To
James Redpath per Telegraph Operator
4 December 1869 • New York, N.Y.
(MS, copy received: Jacobs, UCCL 02445)
|
[the western union telegraph company. ]
dated
received at
to
20 Bromfield st1 Yes I did I will never suggest again this is no regular course it is an infernal mite society2 a pure charity speculation what the mischief did they come boring me with their offensive letters for any how. Read her letter once more that I sent you She has not been civil at all first or last3 Clemens 58/15 126 Z A |
[docketed by George Fall:] N.Y.| Saml
[and in unidentified hand:] S.L. Clemens | New
York
Dec. 4 ’69
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
S. E. Wasson kept a private school at 70 Orange Street, in Brooklyn (Lain, 686, 813). Her “pure charity speculation” has not been identified; the letter
from her that Clemens forwarded to Redpath is not known to survive.
Source text(s):Previous publication:
L3, 418; Will M. Clemens, 27, excerpt; John Anderson, Jr., lot 49, excerpt.
Provenance:The telegram, transcribed by Will Clemens before 1900, was one of five telegrams from Clemens to Redpath sold in three successive
sales: in 1903 (John Anderson, Jr., lot 49); in 1910 in the library of George
Bentham (Anderson Auction Company, lot 180); and in 1925 in the library of
William F. Gable (AAA 1925, lot 108). In 1973, it was bought as one of four by
Victor and Irene Murr Jacobs.
Emendations and textual notes:
the ... company. • Blank No. I. | THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY. | [¶] The rules of this company require that all messages received for transmission, shall be written on the message blanks of the Company, under and subject to the conditions printed thereon, which conditions have been agreed to by the sender of the following message. | THOS. T. ECKERT, Gen’l Sup’t, New York. WILLIAM ORTON, Pres’t, O. H. PALMER, Sec’y, New York
