Robert Dagnall:

     It would be interesting to dig further into your friend's
claim about one of her ancestors having met Mark Twain and
disliking his spitting.  I'm always sceptical about such
stories, as they seem to be very common.

     A few months ago, for example, I published a letter in a
Canadian newspaper in which I expressed a desire to know about
records and memorabilia pertaining to MT's trip to that
particular city during one of his lecture tours.  One person
responded with a history of his family, the pride of which was
that one of his ancestors was the source for Twain's "Aunt
Polly" character.

     The ancestor's given name was Polly, and she'd married a
man named Clemens, who was reputed to have been a brother of
SLC.  The Polly/Clemens connection--though the names were
apparently true--was obviously nothing more than a
coincidence, and there were several other details about the
dates and family history (which I don't dare report here, in
case the fellow gets e-mail and searches the TWAIN-L
archives!) that didn't tally.

     I felt badly to have to reply by sending the person
several items (e.g., Clemens genealogy, part of MT's
autobiography, other possible sources for Aunt Polly) that IMO
demolished this part of his family history.  Needless to say,
I don't think he took me very seriously.

     I believe my partner in this research, Philip Allingham,
has received one or two similar letters in response to his
queries in local newspapers.

     It's quite an fascinating process, though, the way some
things in a person's family history can be lost forever, yet a
simple legend like this one can survive solely by word-of-
mouth through generations, without a single word being
preserved on paper.  However, I don't want to seem cynical
about it, and it would be interesting indeed if the legend
that your friend relates can be verified.

     Does anyone else have similar stories?

Best regards,
Taylor Roberts