(January 1901)
This “translation” (the title is Paine's) may well have been the germ of “Eddypus.” The second paragraph reads almost like a prospectus: the “flood of history” prompted by the end of a century is to be condensed into “a bare sketch,” “a mere synopsis.” The idea that the sketch is to be the work of some benighted scribe of a new Dark Age is implicit in the reference to the “destruction of historical records which occurred during the long and bloody struggle which released us from the cruel grip of democracy.”
Paine dated the piece 1900. It is quite likely that Mark Twain wrote it only a short time before “Eddypus,” which he began in February 1901. Internal evidence tends to support the later date. During the last days of December 1899 the pages of the New York Herald were enlivened by a debate over whether the nineteenth century would end on 31 December 1899 or 31 December 1900. “History 1,000 Years from Now” refers to an identical controversy “a couple of years ago . . . as to whether the dying century closed with the 31st of December 2899, or whether it would close with the last day of last year.” In the time scheme of the narrative, then, “the last day of last year” would be the end of December 2900 and the imagined date of the work's composition some time in 2901. If, as the implied reference to the newspaper debate seems to indicate, the narrative's time scheme is an extrapolation from the actual time of composition, Mark Twain must have written the work after December 1900.
The completion of the twenty-ninth century has had at least one effect which was no doubtⒶalteration in the MS common to the completion of all the centuries which have preceded it: it has suddenly concentrated the thoughts of the whole thinking and dreaming world upon the past. To-day no subject but the one—the past—can get much attention. We began, a couple ofⒶalteration in the MS years ago, with a quarrel as to whether the dying century closed with the 31st of December 2899Ⓐemendation,Ⓐalteration in the MS Ⓐtextual note or whether it would close with the last day of last year, and it took the entire world the best part of a year to settle it; then the past was taken hold of with interest, and that interest has increased in strength and in fascination ever since. To-day men are reading histories who never cared for them before, and men are writing them who had found no call to work such veins previously. Every day brings forth a new history—or shall we say a dozen new ones? Indeed we are floundering in a flood of history.
It will be difficult to condense these narratives into a sketch, but the effort is worthwhile; at least it seems so to the present writer. This sketch must be drawn, fact by fact, trifle by trifle, from the great general mass, therefore it will not be possible to quote the authorities, the number of names and books would be too great for that. And we must make a bare sketch answer, we cannot expand much; we must content ourselves with a mere synopsis.
[begin page 388]It is now a thousand years since the happy accident—or series of accidents—occurred which after many years rescued our nation from democracy and gave it the blessed refuge and shelter of a crown. We say a thousand years, and it was in effect that, though the histories are not agreed as to the dates. Some of them place the initial events at nine centuries ago, some at ten, others at eleven. As to the events themselves, however, there is lessⒶalteration in the MS disagreement.
It is conceded that the first of these incidents was the seizureⒶemendation, by the government in power at the time, of the group of islands nowⒶalteration in the MS called the Vashington Archipelago. Vashington—some say George, some say Archibald—was the reigning President, hence the name. What the group was called before is not now known with certainty, but there is a tradition that our vast Empire was not always called Filipino, and there are those who believe that this was once the name of that archipelago, and that our forefathers adopted it in celebration of the conquest, and out of pride in it. The universal destruction of historical records which occurred during the long and bloody struggle which released us from the cruel grip of democracy makes our history guess-work mainly—alas that it should be so!—still, enough of apparently trustworthy information has survived to enable us to properly estimate the grandeurⒶalteration in the MS of that conquest and to sketch the principal details of it with a close approach to exactness.
It appears, then, that somewhere about a thousand years ago the Filipino group—if we may use the legendary name—had a population of 260,000,000—Hawkshaw places it at more than this, as does also Dawes—a population higher in civilization and in the arts of war and manufacture than any other in existence.Ⓐemendation Ⓐalteration in the MS
The manuscript is copy-text; no ambiguous compound is hyphenated at the end of a line in the manuscript.