I think the "white woman" thing was just Twain's way of making a joke.
Tim Champlin
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ben Wise" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 7:22 PM
Subject: Re: MT & Dickens (& Christmas)


>I figure "white" just goes along with "highly respectable" in the 
>convention=
> al rhetorical litany of attributes accorded a woman one is proud to have 
> in o=
> ne's company, at that declarative time  But...who WAS that white woman?
>
> Ben
>
>
>
> On Nov 30, 2011, at 6:02 PM, Harold Bush <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> folks, deep into the Christmas tales of Dickens this week and next; 
>> though=
> t
>> I'd treat myself to another look and see how the students like (or 
>> dislike=
> )
>> them.
>> Here's just a few rambling questions, in case any of you are in a holiday
>> mood and feel like chatting:
>>=20
>> I wonder how MT thought of Dickens as a novelist?  I don't have a copy of
>> Alan's book handy (sure wish the new edition of MT'sL would appear, are 
>> yo=
> u
>> listening Prof. Gribben?).
>>=20
>> I wonder what he might have thought of those old Christmas tales -- and
>> also, when or if MT ever really wrote much about Christmas, or used it 
>> muc=
> h
>> as a setting?
>>=20
>> I also was interested in this little review MT wrote of his visit to hear
>> CD read, in NYC, 1868:
>>=20
>> "He read David Copperfield. He is a bad reader, in one sense -- because 
>> he=
>
>> does not enunciate his words sharply and distinctly -- he does not cut 
>> the=
>
>> syllables cleanly, and therefore many and many of them fell dead before
>> they reached our part of the house. [I say "our" because I am proud to
>> observe that there was a beautiful young lady with me -- a highly
>> respectable young white woman.]"
>>=20
>> (from a nice website:  charlesdickenspage.com/twain_on_dickens.html;  is
>> this published in a recent edition somewhere?  not really sure about that 
>> .=
>
>> . . .)
>>=20
>> For most of the 60s, evidently, CD read those Christmas tales in public
>> readings.  But the thing that really caught my eye:  why did he call her 
>> a=
>
>> "white" woman?  I don't really get the reason for emphasizing that -- as 
>> i=
> f
>> he would be with an African American?  or am I just missing something 
>> with=
>
>> that?
>>=20
>> Anyway;  if anyone has something to say about MT and Christmas, or CD, 
>> I'm=
>
>> interested!
>>=20
>>=20
>> thanks, --Hal B.
>>=20
>>=20
>>=20
>>=20
>> --=20
>> Harold K. Bush, Ph.D
>> Professor of English
>> Saint Louis University
>> St. Louis, MO  63108
>> 314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h)
>> <www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>