To Olivia L. Clemens
14 October 1871 • New York, N.Y.
(MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00660)

St Nich Oct. 14.1

We played billiards with Ed Marsh2 last night & then took him to see Humpty Dumpty with us—he & Charley had been there before. The thing we went to see was a cat-song, by a Swede & his wife3—a performance worth twice the admission fee; there is [little else] t about the show that is worth a great deal. The cat song is very pretty, notwithstanding it is all miawing & yowling. The air is minor & charming.

Two children rode velocipedes wonderfully well. One of the children was not larger than Lang, & yet performed finely.4

Charley has got the news. J. Langdon & Co lose $50,000, sure enough;5 John Law loses $130,000—cries & wrings his hands when he talks of it.6

Charley left for home a few minutes ago—9 AM.

Well, I do wish I could see you, now, Livy dear, & the splendid cubbie.

Lovingly

Sam

[in ink:] Mrs. Samℓ. L. Clemens | cor. Forest & Hawthorn st | Hartford | Conn [return address:] if not delivered within 10 days, to be returned to [postmarked:] mailedst. nicholas hotel, n.y. oct 14 1871 [and] new york oct 141.30 pm | [in OLC’s hand:]

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Clemens and Charles J. Langdon left Hartford on 13 October for New York City, where they registered at the St. Nicholas Hotel (OC to MEC, 13 Oct 71, CU-MARK; “Morning Arrivals,” New York Evening Express, 14 Oct 71, 3).

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2 Edward L. Marsh, who had registered at the St. Nicholas Hotel on 12 October, was a first cousin to Charles Langdon and Olivia Clemens. After his Civil War service with the Iowa infantry, Marsh lived in New Orleans and then New York. In 1871 he lived in Cincinnati and was a partner in Marsh and Company, cement dealers. In 1877 he returned to Iowa, where his family had settled in 1857 (“Capt. E. L. Marsh,” obituary from an unidentified Elmira newspaper inserted in AD, 26 Mar 1906, CU-MARK, in MTA, 2:250–51; L2, 292 n. 2; “Morning Arrivals,” New York Evening Express, 12 Oct 71, 3; Cincinnati Directory 1871, 477).

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3 The popular variety show Humpty Dumpty, which opened in New York in 1868 and ran for over a year, was revived in August 1871 for another lucrative run at the Olympic Theatre. Among the notable new acts was the “Duo des Chats” by the Martens, husband and wife (Odell, 8:282, 433–34; 9:152–53; New York Times: “Amusements,” 1 Sept 71, 4, 13 Oct 71, 7).

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4 According to the New York Evening Express: “Another very remarkable feature . . . were the performances on the bicycle of Young Adonis, aged 4½, and Little Venus, aged 2½. The boy is a bright, intelligent-looking child, and accomplishes many really astonishing feats; while his sister is a bold, fearless little imp, with great nerve and perfect self-possession” (“Pantomime at the Olympic,” 1 Sept 71, 2). Langdon Clemens was only eleven months old.

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5 On 14 October 1871 the Elmira Advertiser observed: “The coal companies who have their headquarters in this city, it is supposed have lost very seriously by the Chicago fire” (“City and Neighborhood,” 4). This was the great Chicago fire, which began on 8 October 1871 in the “lumber and coal tract, along the west bank of the [Chicago] river,” soon jumped the river “into the large lumber and coal yards of the . . . South Division,” and five days later was still burning. In all, eighty thousand tons of coal were consumed. The fire destroyed at least twelve thousand commercial buildings and residences, leaving over one hundred thousand homeless (New York Times: “A City in Ruins,” 10 Oct 71, 1; “Reviving Chicago,” 14 Oct 71, 1; Colbert and Chamberlin, 295).

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6 Either John S. or John H. Law of Law’s Fire, Life and Marine Insurance Agency of Cincinnati, Ohio. He had arrived at the St. Nicholas Hotel at about the time the Clemenses were there in early October, and had probably been there ever since. Possibly he was related to Robert Law, Clemens’s host in Chicago in December (Cincinnati Directory 1871, 30, 433; “Morning Arrivals,” New York Evening Express, 4 Oct 71, 3; 3? Oct 71 to OC, n. 1; 18 Dec 71 to OLC).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

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

Previous publication: L4, 469–470; LLMT, 361, brief paraphrase.

Provenance:see Samossoud Collection in Description of Provenance.

Emendations and textual notes:

little else • littlee else [false start; deletion implied]

400 600 • 4 600

169 369 • 1 369