considered “queer” & of a low grade because they have been defiled with the Moral Sense.
Heaven is not according to a history which he has been reading “Pilgrim's Progress;” it is not so small; & Presbyterians are not so plenty as that.
14
He has read up, now, & knows all about papa & about Christ's great sacrifice for the Presbyterians. Admires Christ deeply. Likes to go to Church & SS & listen—at first. But quits, because they say such things about papa & his place.
He didn't know, before, that people suffered in Hl, & he doesn't feel it or appreciate it now. Is it the way the spectacle of a misdone Euclid problem makes one feel? “Oh, the feelings are not at all the [begin page 441] same.” “Well, to me the pains of hell must remain a mere phrase—no meaning.”
Has read the 300 600 books, now, 300,000 pages in 160 hours of actual reading—he doesn't sleep, but loses time talking & at meals. This education has occupied him 10 days.
He can 't feel sudden anger, like an animal, but can't hold it; can't conceive of the spirit of revenge; nor of avarice, nor of
15
hoarding, nor of envy, nor of “ambitions” of any kind; nor of jealousies; nor of adulations; nor of obsequiousnesses; (to monarchs or any) nor of slaveries; nor of humilities; admir thinks well of the cat because she is the only independent; says there is no such thing as an independent human being—all are slaves; no such thing as freedom of thought freedom of opinion, freedom in politics & religion
Man is a poor thing; but if he can get back his original innocence he will be fine & worthy. sidelined
44 can love, like dog & others; & trust, like dog & others.
Praises of him he cannot understand—they are due to his Maker solely, he —bring this forward at ONCE.
16
The sense of humor—what is that—in the books? Is rejoiced to find he it is in him, though in a sort of atrophied condition; but knows that even the smallest seed can be developed.
When they laughed in school he didn't understand it—had never heard a laugh before. Thinks it wd improve heaven & his part of hell to import it.
And he couldn't understand the teacher's praise of his modesty; why should he be vain of his gifts & take credit for them?—they came from his Maker.
[begin page 442]These notes consist of four consecutively numbered half-sheets of Joynson Superfine paper in black ink. E-2 is on the verso of a canceled p. 67 of the “Schoolhouse Hill” manuscript. The notes must have been written after that page was discarded.
1
Nephew Son of Satan.
———
This world was 2 M yrs ago.
Man has been in it 7,000 yrs.
Remember seeing it made.
Satan ate the apple (& acquired not the knowledge of good & evil for he had that before, but the disposition to do evil (—as the sparks to fly upward or the water to run down hill.
He Adam acquired the Moral Sense from the apple in a diseased form—insanity of mind & body; it decayed his body, filled it with disease-germs, & death resulted.
The angels have the Moral Sense, but not in diseased form—just the other way, the healthy way, disposition to avoid evil & dislike it. They are sane,
I was born in heaven; my father is an uncles are archangel s, but it is
2
is no particular distinction; we have no rank-ambitions—care nothing for them.
[begin page 443]Heaven is merely for God & the angels—these exist in billions—& for the people from this world. It is so recent that you see few; the Christians are so very recent that I ran across none.
Hell is solely for this world—the other Adams did not eat the apple, & the people & the animals never die. The animals in Heaven came from here—there are none in hell.
Satan has been in hell but 7 days, now; I have not seen him for 6 months (150,000 years). I am so sorry for him—it is dreary there.
Our hour is about 41⅔ of your years.
I have myriads of several thousand brothers & sisters in hell—born since the Fall; I & another a myriad were born before the Fall. We often go & play with those others, but they
3
can't come to see us. They can come to me here, & they like to; will serve me gladly. It gives them a holiday & they cool off. They have horns, spiked tail & hoof, like papa. They are a part of the disease. They like to do wrong, I suppose—in fact they must, since they, like papa & you are morally & mentally insane. Satan's original host have large families
If you could only get rid of the Moral Sense—& he!—& be like the animals; they haven't it, & Adam hadn't it. If you & he could be like the animals. The apple diseased his moral body & he feels the fire—he & Adam could not feel pain before, but only pleasure. I cannot feel pain either of body or mind, but only pleasure.
