Barb and Scott, here's a transcription of both letters. Little wonky
because I had to convert from WordPerfect to Word. But the substance is
accurate and I think clear.
*To Olivia L. Clemens*
*7 February 1885 **$** en route from Lafayette*
*to Indianapolis, Ind.*
(MS: CU-MARK, *UCCL *03156in,
On the train,
Feb. 7, 1885
Although I slept an hour or two on the train yesterday morning, & 3 hours
in the afternoon, I still wasn=t much refreshed, on account of having
gotten up so early; so nothing but my black coffee at 7 pm enabled me to
put the evening through creditably. *It* makes me cheerful, & easy, &
confidential & conversational with the audience; & that is all that is
necessary to success. But it cannot protect me against those curious &
disastrous lapses of memory which come of over-fatigue. I had some of
these, last night, but did not mind themCeasily covered them up. But not
so, the night before. I got lost in the last third of AA Trying Situation@C
couldn=t find my place again, & so concluded with a speech explaining the
dilemma, & the speech was a rattling, not to say an electrical, success.
At 11 last night I had been without food (barring my cup of black coffee,)
for 24 hoursC consequently my health & stomach were in perfect condition
again. Maurice Thompson the poet (ASongs of Fair Weather@ & the ANightingale
@) came in at 10.30, & of course I was exceedingly glad to see him; but he
stayed staid till midnight, & I didn=t like that very well, since we were
to rise at 7 this morning.
Mamma, I wrote to Susie the other day to ask if the Toronto people had
returned Patrick a bearskin cape. Haven=t received an answer, yet.
Therefore, you better write me now, to Toronto, (Rossin House,) or
telegraph me the night of the 11th to Russell House, Detroit, concerning
the matter.
Just two was weeks more, & I shall see you at home at half past 3 on a
Sunday morning Feb. 22! Good-bye sweetheart, I do love you.
SSaml
*É*
* To Olivia L. Clemens*
*8 February 1885 **$** Indianapolis, Ind.*
(MS: CU-MARK, *UCCL *03158)
Indianapolis, Feb. 8'85.
*No*, Livy darling, don=t pay for the Artistic Homes, but just drop D.
Appleton & Co a line, saying:
AYour bill for Artistic Homes is received, & will receive Mr. Clemens=s
attention when he returns, March 1st.@
If they are not satisfied with that, answer no letters of theirs, & pay no
attention to them in any way.
════
I have learned my trade at last. I know how to read my stuff. At last I can
stand on a platform & do the thing right. I did make =em shout last night.
The blue-jays & the other stuff went booming; & I told about Tom Quartz
(Baker=s Cat) for an encore. It is Cable=s fault that I have done inferior
reading all this time. He has hogged so much of the platform-time that I
have always felt obliged to hurry along at lightning speed in order to keep
the performance within bounds; but now I take my own time, & give 25
minutes to pieces which formerly occupied but 15.
If this show were new, I would cut a third of him out of the program. But
it isn=t worth while, now.
I am paying Cable $450 a week & expenses. He isn=t worth a penny over $200.
He is not a novelty anywhere. He has apparently been in every town in the
country just about twice; & that is as long often as he is wanted.
Especially as he offers his same old stuff all the timeCdoesn=t prepare
himself with untried matter. He is expecting to continue on the program ne
platform next winter. He will find a sickly way of making a living. When I
am advertised for a new program, it is *all* newC& his is all oldCstuff
which he has exploited in that tow town once or twice before.
════
Last night I wished I was in front of an English audienceCit would have
been good to see.
════
Goodbye, my darling, kiss those rascals for meCfor I love you all.
SSaml
On Tue, Aug 8, 2023 at 6:25 PM Barbara Schmidt <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Scott -- as to that Feb. 7 entry in DBD -- that could be based on a
> misdated letter. It would be necessary to read those two separate letters
> side-by-side that SLC wrote to Olivia that are catalogued online as Feb. 6
> and Feb 7 and see if they are referring to only one train trip. Perhaps
> one letter was a draft and revised or just sent along with another. You are
> right that taking secondary sources literally is hazardous.
>
> Barb
>
> On Tue, Aug 8, 2023 at 6:47 PM Scott Holmes <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> > Your point is well taken. I have been unable to locate an on-line copy
> > of any Lafayette paper for that date. I was actually trying to find
> > train schedules, such as I found for the Fort Wayne departure. My
> > reference to Scharnhorst was not about the interview but about his
> > paragraph in "The Middle Years" page 446. One needs to be careful about
> > all secondary sources, however. This particular entry has them
> > departing Fort Wayne before 6am, the Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, February
> > 6, 1885 has the train departing at 6:30 am. I'm still bothered by the
> > DBD entry for February 7th - why would he need to take a train to
> > Indianapolis at 7am if he was already in Indianapolis. This would make
> > more sense if he actually woke up in Lafayette that morning.As an
> > asideregarding the interview, I enjoyed Twain's description of the canal
> > and its comparison with Venice.
> >
> > On 8/8/23 15:30, Barbara Schmidt wrote:
> > > Scott -- a couple of things to consider -- the two letters catalogued
> by
> > > MTP described as from Lafayette or en route from Lafayette may have
> been
> > > written on the same date or several hours apart but misdated or mailed
> > > separately. I have found no convincing evidence that Clemens and Cable
> > > lectured in Lafayette. They may have and the news accounts of it just
> > have
> > > not surfaced.
> > >
> > > Yes, there is that interview in Scharnhorst (#37) from the Lafayette
> > > COURIER newspaper. Footnote 1 indicates a paragraph has been omitted
> > > because it appeared in an earlier interview. The question that arises
> for
> > > me — Was this an authentic interview or a reporter’s spoof or hoax with
> > > Clemens quoting poetry, drinking beer, and commenting on the mayor and
> > tax
> > > issues in Lafayette? To nail down whether the Lafayette interview is
> > > authentic and if Clemens and Cable did lecture there, it would help to
> > take
> > > a look at issues of that paper for the week before and after the
> > interview
> > > was published to see if any lectures were advertised or reported.
> > >
> > > Barb
> > >
> > > On Tue, Aug 8, 2023 at 10:31 AM Scott Holmes<[log in to unmask]>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > >> While tracking the trains between Fort Wayne, Lafayette, and
> > >> Indianapolis, I became confused over the Day By Day entries for
> > >> February 6 and 7. It appears that both "Chronology of Known Mark
> Twain
> > >> Speeches,..." and "Touring with Cable and Huck" missed the Lafayette
> > >> Lecture on February 6th of 1885. Gary Scharnhorst did not. What
> caused
> > >> me to stumble was the February 6th DBD entry that goes on to describe
> > >> the February 7th lecture in Indianapolis and then the February 7th
> entry
> > >> that notes Sam had to get up a 7am to take the train to Indianapolis.
> > >> Why would he need to do that if he was already in Indianapolis?
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> /Unaffiliated Geographer and Twain aficionado/
> > >>
> > --
> > /Unaffiliated Geographer and Twain aficionado/
> >
>
|
