To Olivia L. Clemens
25 and 26 April 1873 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: Davis, UCCL 00908)

Home, P.M.

Livy [ D ] darling, ‸as Warner‸ says “‸The‸ child is born, & his name is Mary Jane!”1 Which is to say, that just as Eliza2 called me to dinner I put the last touch to the chapter where Phil strikes the coal mine——so [ we the ]book is really done,—all except the tedious work of correcting, dove-tailing & [revamping ]. A fearful load went off my mind with the discovery of that coal vein. Now I want you to ask the boys to find out from Fulton one thing—[to-wit: When ] one is after a coal vein in a tunnel, & that vein is well canted up, or stands perpendicular, does water always burst out when they strike into the vein (if below the water level, of course,) & is the bursting out of the water [ a ] SIGN that they’ve struck the main lead?3

It is always the case in silver mining.

The place is pretty lonely without you & the muggins—am sorry now that I let mother & Hattie go.4 I didn’t intend to, but I got to thinking of something else—as sometimes happens to me. I love you, my child.

The copyright has come. Also, propositions from a couple of publishers.5

Love to all, & mostly to you & Susie-su & old Sue6 & the rest.

Samℓ.

26th

Can’t write you a line today, honey—too busy. Hoped my telegram to say all well would catch you in N. Y. yesterday morning, but I am afraid Downey started down a [little ] late—wh was chiefly my fault. Got Elmira dispatch.7 Glad.

House comes Tuesday.8

I love you, honey.

Saml.

Mrs. Saml L. Clemens | Elmira | N. Y. [return address:] [if not delivered within 10 days, to] be returned to [postmarked:] hartford ct. apr [2 ]8 pm

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Clemens alluded to the story of a minister whose grandiose predictions of masculine achievement for a baby he was about to christen were momentarily upset when he learned, at the last moment, that the baby was a girl. Clemens evidently first heard the story from Warner, but by 1885, when it became one of his favorite pieces for oral delivery, he was crediting the version told by Bram Stoker (SLC 1890–99, 1–2; N&J3, 195, 268, 353, 357, 369; MTS 1910, 149–50).

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2 A Hartford servant, not further identified.

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3 The “boys” were Charles J. Langdon, Theodore Crane, and John D. F. Slee, partners in J. Langdon and Company, coal merchants (L4, 140 n. 2, 157). Fulton was evidently a company employee, otherwise unidentified. Clemens must have received the confirmation he sought, since the appearance of water remained the sign of Philip Sterling’s triumph in chapter 62, the penultimate chapter of The Gilded Age.

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4 Susy Clemens, Mrs. Langdon, and Harriet Lewis.

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5 For the copyright, see 21 Apr 73 to Spofford, n. 2. The “propositions” from publishers have not been identified, but one might have come from Isaac E. Sheldon (see 3 May 73 to Bliss, n. 1).

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6 Susy Clemens and Susan Crane.

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7 Clemens evidently telegraphed Olivia at the New York hotel (probably the St. Nicholas) where she stayed overnight before proceeding to Elmira. Her “Elmira dispatch” undoubtedly reported her safe arrival on 26 April.

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8 In 1890 Clemens recalled that Edward H. House, who had been living in Japan since 1870, “came with a couple of Japanese boys and stayed a few days in my house in Hartford. Charles Dudley Warner & I had just finished ‘The Gilded Age,’ & House read it in manuscript” (SLC 1890, 6; see also 17 May 73 to Warner, n. 2). House probably arrived as planned, on Tuesday, 29 April, and stayed until at least 1 May, when he wrote to Whitelaw Reid from Hartford that he was “with Mark Twain for a day or two, and enjoying myself” (Whitelaw Reid Papers, DLC).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, collection of Chester L. Davis, Jr.

Previous publication: L5, 354–356; Davis 1977, 3; Christie 1991, lot 89, excerpts.

Provenance:The MS, part of the Samossoud Collection in the late 1940s when it was transcribed by Dixon Wecter, was acquired between 1949 and 1962 by Chester L. Davis, Sr., from Clara Clemens Samossoud (see Samossoud Collection in Description of Provenance). After Davis’s death in 1987, the MS was owned by Chester L. Davis, Jr., who sold it through Christie’s in May 1991.

Emendations and textual notes:

D • [partly formed]

we the • w ‸th‸e

revamping • re-|vamping

to-wit: When • to-wit:—|When

a • a | a [corrected miswriting]

little • le itt‸le‸ le

if . . . to • [torn away; text adopted from envelope with 26 Apr 73 to OLC]

2 • 2[] [badly inked]