I have an intellectual knowledge notion of what pain is, but & an intellectual compassion for a sufferer, but as I don't know what pain is I can't feel the compassion. I am intellectually sorry for comets that are lost, but I cannot cry about it. No doubt you can.
[begin page 444]4
The redeemed in heaven—I will go & hunt one up & see what he is like. Ah—he is disappointed. happy. Has lost the moral sense & is like the animals—& like the angels, who know evil but dislike it.
I find they are just like the immortals in the other planets.
I am No. 45 in in New series 9 86,000,000. I have seen all my brothers & sisters at one time or another, & know them by Number & features. There are some billions of them—all in heaven except the few millions thousands born in hell in the past 7 days.
These notes are on two sheets of Joynson Superfine paper in black ink. They were written during the composition of “Schoolhouse Hill,” but cannot be dated more precisely.
1
Dr. Terry, great surgeon
contempt for human race
rough, but at bottom kind
Use the whole “Conscience” list
of religions for Major—“when I
was a x x x”
David Home's “Control”
Mrs. Hooker & John 's (Mr. & Mrs Horr) “Control” told them what to eat, drink, think, believe (& so they had become quit Presby—before,) they & what to wear & how to vote. Mrs. H's self-sufficiency & talent, John's docility, & absence of any special talent except utter belief in his wife & God.
The Unbeliever Bob Ingersoll (Ira Jepson) (vain of it—just as the ex-Cath priest (very few Irish) was vain of his desertion & [begin page 445] courage, & was around telling the secrets of the priestly charnel-house to crowded (gratis) houses
Better get up a Catechism. Yes, 44 will do it. And it is printed: “Conscience” &c
Bring in corpses & examine microbes
Pass all the animals through, devils riding.
2
Swedenborgian
Report that Ferg., Meadows, & Major were drunk—hence the amazing reports. These men are not believed & they lose character 44 disappears, after catechism is printed & distributed—leaves the leaven to work & be discussed. It is attacked in conversation (pulpit?); some think successfully, some not. 44 as its author presently ignored —he does not exist, except in those drunken imaginations—Major must be the author. His denials are doubted.
“Go to bed & rest—begin next night; he will bring the others every night & take them back, per little devils. Meantime he will inspect the world daytimes & devour libraries for ten days.
This group of miscellaneous notes consists of five half-sheets of Joynson Superfine paper, written in pencil with additions in black ink. The additions in ink are rendered in boldface type.
G-1, G-2 (on the verso of G-1), and G-4 were grouped with the “Chronicle” working notes by DeVoto but both physical and internal evidence seem to place them with the notes for “Schoolhouse Hill.”
His Sermon —
he is starting an Anti-Moral
Sense church.
Everything is insane—upside down.
The idle sit on thrones, the workers in the gutter
Seduced girl is punished, not the seducer
You say truth is mighty—the very words are a lie—
Murder will out
Might is right
Your Napoleons want a fame which shall remain in this potatoe after they have ascended into
I was present when some of the vast suns were swung out to light this potatoe
You say killing is wrong & persuasion right—& you spend all your money on wars & none on arbitration.
You punish attempted suicides—whereas if a man owns anything at all (according to your own scheme of life) it is his life—a foolish possession
2
you call life a gift to be grateful for—a boon—you mean the opposite
you generally decide that a suicide—the only tolerably sane person among you—is temp. insane.
Your silly race is the despair of the few wise—& otherwise; but you all try to hide it—& y you call Pessimist names. You are all insane.
You speak admiring of the innocence of the lamb, yet wd not be innocent on the same terms
———
Papa ate apple & has moral sense
———
But none of us ch'n—for we
[begin page 447]Like Adam he disobeyed like a dog & with a dog's merely intellectual conception of the guilt (& that is worthless—you have to feel a thing to comprehend it—there is no thought
3
Fortunatus purse—get anything
out of pocket
sketch of thermometer
In what do you differ from a thermo—a hand on your ball will raise you, but you can't put the hand there, & it would not be possible for you to originate the idea of wishing you would put it there—it must come from outside.
———
Devil's Sunday-School
The ?s & answers of “Conscience.”
———
Dr. Wheelwright—This It is my opinion that there is something supernatural about this
His wife nods her head as much as to say there—now you've got the explanation
———
Sign of X—crow not afraid of it.
