Dear Neil:

I don't have the original publication date of Bromley's poem in
the New York *Tribune,* but it was evidently published
anonymously. Norris G. Osborn's biography of Bromley
(*Isaac H. Bromley,* [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1920]) gives the
story thus:

"It was early attributed to Mark in spite of the solicitous insistence of
Dana in the *Sun* that Bromley should not be deprived of its authorship.
. . .It bothered Mark Twain also. He was in constant receipt of letters
from admirers, who both expressed the delight they had taken in it and
the desire to have an authenticated copy. He finally wrote Bromley in
despair saying: 'The next time you write anything like that for God's
sake sign your name to it.' " (20). (Osborn further theorizes that some
of Bromley's friends thought the "misapplied credit" may have come
about through Clemens's "oversight or forgetfulness" when he either
failed to notice or to disclaim authorship of the poem at a Lotos Club
dinner where excerpts from it were used as decorations.)

The letter Osborn quotes is the only record of a letter to Bromley presently
known to the Mark Twain Project, but Albert Bigelow Paine gives the
story of the poem's inception (when Isaac Bromley and Noah Brooks were
riding
downtown on "the Fourth Avenue line" and Bromley noticed the information
placard posted for passengers). Paine properly attributes the poem to
Bromley (*Mark Twain: A Biography* 1:555-57), and tells the story of how
Clemens's piece was written.

I hope this is of some use.

Yours sincerely,

Victor Fischer
Mark Twain Project