TWAIN-L Archives

Mark Twain Forum

TWAIN-L@YORKU.CA

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Scott Holmes <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 16 Feb 2015 19:19:11 -0800
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (66 lines)
I am still working my way through Levy's book as well and I did read
this section.  Strictly supposition but I can't see Cable becoming a
louse just because he received the greater attention in the press. Twain
did display jealous reactions; decreasing Cable's show time, scheduling
him to the assembling of the house at the beginning of the show. This
occurred earlier in the tour.  It is also not until February that
Cardwell mentions JB Pond's observation that the servants at Everett
House hated Cable.

I think what was really going on was a couple of guys that didn't fit
too well together, forced to spend too much time in each others
company, both with well fed egos, both with habits that annoyed the
other.  Neither shared compatible diversions. I can't speak to the
scholarship of either author, Cardwell or Levy, so I don't know who
might have the better insight.  Both are guilty of the "Twins of
Genius" error and I have to admit I'm still bothered by Levy's
"promotion" of the pilots to the rank of captain - even if the original
promotion appears to have come from Life magazine. (otherwise I find it
an admirable book that I can't recommend too often).

Speaking for myself, though, if I had experienced the raw selfish
stupidity of the "Innocent Pilgrims" and their treatment of their
animals purely for the sake of not traveling on the Sabbath, I would
hold a life long grudge against those insisting on keeping the Sabbath
at the expense of all others.  In Twain's case with Cable, another
annoyance.  Cable was not torturing animals to keep his Sabbath.
 
On Mon, 2015-02-16 at 18:42 -0600, Kevin Mac Donnell wrote:
> For some fresh insights into the rift between Twain and Cable during their 
> tour see the sections of Andrew Levy s book HUCK FINN'S AMERICA that deal 
> with it (pp. 108-151). Too much to go into detail here, but it might have 
> more to do with Twain s jealousy over more attention being paid to Cable and 
> Cable s brave stance in his famous Freedman s Case in Equity essay that was 
> published in the Century Magazine in the same issue as one of the three 
> pre-publication chapters from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
> 
> Kevin
> @
> Mac Donnell Rare Books
> 9307 Glenlake Drive
> Austin TX 78730
> 512-345-4139
> Member: ABAA, ILAB
> *************************
> You may browse our books at:
> www.macdonnellrarebooks.com
> 
> 
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: Scott Holmes
> Sent: Monday, February 16, 2015 6:04 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Keeping the Sabbath: Cable and the Pilgrims
> 
> I've recently been taking notes from Cardwell's "Twins of Genius",
> particularly in regards to the deteriorating relationship between Twain
> and Cable.  Twain knew from the outset that Cable would not travel on
> the Sabbath but it was not until the final week or two of the tour that
> Cable became the "pitifulest human louse" he had ever known.  Cardwell
> describes several other traits that combined to end the tour but I
> wonder if Twain's memory of the inhuman treatment visited upon the
> horses by the Sabbath keeping Pilgrims in Palestine didn't color his
> opinions.
> 
> Just a thought. 

ATOM RSS1 RSS2