There is an entry in Day By Day that has left me a bit befuddled. It 
seems in contrast to his comments on, among other things, Labor Unions 
and Civil Rights. This from July 13, 1888, in a letter that Fears notes 
was not finished until October 31^st .

/The thing called American humor is misnamed; it has no patent, it is 
not peculiar, it is mere human humor, with the pressure lifted off, its 
chains broken, its spirit set free. Only once, in the world’s history, 
have we seen a nation enjoying these several things all at the same 
time: a bright sky, a general freedom from the depressing bread-and-meat 
cares of life, and every man entitled to hold his head as high as his 
neighbor’s. The result is the only example in history of human humor not 
in a state of arrested development /[MTP].

Was he really of the opinion that there were no “depressing bread a meat 
cares of life, and every man entitled to hold his head as high as his 
neighbor’s”? I’m aware that one must not look for consistency in the 
opinions of Mark Twain, but really...

-- 
/Unaffiliated Geographer and Twain aficionado/