———
Approves the Savior as God —praises him.
———
4
Adam's birth was 8500 million years ago.
Why am I a boy at 5,000,000?
The race has not changed a single shade in that time.
Ad would disobey—so wd you; Cain was jealous; so are you; a [begin page 448] murderer homicide—one in a family, for he had sisters—the murder average is the same to-day—3 in 10 of the men before me are murderers—100 present—the adultery committed by the eye is adultery—murder homicide committed by wish is homicide
———
Ranks. Your redeemed woreear crowns, aureoles, halos, for you are a childish lot & delight in vanities for the eye as glass beads delight savages. Your new Jerusalem & your pearly gates & so on—rather loud taste. And the music there!
You haven't changed one shade, in tastes or otherwise in 8500 million yrs.
AB 1
No luggage, no wash.
Plenty clothes—ain't
dressed as he was.
Blizzard. Hannah
Annie plays music—he suffers—finds her at home when he gets there. Then he plays?
Savage dog. Animals were Adam's loving servants. And so are his Talks with them. half-circled
He is made of air. Loaded the cat. circled
Takes from his pocket anything;
but it is previously empty. “Allow
me”—& he pulls a hairpin or
anything—candle.
Furnishes food.
50 cents & $5.
Finds papa in books & Bible
Turns himself into birds,
fleas, &c
Vanishes
Nigger Jake is sent to
When sense of humor is complete, he does the materializing at seances.
For the moment, Hotch is spiritualist, but not his Presbyterian wife.
Describe H's, Annie, Aunt Rachel & Uncle Jeff.
His church prospers—for they don't take up a collection. Also, he gives away money freely. in left margin
[begin page 449]Chess, cards, checkers,—stocking the cards. Drawing, painting.
He quickly learns to talk with Tom Nash, then improves on the system.
Electricity Pipes—cigars. half-circled
1
Bring slathers of little red, behind cooling devils to print ms Bible &
feed the whole town (cold plate from cubboard to sit on pants—money—touch of love—blizzard—
———
Bible—sermons—dialogues—in Appendix
[begin page 450]These notes, on a single sheet of glossy pearl-gray Par Value tablet paper, are in the same dark blue ink as the first 171 pages of the manuscript and were probably written during their composition.
lightning rod
not permitted
to search
Arthur tales—
Go it, Galahad
Launcelot
Japan
rocket
Notes.
———
Whenever a thing is large & bragable, “Sho, you ought to see it in Sirius.”
Whenever it is “advanced” Lord, you ought to see it in (get that name from Lady Duff Gordon.)
These snubs make me tired,—& Doan too.
I visit those places with 44.
44 hunts maj magician constantly with miracles—Satan comes—he takes the credit at first; then too late tries to get out of it.
He is burned at the stake (it is 44 in disguise).
Appears again—is destroyed in various ways, keeps coming to life.
150, gay & cheery
That ass.
severe & mild, cold & warm,
straight & crooked, so that no one
could bear his gaze.
Beelze 2-year cholera
[begin page 451]This group of notes consists of six glossy buff-colored tablet sheets approximately 9″ by 53/4″, numbered consecutively, in the hand of Isabel V. Lyon. The notes were dictated some time after mid-November 1902 when she became Mark Twain's secretary and probably before the composition of the third chapter of “No. 44.”7 Spelling errors have been silently emended. The first two items, in Mark Twain's hand, in dark blue ink, have been rendered in boldface type.
1
Jesus! said Father Adolf. in top left corner
A drunken, armored knight.
A dethroned King in the cellar.
Pi.
Hell box.
Towel.
Strap oil.
Barty contributes money and is repaid.
I am told on and my trouble begins.
I explain to him what to do without speaking.
I shirked going to his room that night.
Some one propagates the suspicion that I am his friend.
2
Fischer and others begin to lean toward him, and I venture to say a good word to them for him.
There should have been a carouse in 44's honor that night.
[begin page 452]A conspiracy is brewing during several days against the master.
I pick up the facts from Fischer & Co.
The idea is to ruin him, oust him and put some one in his place.
44 is persecuted in all ways the first day.
At last Blume strikes him.
3
That is more than Fischer can stand.
