Dear Richard and Twain Travelers,

Thank you for your generous and thorough delineation of SF Twain
connections.  I had written half tongue in cheek -- both tongues and both
cheeks -- but I've been pleasantly surprised at the blossoming of
possibilities as a result.  Dennis Kelley can share some further
developments when those are ripe.  I had known about the Mark Twain Hotel
but had forgotten about the saloon.  The fact that actual buildings no
longer exist has never stopped those who master-mind shrines and tourist
sites, so we may yet.  A plaque could easily be put up informing flaneurs,
"This was the site of The Occidental where Mark Twain once put a pistol to
his head but couldn't go through with suicide.  He wasn't ashamed of
trying, but as so often happened to his endeavors during this time, he did
fail."  And, by chance, the other day David Kipen published an article on
Twain and San Francisco -- a remarkably intelligent and interesting one --
in the San Francisco Chronicle.  So, Hannibal may be the Vatican, but SF
may at least become a mini-cathedral.  Let us pray.

Thanks,

Hilton Obenzinger
Stanford University