Even the boy's name (Alfred Temple) could conceivably have been a derivation/permutation of the name "Bret Harte" - since Twain said that the only heart Bret had was his name, yet admitted in a roundabout way that he had a "head", he may have changed the surname "Harte" to "Temple" for that reason. - B. Clay Shannon From: Clay Shannon <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2016 6:41 AM Subject: Re: Was the St. Louis smarty Bret Harte? If any are unaware of the "necktie" connection, this is from http://www.old= magazinearticles.com/pdf/Twain%20-%20Harte.pdf: "...his necktie. Always it was of a single color, and intense. Most frequen= tly, perhaps, it was crimson--a flash of flame under his chin; or it was in= digo-blue, and as hot and vivid as if one of those splendid and luminous Br= azilian butterflies had lighted there."=C2=A0- B. Clay Shannon From: Clay Shannon <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2016 6:05 AM Subject: Was the St. Louis smarty Bret Harte? =20 I started re-reading Tom Sawyer (in Spanish) last night; I noticed somethin= =3D g for the first time: the way the new kid in town, the citified dandy (the = =3D "St. Louis smarty") makes me wonder if Bret Harte was Twain's mental image = =3D for this irritating adversary, particularly where he mentions his colorful = =3D tie: This boy was well dressed, too=3DE2=3D80=3D94well dressed on a week-day. Th= is was=3D simply astounding. His cap was a dainty thing, his close-buttoned blue clo= =3D th roundabout was new and natty, and so were his pantaloons. He had shoes o= =3D n=3DE2=3D80=3D94and it was only Friday. He even wore a necktie, a bright bi= t of r=3D ibbon. He had a citified air about him that ate into Tom=3DE2=3D80=3D99s vi= tals. Was this boy conjured up by a mental image of Bret Harteless?=3DC2=3DA0- B.= Cla=3D y Shannon =20