He resents it.
That classes him with 44's friend, and the count begins to divide.
I privately work upon Fischer through Mar.
Some time Mar. and Maria will begin to be attracted toward 44.
Father Peter and his niece must come in here somewhere.
And perhaps the conspirators will purposely or by accident betray the printing shop to Father Adolf.
4
Getting used to being in the opposition.
And finding a sort of support in Fischer.
I lose the bulk of my fears, and consort with 44 by night but not by day.
I am astonished to find that he is quite willing to kill a good man.
Thinks it would be doing him a favor.
But spares Ernest—and all vicious men.
Because they did not make themselves.
And are not to blame for what they are and do.
They are entitled to large compassion.
[begin page 453]5
I always find it impossible to budge him from that position.
Or get him to feel an insult or an injury.
The master's influence wanes little by little.
Perhaps by and by the magician will take the head of the table.
He is heavy hearted.
And finds solace in teaching 44.
44 explains what one's Dream-Self is.
Maria and her mother are feeling strong enough now.
To try again to oust Mar. and
6
her mother.
44 will take a hand.
This group of notes, in the hand of Jean Clemens, is on four Par Value tablet sheets, with writing on both the verso and the recto. The notes follow the second chapter of “No. 44,” with a few omissions and changes in wording. Presumably Mark Twain dictated this passage to Jean for reference and omitted material not of immediate use. The changes are proposed shifts of plot direction. Jean's spelling, punctuation, and capitalization have been regularized. Later penciled corrections and additions by Mark Twain have been rendered in boldface type.
1.
Heinrich Stein, the master, was portly, of a grave and dignified carriage, with a large & benevolent face & calm deep eyes—a patient man whose temper could stand much before it broke. His head was bald, with a valance of silky white hair hanging around it, his face was clean shaven, his raiment was good & fine, but not rich. He was a scholar, & a dreamer & thinker, & loved learning & study, & would have submerged his mind all the days & nights in his books & been pleasantly & peacefully unconscious of his surroundings, if God had been willing. His complexion was younger than his hair; he was four or five years short of sixty.
2.
A large part of his surroundings consisted of his wife. She was well along in life, and was long & lean & flat-breasted, & had an active & vicious tongue & a diligent & devilish spirit, & more religion than was good for her, considering the quality of it. She hungered for money, & believed there was a treasure hid in the black deeps of the castle somewhere; & between fretting & sweating about that & trying to bring sinners nearer to God where any fell in her way she was able to fill up her time and save her life from getting uninteresting & her soul from getting mouldy. There was old tradition for the treasure, and the word of
3.
Balthasar Hoffman thereto. He had come from a great long way off, & had brought a great reputation with him, which he concealed fro in our family the best he could, for he had no more ambition to be burnt by the Church than another. He lived with us [begin page 455] on light salary & board, & worked the constellations for the treasure. He had an easy berth & was not likely to lose his job if the constellations held out, for it was Frau Stein that hired him; & her faith in him, as in all things she had at heart, was of the staying kind. Inside the walls, where was safety, he clothed himself as Egyptians and magicians should, & moved stately, robed in black velvet starred & mooned & velveted & cometed & sun'd with the symbols of his trade done in silver, & on his head a conical tower with like symbols glinting from it. When he at intervals went outside he left his business suit behind, with good discretion, & went dressed like anybody else & looking the Christian etc. Very naturally we were all afraid of him—abjectly so, I suppose I may say—though
4.
Ernest Wasserman professed that he wasn't, etc. etc.
To return to Frau Stein. This masterly devil was the master's second wife, & before that she had been the widow Vogel. She had brought into the family a young thing by her first marriage, & this girl was now seventeen and a blister, so to speak; for she was a second edition of her mother—just plain galley-proof, neither revised nor corrected, full of turned letters, wrong fonts, outs & doubles, as we say in the printing-shop—in a word pi, etc. Moses Haas said that whenever she took up an en-quad fact, just watch her and you would see her try and cram it in where there wasn't room for a 4-m space; & she'd do it, too, if she had to take the sheep's-foot to it. That daughter kept the name she was born to—Marie Vogel; it was her mother's preference & her own. Both were
5.
