Rockefeller was permanent front-page news in 1905. Ida Tarbell and others were savaging Standard Oil in McClure’s month after month after month. Pulitzer was paying thousands of dollars for potential dirt on anybody and everybody in the Rockefeller family. - MS  

> On May 9, 2019, at 4:19 PM, Barbara Schmidt <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> One writing that might put this discussion into context is Mark Twain's "A
> Humane Word from Satan" -- a letter signed "Satan" published in _Harper's
> Weekly_, April 8, 1905 and later collected in _$30,000 Bequest and Other
> Stories_. Twain defends the action of John D. Rockefeller (of Standard Oil)
> before the tax board and writes:
> 
> There isn't a rich man in your vast city who doesn't perjure himself every
> year before the tax board. They are all caked with perjury, many layers
> thick. Iron-clad, so to speak. If there is one that isn't, I desire to
> acquire him for my museum, and will pay Dinosaur rates.
> - "A Humane Word from Satan"
> 
> I have never researched what was going on with Rockefeller in the
> newspapers during this time frame that made Twain pen the "Satan" letter in
> support of Rockefeller. But it might be of interest. Along this same line
> of thought -- the Henry H. Rogers (also of Standard Oil) financial records
> of  exactly how he wheeled and dealed for Twain (after the bankruptcy
> brought on by the Paige typesetter) have never been found and are believed
> to have been destroyed by Rogers or his family after Rogers's death.
> 
> Barb

***************
Matt Seybold
Assistant Professor of American Literature & Mark Twain Studies
Elmira College
Editor, MarkTwainStudies.org
MattSeybold.com