Further to the recent discussion on the origin of the "Nigger Jim" epithet: at first some of us thought it was from Paine, then Donna Campbell cited an earlier use in a 1904 review of _Pudd'nhead Wilson_. This afternoon I discovered a much earlier use of "Nigger Jim"--so early, in fact, that the ink on _Huckleberry Finn_ was still wet, so to speak. It appears in a review of the Twain-George Washington Cable performance in Ottawa on 17 February 1885, as part of their "Twins of Genius" tour. One of Twain's readings was the "King Sollermunn" section from chapter 8 of HF, concerning which the review says: In his Twain'sÙ dreamy, drawling fashion he tells his droll story of Huckleberry Finn. It was in the Mississippi valley. Huckleberry Finn and Nigger Jim ran away from the plantation and camped out. They talked about kings one night. . . . "Fun at the Opera House: 'Mark Twain' and Geo. W. Cable Entertain a Large Audience," Ottawa _Free Press_ 18 February 1885, p. 4 Why would the reporter have used this epithet? Is it possible that Twain used it when he introduced the piece? In contrast, when Twain introduced the same piece in Toronto two months earlier, he was directly quoted as having said: It HFÙ is a sort of continuation or sequel, if you please, to a former story of mine, "Tom Sawyer." Huck Finn is an outcast, an uneducated, ragged boy, son of the town drunkard in a Mississippi River village, and he is running away from the brutalities of his father, and with him is a negro man, Jim, who is fleeing from slavery. . . Toronto _Globe_ 9 December 1884, p. 2 Hmmm. It's well known that Twain had apparently planned to use the n-word as a title for this piece in the printed theatre programmes, until Cable wisely dissuaded him (see, e.g., Arlin Turner, _MT and George W. Cable_, p. 47). Is it possible that Twain used the epithet in both cities, and that the Toronto _Globe_ put into Twain's mouth instead "a negro man, Jim"? I don't know. But if Twain didn't use it, either the Ottawa reviewer originated the phrase, or picked it up from a yet earlier source. Regards, Taylor Roberts Univ. of British Columbia