To Orion and Mary E. (Mollie) Clemens
28 September 1864 • San Francisco, Calif.
(MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00088)

“Call Office”1
San F. 28th

My Dear Bro & Sister.

I guess my letter was not under way so long—I never date a letter right.2

I would commence on my book, but (mind, this is a secret, & must not be mentioned,) Steve & I are getting things ready for his wedding, which will take place on the 24th Oct. He will marry Miss Emmelina Russ, who is worth $100,000, & what is much better, is a good, sensible girl & will make an excellent wife. Of course I shall “stand up” with Steve, at the nuptials, as chief mourner. [ ‸We shall take a bridal tour of a week’s duration.‸ 3 ]

Your head

Your head is eminently sound on the subject of marriage. I am resolved on that or suicide—perhaps.

I only get $12 an article for the Californian, but you see it makes my wages up to what they were on the Call, ‸when I worked at night,‸ & the paper is has an exalted reputation in the east, & is liberally copied from by papers like the Home Journal.4

Orion, the H & N assessment is not due ‸delinquent‸ until the 1st Nov, & I may be able to pay all of it myself. In the meantime I will hold on to the check, & if you should need it, let me know.5

Well Mollie I do go to church. How’s that?

As soon as this wedding business is over, I believe I will send to you for the files, & begin on my book.6

Yr Bro

Sam

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 The offices of the San Francisco Morning Call were in “a new brick building at 612 Commercial Street” (CofC, 12).

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2 Possibly a reference, perhaps in jest, to the letter of 13 and 14 August to Orion and Mollie which Clemens had misdated by one day. This remark may indicate, however, that he sent them another letter, now lost, subsequent to that one.

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3 Emeline Russ was the daughter of Emanuel Charles Christian Russ (1795–1857), a manufacturing jeweler who became “the most extensive owner of real property in San Francisco” (Swasey, 233). His son Adolph (b. 1826) built the Russ House, a luxurious hotel on Montgomery Street completed in 1862. Emeline Russ did not marry Steve Gillis; on 28 December 1867 she married Frederick Gutzkow, superintendent of the San Francisco Assaying and Refining Works (Swasey, 229; Bancroft 1891–92, 6:533–40; Langley 1867, 226; “Married,” San Francisco Morning Call, 31 Dec 67, 3). Gillis, according to his brother William, married “Miss Kate Robinson, a niece of Mrs. J. T. Goodman, in December, 1867. After his marriage he took up his residence in San Francisco, working at the case there until 1871” (William R. Gillis, 34). He then returned with his wife to Virginia City.

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4 The New York Home Journal, a literary weekly that had begun publication in 1846 (Mott 1938, 2:349–55).

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5 Clemens had recently criticized the Hale and Norcross company’s assessment practices (see 13 and 14 Aug 64 to OC and MEC, n. 5). On 21 September 1864, the following notice had appeared in the San Francisco Alta California (4):

Hale and Norcross Silver Mining Company, Virginia District, Nevada Territory.—Notice is hereby given, that at a meeting of the Board of Trustees of said Company, held on the 13th day of September, 1864, an assessment of $25 per share was levied upon the capital stock of said Company, payable forthwith, in United States gold coin, to the Secretary, at his office, No. 60 Exchange Building. Any stock upon which said assessment shall remain unpaid on SATURDAY, the 15th day of October, 1864, will be advertised on that day as delinquent, and unless payment shall be made before, will be sold on Tuesday, the 1st day of November, 1864, to pay the delinquent assessment, together with costs of advertising and expenses of the sale. By order of the Board of Trustees.

JOEL F. LIGHTNER, Sec’y.

Office, No. 60 Exchange Building, San Francisco.

Four shares that Clemens had put in Orion’s name (stock certificate number 484) were among those advertised as delinquent in the Alta California during the second half of October. The total assessment of $100 on these shares was paid, however, apparently by Clemens, on 21 October (receipted bill in CU-MARK).

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6 An early plan for a book along the lines of Roughing It. The “files” were the clippings from Nevada newspapers, including Territorial Enterprise articles by Clemens, which Orion had been pasting in scrapbooks since his arrival in the territory. Six scrapbooks, covering the period 1861–64, survive in the Mark Twain Papers (CU-MARK).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).

Previous publication: L1, 315–316.

Provenance:probably Moffett Collection; see p. 462.

Emendations and textual notes:

‸We shall take a bridal . . . duration.‸ [¶] Your head • [‘ke a bridal’ over ‘Your head’]