Research Query:


I'm currently completing my research for an essay, tentatively titled "Two
Views of Niagara: Doesticks and Mark Twain," in which I'm exploring
connections between Mortimer Thomson's (Doesticks) 1854 comic missive,
"Doesticks on a Bender" (some reprinted with the alternative title "Niagara
Falls: Doesticks on a Bender") published in 1854.  Mark Twain was familiar
with Doesticks and with this work, and as Fred Lorch noted in a 1949 note in
American Literature, Clemens, when he returned to St. Louis and set type for
the St. Louis Evening News in August of 1854, may have seen the six
Doesticks letters reprinted in the Evening News between October 5 and
November 29, 1854 (one of which may have "Doesticks on a Bender").

I am seeking to find possible microfilm for either the Saint Louis Daily
Evening News or Saint Louis Weekly Evening News for October-November 1854
period noted above. If anyone happens to know where I can find these
materials, please let me know.

Ed Piacentino

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