Robert Dagnall: It would be interesting to dig further into your friend's claim about one of her ancestors having met Mark Twain and disliking his spitting. I'm always sceptical about such stories, as they seem to be very common. A few months ago, for example, I published a letter in a Canadian newspaper in which I expressed a desire to know about records and memorabilia pertaining to MT's trip to that particular city during one of his lecture tours. One person responded with a history of his family, the pride of which was that one of his ancestors was the source for Twain's "Aunt Polly" character. The ancestor's given name was Polly, and she'd married a man named Clemens, who was reputed to have been a brother of SLC. The Polly/Clemens connection--though the names were apparently true--was obviously nothing more than a coincidence, and there were several other details about the dates and family history (which I don't dare report here, in case the fellow gets e-mail and searches the TWAIN-L archives!) that didn't tally. I felt badly to have to reply by sending the person several items (e.g., Clemens genealogy, part of MT's autobiography, other possible sources for Aunt Polly) that IMO demolished this part of his family history. Needless to say, I don't think he took me very seriously. I believe my partner in this research, Philip Allingham, has received one or two similar letters in response to his queries in local newspapers. It's quite an fascinating process, though, the way some things in a person's family history can be lost forever, yet a simple legend like this one can survive solely by word-of- mouth through generations, without a single word being preserved on paper. However, I don't want to seem cynical about it, and it would be interesting indeed if the legend that your friend relates can be verified. Does anyone else have similar stories? Best regards, Taylor Roberts