To
William K. Cutler
28 May 1864 • Virginia City, Nev. Terr.
(MS, draft not sent: CU-BANC, UCCL 00083)
Virginia, May 28, 1864.
W. K. Cutler—
Sir—To-day, I have received a letter from you, in which you assume that you have been offended and insulted by certain acts of mine. Having apologized [ one ] once for that offensive conduct, I shall not do it again. Your recourse is in a challenge. I am ready to [accept. it. ]
Having made my arrangements—before I [ reci received ]your note—to leave for California, & having [ to no ]time to fool away on a common bummer like you, I want an immediate reply to this.1
[in Dan De Quille’s hand on letter back:] Mark Twain to Cutler. First draft of document left on my desk when a second was written and sent. Nothing came of the matter. | Dan De Quille.
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
Mr. Cutler had come up from Carson City, and had sent a man over
with a challenge from the hotel. Steve went over to pacify him.
Steve weighed only ninety-five pounds, but it was well known
throughout the territory that with his fists he could whip
anybody that walked on two legs, let his weight and science be
what they might. Steve was a Gillis, and when a Gillis
confronted a man and had a proposition to make the proposition
always contained business. When Cutler found that Steve was my
second he cooled down; he became calm and rational, and was
ready to listen. Steve gave him fifteen minutes to get out of
the hotel, and half an hour to get out of town or there would be
results. So that duel went off
successfully, because Mr. Cutler immediately left for Carson a
convinced and reformed man. (AD, 19 Jan 1906, CU-MARK, in MTA, 1:360)
Source text(s):Previous publication:
L1, 301–303; MTEnt, 204.
Provenance:The William Wright Papers were acquired by The Bancroft Library in November
1953. The collection includes correspondence, manuscripts, notebooks, and
clippings of articles by Wright (Dan De Quille) as well as letters and other
documents by members of his family (The William Wright
Papers: Report and Key to Arrangement, typescript, The Bancroft
Library). The second draft of this letter, which was actually sent, is not
known to survive.
Emendations and textual notes:
one once • onece [‘c’ over ‘e’]
accept. it. • accept. it. [deletion implied]
reci received • recieived [‘e’ over ‘i’]
to no • [‘no’ over ‘to’]
