Can anyone say whether they have ever seen the following "Mark Twain" story? This comes from the Troy, (N.Y.) Daily Press of Sept. 4, 1869: Highly Probable. -- Mark Twain tells the following story of Vanderbilt and John Morrissey: "The Commodore owed John forty cents. Morrissey went down to his office with a keg of powder and a match. He locked the door. He swallowed the key. He lit his match. His brow darkened. He said that both should never leave that room alive again unless one was a corpse. He lit another match. He placed it close to Vanderbilt's head. He said one or the other must sit down on the keg -- take your choice. Mr. V. is not easily frightened, but he saw he was in a close place. He paid the forty cents. Morrissey departed with his keg. Since that time both have been better friends to each other than both of them put together ever were before." Of course it is a burlesque of the story recently going the rounds of Vanderbilt and Garrison. That is the complete item. I'm not sure about the Vanderbilt-Garrison reference in the last sentence. It might refer to the commodore's famous letter to associates Charles Morgan and Cornelius Garrison: "Gentlemen: You have undertaken to cheat me. I will not sue you. for the law takes too long. I will ruin you. Yours truly, Cornelius Vanderbilt." But that letter was written circa 1854 and would not seem to qualify as a "story recently going the rounds" 15 years later. Morrissey grew up in Troy and the newspapers there were always interested in him. He was a champion boxer in the 1850s, ran gambling houses in New York City and Saratoga, served two terms in the House of Representatives and was twice elected to the New York State Senate. There is a reference to him in The Gilded Age: one character says of another, "...they say he has had a run of luck lately at Morrissey's." The reference required no explanation for contemporary readers and got none. I would appreciate any opinions about whether Twain had anything to do with this story. Or whether it was put in his mouth by the editor. Robert Monroe