TWAIN-L Archives

Mark Twain Forum

TWAIN-L@YORKU.CA

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Condense Mail Headers

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

Print Reply
Mime-Version:
1.0
Sender:
Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:
From:
DenseKelly <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 10 Mar 1998 21:43:52 EST
Content-transfer-encoding:
7bit
Content-type:
text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Reply-To:
Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (15 lines)
The bar-tab story for the derivation of the name always sounded a little
forced. I have never heard such score-keeping terminology in any other account
of mid-nineteenth century bars. (Among my forebears are the proprietors of the
Kelley & Goodman saloon in Plentywood, Montana.) But I am no expert.

By 1876, when Twain wrote to a friend in San Francisco ( and the letter made
the  newspapers in SF and Virginia City) to give the riverboat story, he was
already accepted in the east. His father-in-law was already dead and he seemed
likely to stay put in the family. I am not sure who he was supposed to be
fooling by hiding a reputation for bachelor dissipation in the west.

What is the authority for the bar version?

Dennis Kelly

ATOM RSS1 RSS2