Darryl, There is a passage in the Kaplan biography about Twain dancing in Hartford with a gathering of Howells, Aldrich, and their wives in 1874. Here is a bit I wrote on it recently: The night made a clear impact on Howells and Mrs. Aldrich, both of whom included it in their memoirs. For Aldrich, the night was still as clear as if those present “lived still sentient with life and happiness.” The group planned to drink wassail at midnight, but finding they were out of ale, Twain donned “his historic sealskin coat and cap” and ventured into the night. Aldrich writes: “In an incredibly short time he reappeared, excited and hilarious, with his rapid walk in the frosty air—very wet shoes, and no cap.” Justin Kaplan, in his biography, speculates that Twain had sampled the whiskey at a saloon and returned “excited, hilarious, distinctly over-heated.”[1] <#_ftn1> After sending the butler to search for the cap and changing into cow-skin slippers, with the fur on the outside, Mark Twain performed what Kaplan calls “a crowning act of confident alienation from his guests”: he danced. In Howells’s recollection, Twain, shorn in fur shoes, danced “a crippled colored uncle to the joy of all beholders. Or, I must not say all, for I remember also the dismay of Mrs. Clemens, and her low, despairing cry of, "Oh, Youth!"”[1] <#_ftn1> Mrs. Aldrich remembered the same slippers and the same dance: …with most sober and smileless face, he twisted his angular body into all the strange contortions known to the dancing darkies of the South. In this wise the last day of the joyous, jubilant visit came to the close. Untroubled by the flight of time I still can hear a soft and gentle tone, “Youth, O Youth!” for so she always called him.[2] <#_ftn2> ------------------------------ [1] <#_ftnref> Kaplan, 174. As a side note: Kaplan writes that Mark Twain sang several spirituals this evening, but it is unclear from the sources he cites if this is true. Does anyone have ideas on this? ------------------------------ [1] <#_ftnref> My Mark Twain, end of section 1. [2] <#_ftnref> Mrs. Aldrich, 160. I don't know if this is your story, but it is an instance of Twain's dancing. Best, Tracy Wuster On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 3:06 PM, Darryl Brock <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > I'm trying to find a description I once read of Twain dancing, lost in > the music and in his movements, oblivious of others but certainly > attracting their attention. I think it occurred out west during during > his mining/journalism years. Does this ring a bell with anybody? >