Steve Hoffman,

Is this the quote you are trying to find?

Adam and Noah were ancestors of mine. I never thought much of them. Adam lacked character. He couldn't be trusted with apples. Noah had an absurd idea that he could navigate without any knowledge of navigation, and he ran into the only shoal place on earth. 
- speech, November 9, 1901. Reported in The New York Times, November 10, 1901

Joe Alvarez
900 Havel Court
Charlotte, NC 28211-4253
Telephone: 704.364.2844
FAX: 704.364.9348

Sent from my iPad

> On Jun 30, 2016, at 1:19 PM, Steve Hoffman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> The opening paragraph of Charles Dickens' Life and 
> Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewhit opens with a 
> humorous paragraph which drily satirizes our 
> obsessions with family lineages .... noting that 
> the Chuzzlewhits deserve great respects for, after 
> all, they trace their lineage to Adam and Eve.
> 
> I am nearly 100% sure I once read Twain making a 
> similar remark .... it was in the context of 
> giving some truthful information about his parents 
> ancestors, the Clemens and/or the Lamptons, and he 
> threw in a boost along these lines (e.g that his 
> great-great-grandfather was a direct descendant of 
> Adam, or something along those lines).
> 
> So now it's bugging me that I can't recall the 
> reference, and when I attempt to  do 
> quick-and-dirty Google search, I just get lines 
> from Twain's Diary of Adam and Eve.
> 
> If any Forum members recall the passage, let me know.
> 
> Sincerely,
> Steve Hoffman, Takoma Park MD
> 
> p.s. For those who are curious, here's Dickens' 
> paragraph (prolix but still delightful -- I think 
> our man Twain would've have stopped after the 
> first sentence.
> 
>                    As no lady or gentleman, with
>                    any claims to polite breeding,
>                    can possibly sympathize with
>                    the Chuzzlewit Family without
>                    being firstassured of the
>                    extreme antiquity of the race,
>                    it is a great satisfaction to
>                    know that it undoubtedly
>                    descended in a direct line
>                    from Adam and Eve; and was, in
>                    the very earliest times,
>                    closely connected with the
>                    agricultural interest. If it
>                    should ever be urged by
>                    grudging and malicious
>                    persons, that a Chuzzlewit, in
>                    any period of the family
>                    history, displayed an
>                    overweening amount of family
>                    pride, surely the weakness
>                    will be considered not only
>                    pardonable but laudable, when
>                    the immense superiority of the
>                    house to the rest of mankind,
>                    in respect of this its ancient
>                    origin, is taken into account.