Frau Stein—Maria Stein Vogel “Stein” reinstated—Marget Regen
proud of it, without any reason, etc. Maria MT's italics had plenty of energy & vivacity & tongue, & was shapely enough but not pretty, barring her eyes, which had all kinds of fire in them, according to [begin page 456] the mood of the moment—opal-fire, fox-fire, hell-f., & the rest. She hadn't any fear, broadly speaking. Perhaps she had none at all, except for Satan, & ghosts, & witches & the priest & the magician, & a sort of fear of God in the dark, & the lightning when she had been blaspheming & hadn't time to get in aves enough to square-up & cash-in. She ha despised Marget Regen & her mother the master's niece & dependent & bedridden moth sister. She loved Gustav Fischer who did reciprocate & hated all the rest.
Marget Regen was Maria's age—17. She was lithe & graceful & trim-built as a fish, & she was a blue-eyed blonde, & soft & sweet & innocent & shrinking & winning
6.
& gentle & beautiful; just a vision for the eyes, worshipful, MT's cancellation adorable, enchanting; but that wasn't the hive for her. She was a kitten in a menagerie.
She was a second edition of what her mother had been at her age. That poor meek mother! Yonder she lay had lain, partially paralysed, ever since her brother my master had brought her eagerly there a dear & lovely young widow 15 years before, etc. MT's emphasis
Next was old Katrina. She was cook & housekeeper; her forebears had served the master's people & none else for 3 or 4 generations; she was 60 & served the master all his life, from the time she was a little girl & he a swaddled baby. She was erect, straight, 6 feet high, with the port & stride of a grenadier; she was independent & masterful, & her fears were limited to the supernatural. She believed that she could whip anybody on the place, & would have considered an invitation a favor. As far as her
7.
allegiance went stretched, she paid it with affection & reverence, but it did not extend beyond “her family”—the master, his sister & [begin page 457] Marget. She regarded Frau Vogel Stein & Maria as aliens & intruders, & was frank about saying so.
She had under her 2 strapping young wenches—Sara & Duffles (a nickname), and a manservant, Jacob, & a porter, Fritz. & others
Next, we have the printing force!
Adam Binks, 60 years old, learned bachelor, proof-reader, poor, disappointed, surly.
Hans Katzenyammer, 36, printer, huge, strong, freckled, red-headed, rough. When drunk, quarrelsome. Drunk when opportunity offered.
Moses Haas, 28, printer; a looker-out for himself; likely to say acid things about people & to people; take him all around, not a pleasant character.
Barty Langbein, 15; cripple; general-utility lad; sunny spirit; affectionate; could play the fiddle.
Ernest Wasserman, 17, apprentice; braggart, malicious, hateful, coward, liar, cruel, underhanded, treacherous.
8.
He and Moses had a sort of half-fondness for each other, which was natural, they having one or more traits in common, down among the lower grades of traits.
Gustav Fischer, 27, printer; large, well built, shapely & muscular; quiet, brave, kindly, a good disposition, just & fair; a slow temper to ignite, but a reliable burner when well going. He was about as much out of place as was Marget. He was the best man of them all, & deserved to be in better company.
Last of all comes August Feldner, 16, 'prentice. This is myself.
The stranger: No. 44, New series 864,962.
Martin v. Giesbach
Elisabeth v. Arnim
Emil Schwarz.
[begin page 458]This group of notes consists of eleven note-size pages, 3” by 4 11/16”, in the blue-black ink of MS pp. 432–587, and must have been written in the course of composing that portion of the manuscript.
D-1
DISAPPEARANCE of the maid discovered.
———
Hurry the public betrothal before she publishes the scandal.
———
DISAPPEARANCE of me or and my Duplicate discovered.
———
Great excitement in castle.
———
Betrothal stops.
———
Distress is killing Marget's mother.
———
Rumor of 3 murders
———
The bodies found. Close all exits. Search. They find the murderer (44) with trinkets on him. Arrest him. Torture confession out of him. Behead him—he picks up head, puts
D-2
2
it in basket & walks off. While they stare, claps it on & becomes magician & disappears in thunder & lightning.
[begin page 459]Big reputation.
44 invisible says it was I. The real magician will appear now.
FUNERALS
—the cat is around.
