Alvin, I found some evidence that Mark Twain did, in fact, know Bierce in San Francisco in 1865. But judge for yourself how well; I quote a section from SLC's Autobiographical Dictation of June 13, 1906 concerning his San Francisco days on the "Morning Call": "...I spent a good deal of time with Bret Harte in his office after Smiggy McGlural came, but not before that. Harte was doing a good deal of writing for the CALIFORNIAN - contributing "Condensed Novels" and sketches to it and also acting as editor, I think. I was a contributor. So was Charles H. Webb; also Prentiss Mulford; also a young lawyer named Hastings, who gave promise of distinguishing himself in literature some day. Charles Warren Stoddard was a contributor. Ambrose Bierce, who is still writing acceptably for the magazines today, was then employed on some paper in San Francisco - THE GOLDEN ERA, perhaps. We had very good times together - very social and pleasant times. But that was after Smiggy McGlural came to my assistance; there was no leisure before that..." (See: _Mark Twain in Eruption_, 261-262) There is another brief reference to Bierce in A.B. Paine's _Mark Twain's Autobiography_, Volume 1, pg. 154. This reference (probably written by Clemens in 1898) indicates that Bierce was part of the "young literary" group that worked on the GOLDEN ERA. Paul Berkowitz