I cannot permit "an" hospitable. Unless that *n *is removed, you must allow
me to append a disclaimer in the form of a footnote. Please see that it is
removed. One might as well say an horse or an whore.--SLC to Chatto and
Windus, 22, 23, and 24 July 1897 (UCCL 08644).

On Wed, Feb 13, 2019 at 1:30 PM Bob Gill <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Just wanted to say I'm really enjoying this discussion. For what it's
> worth,
> I see one detail from the sketch that might argue against Twain as the
> author: his use of the phrase "an humble citizen."
>
> Somewhere among his writings he makes the point that the British use "an"
> in
> front of words like "humble" with what you might call a hard H (indicating
> that at one time they dropped the H, Cockney-style), but Americans do not.
> And just off the top of my head, I can't recall a case where he used "an"
> that way.
>
> Of course, it's possible that a typesetter changed "a" to "an" -- or that
> Twain actually did use "an" in some cases that I'm forgetting. But I
> thought
> I'd mention it anyway.
>
> -- Bob G.
>