Mark Twain's 1890 Christmas greetings to the citizens of the world read as
follows:

"It is my heart-warm and world-embracing Christmas hope and aspiration
that all of us--the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the admired,
the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage--may
eventually be gathered together in a heaven of loving feast and peace and
bliss--except the inventor of the telephone."

Given this message, I would give Sam some peace and quiet from his too
hectic life.  Just think how overloaded he would be in our day--with
electonic pagers, call-forwarding, cellular phones, telephone solicitors,
etc.!  He wouldn't get a moment of quiet.

Jim McWilliams
Dept. of English
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale IL 62901-4503
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