To William Bowen
20 March 1875 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: TxU-Hu, UCCL 11467)

Hartford Mch 20.

Dear Will:

Here is an odd thing. Looking among some checks (white) of a New York bank, this morning, I came across a red one—& behold it is that old check I sent you for Sam six weeks ago. You returned it with explanatory letter. I immediately (as I supposed) sent it back to you, requiring that you take Sam’s judgment upon the question of accepting the check or returning it to me. I have looked through the stubs of two check books, & there is only one that corresponds to this—that is, has your name & the amount, $20—& it corresponds in all particulars, being check No. 41 of the new year. Therefore I never [re-enclosed ]this check to you at all, & you never reminded me of my blunder.1 That was a bad business; because it made me judge Sam upon false premises—or it at least I would have entire judged him presently; for only a day or two ago I was saying to myself, “Sam Bowen knows that I don’t want that money, from him or anybody else who is cramped, but if he is a true Bowen he will sell his shirt to pay it when the month of his promise is up.” Now do you see? A week or two from now I should have been saying, “S Well, poor Sam is a wreck, for the family pride is gone out of him.”

Confound you, Will, why didn’t you tell me I had forgotten to enclose the check?

I was once dead broke for several months, & sewed up bursted grain sacks on the San Francisco wharves for a starvation living (when I was already sufficiently famous to be welcome in the best society of the city & State) rather than borrow money;2 & I hate to see Sam Bowen show himself to be less a man; but still this check is his, not mine, & therefore it is my imperative duty to forward it instead of quietly tearing it up & keeping shrewdly still mum about [it. It ]is for him to say whether it shall be accepted or returned. Therefore, just you tender it to him, & explain.3

Look here:—are these the facts?—viz:

The J. M. White in 1840, went to St Louis in 3 days 23 hours; the Eclipse (in 1853) in 3 days 21 hours; the Gen. Lee (in 1870) in 3 days 19 hours 20 minutes. [in margin: What was the stage of the river each time—& was it rising, or falling?]

Are those dates & statistics correct?4

I expected to go down the river in February, but have or March, but have put it off for the present.

Ys Ever

Sam.

Don’t mention any of these contents to people.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

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1 In a letter now lost, Samuel A. Bowen (William’s younger brother, who was still a steamboat pilot), had asked Clemens for a loan of twenty dollars (Daniel B. Gould, 138). Around 6 February 1875, Clemens enclosed a check for him in a letter to William that is not known to survive. William returned the check, concerned that his brother would never make repayment.

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2 This marginal employment probably came in late 1864 or the second half of 1865, two periods when Clemens was in desperate straits in San Francisco (see RI 1993, 701).

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3 The reenclosed check has not been found, but Samuel Bowen did in fact cash it. When he wrote Clemens on 26 April 1876 to ask for another loan, he claimed he had repaid the twenty dollars, but Clemens noted on the envelope: “Keep this precious letter from a precious liar” (CU-MARK).

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4 Clemens intended this information for his “Old Times on the Mississippi” series. Bowen’s initial response was part of a letter of 29 March, on the letter-head of “Bowens’ Insurance Agency,” at 122 Olive Street, in St. Louis (CU-MARK):

UCLC32137

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(On the envelope of Bowen’s letter Clemens wrote “Race.”) Bowen provided corrections and additional figures in a telegram of 15 May: “Eighteen forty four J. M. White three days six hours forty four minutes in fifty two Eclipse three six four Same A. L. Shotwell three three forty Same reindeer three twelve forty five sixty nine dexter three six twenty” (CU-MARK). Clemens used some of the information in his final “Old Times” installment, in the Atlantic Monthly for August 1875 (SLC 1875, 192). In praising “Old Times,” Bowen doubtless alluded specifically to the fourth installment, in the Atlantic for April (available by mid-March), although his description could have applied equally to installments two and three. The St. Louis Times reprinted the Atlantic, at least selectively (see 13? Feb 75 to Wiley, n. 1).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin (TxU-Hu).

Previous publication: L6, 422–24.

Provenance:donated in 1991 by R. G. Bowen.

Emendations and textual notes:

re-enclosed • re-|enclosed

it. It • it.—|It