No consecrated ground—they lacked absolution. Buried with 44—same ceremonies at night. Katrina & others grieve for cat & others. (How long since K has seen this boy?)
D-3
3
The 3 murdered found again. Funerals.
———
The 3 found again. Funerals.
———
Stein declares he will pay no more funerals. They stop.
———
Upon reflection I find my way is not clear, for certainly Martin is another & not I. It is he that is Lisbet's husband.
I must renounce that marriage & win her in my own person. By & by.
Visit other centuries to ease my heart. Marry there, by compulsion
44 shows me dream-wonders & music of spheres, but I can't describe them, there being nothing to compare them with.
D-4
P.O. DEPT. doesn't use MT wrote ‘used’ dreams so much now, they use the late French King's post.
———
Katrina has dream?
———
Shall her implorations restore 44? I think so
———
[begin page 460]44 must turn to animals.
———
Have him be a mountebank with trained animals—they talk together.
———
Adolf arrest the lot
D-5
INDULGENCE—murder produces one signed by Adolf, but he points out it only saves his soul, not his life. Court doubts, but yields. GHOST-NIGHT—castle full of spectres & wandering lights. Distant groans & cries—flight & pursuit, noiseless.
The murderer is I or my Duplicate, they can't tell which; I confess I did it but I won't tell which. The indulgence names the Duplicate & 44 claims to be he & that a duplicate is not human & not amenable to law. Court is uncertain.
D-6
The emperor said:
“They blame an emperor for his appetite for notice & praise: Look at God!”
His Majesty old Henry MMMMMDCXXII of savage The Blasphemous/Uncultured said—“Yes, I am fond of what the books call praises, processions, notice, attentions, reverence, fuss & feathers. Vanities? Are they? There was never a living creature nor even a god that didn't like them.” this paragraph canceled with a single line
D-7
1
Kings and all. circled All men are so very very little, so microscopically little, not alone to the eye of God but when they [begin page 461] searchingly & honestly examine them-selves it seems foolish to go thro the pretence of detecting differences & distinctions.
D-8
2
Let your condition be what it may, you will provide yourself with the same amount of unhappiness required by your born disposition —king & tramp alike.
D-9
3B
Pity—don't scoff at & despise & hate the race. It is sw victim of a swindle, & the arbitrary character of its nature makes it blameless. It has no responsibility.
(Both talk gently & earnestly.)
D-10
You wouldn't like everybody to admire applaud “admire” reinstated you?
Well . . . . no.
You wouldn't like anybody to admire all sides of your character?
Why?
Nemmine. Tell you
Wouldn't you be satisfied if the “best people” admired as much of your character & conduct as you do?
NO—(& that is honest.)
[begin page 462]D-11
B DREAM-LIFE
———
A funeral;
accident;
loss of wealth;
“ “ wife & child
Crossed in love—
It bites, it cuts, it tears,—but keep heart, it is not real.
———
There is but one person in the Universe—you are he, & you are merely a wandering Thought.
These notes, in the blue-black ink of MS pp. 432–587, on four sheets of Par Value tablet stock, were written during 1905.
1
1st. Cat passes through—she will bring news.
44 says Those boys are out of date in the matter of conveying messages—go by Fr.ench King's post, now. I remember the fat & the lean kine.
The dreams are all right enough, but the art of interpreting is lost. 1500 yr ago they were getting to do it so badly it was considered better to depend on augurs—do you know about those?
Yes,
chicken-guts & other naturally intelligent sources of prophecy, [begin page 463] recognising that when guts can't prophecy it is no use for Ezekiel to go into the business.
Prophecy went out with the chicken guts.
E-2
2
Everything at standstill because of the missing 3.
———
Search for them, must be
missing 3 days
By indulgence from Adolf:
Conspiracy to massacre the Duplicates. by the strikers.
Cat overhears
Have to have signs passwords grips so as to tell who are Duplicates.
Cat reports them to August, & he, invisible, betrays them to Duplicates.
cat sidelined in margin
———
Now is my chance, if I can only win her in my own name—
Take father Peter's advice—he says Martin is quite another person —“green goods”
———
Then courts Marget—she is drawn to him, & he may be Emil, she doesn't know which he is but she her feelings tell her he is not the one. Yes, she concedes, he would answer all practical purposes; yet, lacking the essential one—love—no good. Sorry, but N. G. One parting kiss to meet no more. Take a hatful. I will not take advantage of your generosity—2 will do.
