Minoru Okabayashi wrote: > > Dr.Harold beaver ,the author of _Huck Finn_,introduces Twain's letter to > his mother from New York in 1853 to show his resentment to "the liberties > enjoyed in the North by blacks" as follows; "to wade through this mass of > human vermin,would raise the ire of the most patient person that ever > lived...I reckon I had better black my face,for in these Eastern states > niggers are considerably better than white people." But I cannot find any > latter part of passage of this letter in Mark Twain's Letter in any > editions. Can anyone inform me of the correct resource of this latter > passage begginig with "I reckon...white people"? Minoru Okabayashi 1) "I reckon ...white people" is in the 24 Aug. 1853 letter, reprinted in the 5 Sep 1853 Hannibal _Journal_, and is on pp. 3-5 of _Mark Twain's Letters, Vol 1, 1853-1866_, U. Cal. Press, 1988. The editors note, p. 6, "The attitude Clemens exhibits here--hardly unusual for a seventeen-year-old white Southerner on his first visit to the North--would change radically by 1861." 2) "To wade through the mass" is in the 31 Aug. letter, reprinted in the 10 Sep _Journal_, and is on pp.9-10. It may be more a complaint of dirty New York crowds of children than of the mass's ethnicity. Clemens was familiar with slavery; urban life, with its crowded poverty, was probably a new experience. 3) Also, is Harold Beaver the editor of an edition of _Adventures of Huck Finn_ or the author of a book about _Huck Finn_? larry marshburne