Thanks to Mary Leah Christmas for the info on Twain's recordings.  The
original post went through garbled but the essence of it was an effort to
clear up confusion related to a passage in Ayres _The Wit and Wisdom of
Mark Twain_ wherein Ayres quotes a passage and states "The recording still
exists, providing one of the few extant samples of Mark Twain's drawling
speech." (p. 228).  There is mention of recordings at Edison's studio in
Rasmussen's _A to Z_ that may have been destroyed in a fire.

Would be nice to know there actually are some recordings left.  Evidence
seems
to indicate otherwise.

Thanks again to Mary Leah.

Barb