> > > Beds, chairs, tables, juke boxes, and a variety of objects surface > every > > > year with dubious claims about them being owned by Twain, none with > > > documentation or provenances that jibe with know historical facts. > > > > > > I tell you this in confidence. > > > > > > Kevin > > > @ > > > Mac Donnell Rare Books > > This reminds me of a remark I heard just recently when I attended an event at our local Historical Train Museum sponsored by our Sacramento Historical Society. There I met a former Reuter's reporter who also had worked for our Sacramento Union. (I'd thought for years that the Mark Twain bust they'd displayed in their lobby had disappeared, but recently I learned I was quite wrong. (I hate when that happens) It resides in a museum at UC Davis. ) Anyway, this former Union employee said that of course Mark Twain had never set foot in the Union building he knew, but they often would tell visitors interested in the Twain connection, pointing at an old desk, that it was the one he had used. I'm going to be giving a talk in May at our historical society meeting bragging that his Sacramento Union assignment to the Sandwich Islands launched him into his lecture career. -- Arianne Laidlaw A '58