Mark Twain Project :: Letters :: : an electronic text

To Unidentified
7 April 1873 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: MA, UCCL 00897)

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Hartford, Apl. 1 7/73.

Dr. Sir:

Enclosed is page 15 of the my first effort in the lecture field, if you desire it. Subject, “Sandwich Islands”—delivered in San Francisco Oct. 2, 1866, & 150 times since—& altered a little from time to time, as the MS. betrays.1

Ys Truly

Samℓ. L. Clemens
Mark Twain.

[enclosure:] 2

[ but he will be scorched hereafter, for all that. If the Bishop saves Harris alone, his mission will be a gorgeous success. ] 3 [ * ] The Bishop’s church has other members [ besides these, ] of course, & is making some progress, but [ is it ] is not doing what [ we might ‸be‸ ‸the vulgar‸ term‸ ed ‸ ] a land office business, by any means. [ ‸Officers & men British ships won’t go.‸ ] [ ‸But to return to Bish cch.‸ ]

The Episcopalians [scowl ]upon the Bishop’s [ ‸nondescript‸ ]Church [ ‸& officers British ships‸ ]—the Puritans scowl upon it—& the Catholics, with whom he wd fraternise, flout it. [ It is the wildest of all wildcat religions, ] [ ‸In Cali phraseology it is wildcat— These things compel us to conclude that the Bish religion is wild‸ ] & if there is any of the pay rock of saving grace in its main lead, they haven’t struck it yet in the lower level.

In that genuine good-

[on the back in pencil:]

[ ‸Harris is not popular.‸ ]

The former Min Finance—I think he [was—was a S & ] Mr. Wyllie—was a Scotsman & able & highly respected—had passion for writing statistics4 —old Moffett5 another Scotsman down on him—dream—

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Clemens relied on this method of dealing with autograph seekers at least three times in April (see the next two letters). The manuscript of the 1866 Sandwich Islands lecture that Albert Bigelow Paine had in 1910 was surely not complete, but it probably included both a fair copy of about forty pages (half its original length) and several shorter sequences of five and ten pages, each of which was clearly written earlier than the fair copy. On the assumption that virtually all of what Paine had is now in the Mark Twain Papers (SLC 1866), it is likely that the sequence of pages from which this page “15” came was already lost in 1910, not because Clemens “tore it up” (as he told Frank Fuller in 1894), but because he had given it away to autograph seekers (1 Feb 94 to Fuller, CtY-BR MTB, 3:1601–3; MTS 1923, 7–20).

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2 The enclosure was written almost entirely in black ink (now faded to brown), with most of its revisions and all of the final paragraph in pencil. These revisions, the use of nonstandard abbreviations (“Bish,” “cch.,” “Cali”), and the elliptical sentence structure of this passage all combine with the evidence of ink and paper to show that this page belonged to an early draft of the lecture, not very far removed from the raw working notes on which it was obviously based:

Bishop Staley ‸of the Epis cch‸ importation

King belong to his church

(So everybody says ‸other Mish boys—strong
Am. feeling.‸

Harris belongs ‸ the experiment.‸—scorch for all

that.

Church has other members—some progress.

Episcopalions scowl upon it

These things force the conclusion that

Bishop’s religion is wildcat!—& if there is any

pay rock

In that genuine good-fellowship

PAUSE.

White folks excellent—happy

Longing go home—gen affluent

not bad (SLC 1866)

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3 Thomas Nettleship Staley (1823–98) was an Anglican bishop sent from England in 1862 to head the newly formed Hawaiian Reformed Catholic church. He soon secured King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma, as well as other high chiefs and government figures, as members of his church, thereby antagonizing the long-established Protestant and Roman Catholic missions. Clemens sided with the Protestant missionaries (Americans) against Staley, who was inclined to dismiss as ineffectual their efforts to convert the native population (RI 1993, 719–20). Charles Coffin Harris (1821–81) settled in the Sandwich Islands in 1850, where he was a businessman and lawyer. Between 1863 and 1872 he served under King Kamehameha V as attorney general, minister of finance, and minister of foreign affairs. Harris was among Bishop Staley’s earliest converts, a fact which, together with his natural vanity and pomposity, earned him a permanent role as Clemens’s whipping boy. Clemens consistently called attention to his pretentiousness—first in his 1866 letters to the Sacramento Union, then in Roughing It, and again most recently in his 9 January 1873 Tribune letter (RI 1993, 718; 20 Dec 70 to Judd; Enclosure with 6 January 1873 to Whitelaw Reid).

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4 Robert C. Wyllie (1798–1865) was likewise one of Staley’s early converts. Born in Scotland and educated as a physician, he lived for many years in South America and Mexico, earning a fortune from various commercial enterprises. In 1844 he went to the Sandwich Islands as secretary to the new British consul general. From 1845 until his death he played a major role in the government, serving as minister of foreign affairs under kings Kamehameha III, Kamehameha IV, and Kamehameha V (Kuykendall and Gregory, 169–70; Alexander, 340–41).

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5 Unidentified.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts (MA).

glyph Previous publication: L5, 330–332; MTH, 176 and facing page, transcription of letter and facsimile of enclosure.

glyph Provenance:The MS is laid in a copy of The Sandwich Islands by Mark Twain (New York: 1920). William F. Gable (1856–1921), who purchased the book from James F. Drake, inscribed it, “William F. Gable (Altoona,) Pa.
November 1920.” It is not clear when the MS was laid in the book, but it was certainly there by 1938 when the MS was offered for sale from the collection of George C. Smith, Jr. (Parke-Bernet 1938, lot 162). It may have been purchased at that time by Arthur F. Brown, whose widow donated it to MA in 1947.

glyph Emendations and textual notes:

but . . . success. • [canceled in pencil]

* • [in pencil]

besides these, • [canceled in pencil]

is it • ist

we . . . term‸ ed ‸ • [‘we might term’ inscribed and altered to ‘we might ‸be‸ term‸ed‸’ in ink, then altered to the final reading in pencil]

‸Officers . . . go.‸ • [interlined without a caret, in pencil]

‸But . . . cch.‸ • [in pencil]

scowl • scou wl

‸nondescript‸ • [in pencil]

‸& . . . ships‸ • [in pencil]

It . . . religions, • [canceled in pencil]

‸In . . . wild‸ • [in pencil]

‸Harris . . . popular.‸ • [in pencil]

was a S & • [‘&’ partly formed]