(1880–1881)
This piece takes the form of a letter to “Rodney Dennis.” Geer's 1882 Hartford City Directory lists Rodney Dennis as the secretary of The Travelers Insurance Company—the company from which Jackson has bought his policy in this satiric obituary notice. The Reverend Abner Jackson, President of Trinity College in Hartford, was a member of the Monday Evening Club from 1869 until his death in 1874. None of the statements made in this sketch coincide with the facts of his life.
Mark Twain left the work untitled and included two endings in the manuscript. It is possible, with the work in an unfinished state, that he wished to retain alternative possibilities. Probably, however, he simply failed to discard his original draft when he supplanted it with the later and longer ending. The earlier ending, on a single manuscript page, was to follow “dollars'” at 311.32 of the present text. It reads:
dollars' worth of Traveler's Accident tickets. His will sets apart $90,000 for his family; the residue goes to the Adam Monument Association, he being the originator of the noble enterprise which that society was instituted to achieve.
Very Truly Yours
S. L. Clemens
[begin page 309]P. S. He takes passage in the boat at 4 p.m. to-day. I am his chief executor. Are any formalities necessary?—or do I simply draw on you?
S. L. C.1
The reference to the Adam Monument Association in the superseded ending helps date the work. Clemens first seems to have entertained the idea of a monument to Adam in October 1879;2 from then until the summer of 1881, but seldom thereafter, he was concerned with promoting such a project. The paper which Mark Twain used through the first ending was, according to Walter Blair, used by the author only between September 1879 and June 1881.3 Finally, Mark Twain wrote “Hartford June 1880” on the verso of one of the manuscript pages, apparently while testing his pen.
In expanding the list of Jackson's bequests to pious-seeming organizations and their ridiculous projects, Mark Twain did not include the reference to the Adam Monument Association, which appears only in the superseded passage quoted above. The new ending reveals instead that Jackson has specified a “Monument for Self” but has provided no funds for it. Possibly we are to understand that Jackson was expecting his family, including the “1 gross distant relatives” valued “@ $1 per sample,” to pay for the monument—and also for the funeral expenses and the prize for a biography, which he also left unfunded. Or perhaps Clemens simply did not bother to complete his intended draft: it will be noticed that the total amount of the bequests falls $2,338 short of the one hundred thousand dollars that the insurance is to provide. It is also possible that Clemens' intention stopped short of the labor of arithmetic.
Rodney Dennis, Esq.Ⓐemendation
Dear Sir:
This town has just sustained a heavy blow, in the loss of Mr. Abner L. Jackson, an old and greatly respected citizen. Mr. Jackson was born in Farmington, Conn., June 13, 1810, where he attended the school kept by the Misses Wright all through his boyhood, and was noted for his diligence, his capacity,Ⓐalteration in the MS and the simplicity and purity of his character,—these latter qualities being inherited from his mother, who was a lineal descendant of Jabez Parks, a prominent member of the little colony which settled Hartford in 1635.
Young Jackson lost his father in 1823; and in the spring of 1824 his mother passed away, also, and he found himself alone in the world and without other resources than his own strong hands and willing heart. He entered Yale, supporting himself by teaching school during vacations, but wasⒶalteration in the MS not able to finish his term, and therefore did not graduate. He studied law, during four years, in the office of the late Abel Thompson, of New Haven, and then entered the ministry of the Presbyterian church in the town of Glastonbury, but after two years of excellent service his views concerning future punishment underwent a changeⒶalteration in the MS and he considered it his duty to retire from that communion. [begin page 311] He became a citizen of Elmira in 1840, and in 1846 he raised a companyⒶalteration in the MS and started to Mexico, but when he arrived the war was over. The rest of his life was embittered by unavailing efforts to obtain a pension. In the memorable canvass of 1854 he was elected to the legislature, after months of unremitting labor in the cause, but an informality in the returns made a new election necessary, andⒶalteration in the MS this time his opponent was elected by a majority of one.
When the rebellion broke out he was one of the first men in this town to offer his services and experienceⒶalteration in the MS to the government;Ⓐalteration in the MS he received a lieutenantcy at once, with promise of early promotion, but on his way to headquarters to get his commission signed,Ⓐalteration in the MS he was struck a violent blow in the back by an elephant belonging to a passingⒶalteration in the MS menagerie, and disabled from further service. He was forced to lie on his back during several years. He felt sure of getting a pension this time, but was again disappointed; this second repulse wounded him deeply, and he was never the same man afterward.
He employedⒶalteration in the MS the last ten years of his life, and won golden opinions from all, as sexton to the Presbyterian church, his former views about future punishment having returned to him in consequence of his misfortunes.
He will beⒶalteration in the MS greatly missed, here, and sincerely mourned, by the whole community.—It was noticed by many, last week, that something was wrong with him; and as it was known that he was hopelesslyⒶalteration in the MS in debt for the past year's household expenses and hadⒶalteration in the MS only a hundred and thirty dollars in the world, the worst was feared—and but tooⒶemendation justly. Yesterday morning he called his family together, and confessed that he was tired of life; then bade them farewell, begging them to try to forgive him for what he was about to do, and went to New York to take a trip on an excursion steamer.
He leaves a wife and seven children. His thoughts were with them to the last; for his latest act was to invest all his little hoard of savings in a hundred thousanddollars' worthⒶtextual note of Travelers Accident tickets. His will sets apart $90,000Ⓐalteration in the MS for his family; the residue goes to the following objects:
| 6 first cousins, @ $25Ⓐemendation | $150.00Ⓐemendation |
| 3 uncles, @ $15 | 45.00Ⓐemendation |
| 2 aunts, @ $10 | 20.00Ⓐemendation |
| 1 brother and 1 half-brother,Ⓐemendation
@ $100 |
150.00Ⓐemendation |
| 1 gross distant relatives,Ⓐemendation
@ $1 per sample |
144.00 |
| Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Inhabitants of Lands Within the Open Polar Sea, When FoundⒶalteration in the MS |
22.00 |
| American Board of Commissioners for Foreign MissionsⒶemendation |
11.00 |
| National Sunday School UnionⒶemendation |
4.00 |
| Society for the Prevention of CatsⒶemendation |
465.00 |
| AmericanⒶalteration in the MS TractⒶalteration in the MS Society | 7.00 |
| Ladies' Union for Providing Aprons for the Female Residents of Dahomey |
359.00 |
| Fund for Providing Policy in Hereafter Fire Insurance Co. for Robert G. Ingersoll |
135.00 |
| Society for Extending the Suffrage to Non-resident Foreigners |
586.00 |
| Fund for Providing Flowers, Music, Tears, Lamentations, and the usual Religious Hurrah over Assassins about to ship for Abraham's Bosom from the Gallows |
748.00Ⓐemendation |
|
SocietyⒶalteration in the MS for the Discouraging of Profanity among Parrots |
116.00 |
| To print my work entitled “Reminiscences of my Career in the Military Service of the United StatesⒶemendation” |
3,000.00 |
| To print my medical pamphlet entitled “Advice to Persons About to be Struck by Lightning” |
1,700.00 |
| Prize for best Biography of Self |
|
| Funeral Expenses for Self | |
| Monument for Self |
Such are his bequests.
Very Truly Yours
Nathaniel E. Harrison.
P.S. He takes passage in the boat at 4 p.m. to-day. I am his chief executor. Are any formalities necessary?—or do I simply draw on you?
N. E. H.
The manuscript is copy-text. No ambiguous compound is hyphenated at the end of a line in the manuscript.