Dear Steve Jobe, I would like to recommend your taking a look at Susan Gillman's _Dark Twins: Imposture and Identity in Mark Twain's America_ (1989, U. of Chicago P.). Even if you don't agree with everything Gillman has to say in this New Historicist work, her bibliography is a great source of information on the history and social mores of the Gilded Age. Good luck on your search, Bonnie Lee Howard [log in to unmask]