Dear Neil: I don't have the original publication date of Bromley's poem in the New York *Tribune,* but it was evidently published anonymously. Norris G. Osborn's biography of Bromley (*Isaac H. Bromley,* [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1920]) gives the story thus: "It was early attributed to Mark in spite of the solicitous insistence of Dana in the *Sun* that Bromley should not be deprived of its authorship. . . .It bothered Mark Twain also. He was in constant receipt of letters from admirers, who both expressed the delight they had taken in it and the desire to have an authenticated copy. He finally wrote Bromley in despair saying: 'The next time you write anything like that for God's sake sign your name to it.' " (20). (Osborn further theorizes that some of Bromley's friends thought the "misapplied credit" may have come about through Clemens's "oversight or forgetfulness" when he either failed to notice or to disclaim authorship of the poem at a Lotos Club dinner where excerpts from it were used as decorations.) The letter Osborn quotes is the only record of a letter to Bromley presently known to the Mark Twain Project, but Albert Bigelow Paine gives the story of the poem's inception (when Isaac Bromley and Noah Brooks were riding downtown on "the Fourth Avenue line" and Bromley noticed the information placard posted for passengers). Paine properly attributes the poem to Bromley (*Mark Twain: A Biography* 1:555-57), and tells the story of how Clemens's piece was written. I hope this is of some use. Yours sincerely, Victor Fischer Mark Twain Project