I cannot permit "an" hospitable. Unless that *n *is removed, you must allow me to append a disclaimer in the form of a footnote. Please see that it is removed. One might as well say an horse or an whore.--SLC to Chatto and Windus, 22, 23, and 24 July 1897 (UCCL 08644). On Wed, Feb 13, 2019 at 1:30 PM Bob Gill <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Just wanted to say I'm really enjoying this discussion. For what it's > worth, > I see one detail from the sketch that might argue against Twain as the > author: his use of the phrase "an humble citizen." > > Somewhere among his writings he makes the point that the British use "an" > in > front of words like "humble" with what you might call a hard H (indicating > that at one time they dropped the H, Cockney-style), but Americans do not. > And just off the top of my head, I can't recall a case where he used "an" > that way. > > Of course, it's possible that a typesetter changed "a" to "an" -- or that > Twain actually did use "an" in some cases that I'm forgetting. But I > thought > I'd mention it anyway. > > -- Bob G. >