[log in to unmask] wrote: >=20 > In trying to track down the genesis of the story of the practical joke = Nikola > Tesla supposedly played on Mark Twain as related in Margaret Cheney's > _Tesla: Man Out of Time_, Prentice Hall, 1981 -- the Chauncey McGovern > article in Pearson's magazine of May 1899 makes no mention of the incid= ent. > Neither do the three letters held by the Library of Congress that were = also > referenced. >=20 > However, one interesting letter does appear in the May 2, 1907 New York > Times on the editorial page. It is unrelated to any earlier meetings b= etween > Twain and Tesla, but mentions a "beef contract" story written by Twain. > Written by Tesla - it reads in part: >=20 > "I have not been discourged by the refusal of our Government to adopt m= y > wireless system six years ago, when I offered it, nor by the unpleasant > prospect of my passing through the experiences described by Mark Twain = in > his story of the beef contract..." >=20 > What beef contract? What beef contract story that may have been relat= ed to > Tesla? > =FF > BarbThere is a short story titled "The Facts in the Great Beef Contract= "=20 which is printed in several of his essays and short story books. =20 Somewhat lenghty to read, it is also on audio tape put out by Commuters=20 Library. Respectfully, David Glick