The murdering is to happen that night—which is Ghost-Night—Adolf & other exorcisors there, to be pestered by 44
E-3
3
DI BRONTOSAUR, all bones—“will be more effective that way” —prances around, reaches into 2d story windows—
[begin page 464]“Here comes Carnegie!”—it is the P Carnegio-Pittsburghio-Brontosoriass”—
They have an old love-grudge of tertiary times—they race all over town & region & fight, scaring everybody to death—
Summons St George from the past, Don Quixotte from the future & try to interest a tournament, but the boys ruther not—(“it's Sunday”).
44 thrashes the creatures (as the magician) leads them meekly, they kneel to a cardinal the minute they see him, & the cardinal's little boys takes a ride
E-4
4
Remember, Katrina cannot like the magician, he burnt her boy—she crosses herself & attacks him whenever they meet—& she is the only one who dares defy him.
She's been waiting around ever since that tragedy, with a long carving-knife.
She thinks he has instigated the murders—she is so bitter against him that she attributes to him every evil that happens.
These miscellaneous notes, on the front and back covers of a Par Value tablet, although clearly not for “The Mysterious Stranger,” were apparently written in Florence at the same time as the final chapter of “No. 44.” The language of the last chapter parallels the first note on F-2.
1. Adam? He is part of the dream. page torn him by agreeing with his fad.
[begin page 465]2. Father o’ de Brotherhood? ‘Sho! Cant ever get him to say anything but that.
3. Ad? Enthusiastic. He is the head-criminal—perpetuate his name.
4. Agree with his fad.
5. Full of his trouble; cares nothing for Ad. Peters the inventor.
Adm's fad for life's failures came from wife.
Jemmy a wholesome spirit—practical, like x x poetic like x x x & both, like x x x x & literary by inheritance from that uncle?
Martha is doctor, like Mrs. G. She is in deep sympathy with the Broken Reeds.
Poem “The Derelict.”
George Flinders written in left margin
The squawkestrelle & penola
Jemmy apparently no fad to work upon. Shall it turn out that he has one himself?—his love for her—& it operates by making him give up the monument scheme.
F-2
1. The intellectual & placid & sane-looking man whose foible is that life & God & the universe is a dream & he the only person in it—not a person, but a homeless & silly thought wandering forever in space.
2. The negro whitewasher (of the Brotherhood of Man) whose daughter (nurse) was lynched for poisoning the white child—it turns out she was innocent.
3. The N. E. farmer whose young daughter was beguiled away by . . . . he found her after 7 months' search, dying of starvation —had lived on 2 cans of condensed milk per week—afraid to go to her father who had never taken her mother's interest in the children, he being absorbed in the heathen. He rails at God, who could have saved her & didn't.
4. George Francis Train-looking man who lost wife & his 4 children in a week when was was 30. At 74 is glad they were taken—they escaped life. “God's only valuable gift to man—death.” Has almost completed extermination-scheme—oxygen.
[begin page 466]5 Young policeman refused $10,000 bribe & reported it. Is admired (with words) but is privately believed to be “a little off.” Is little by little neglected, then dismissed. He laments his foolish act; the other policeman took the $10,000 & is now Chief of Police.
This single discarded page of manuscript on cross-barred paper may be an early effort to explore the material used in these manuscripts. It may equally have come from some closely related manuscript: only once in the Mysterious Stranger stories is Traum or Satan or 44 characterized as “The Prince of Darkness.”
1
The rain continued to beat softly upon the panes, & the wind to sigh & wail about the eaves. In the room there was no sound; both of us remained buried in thought. After a long time I roused myself & took up the thread where it had been broken off:
“It was depressing—that which you said.
“My perhaps over-warm eulogy of the character of my race, & my praise of its noble struggle against heavy odds toward higher & ever higher moral & spiritual summits, have not won from you even the slender kindness of a comment.”
He The Prince of Darkness answered gravely—
“Is not silence a comment?”
I had invited that thrust, & was sorry ashamed.