To Orion Clemens
17 June 1874 • Elmira, N.Y.
(MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 01101)

Elmira, June 17.

Dear Bro:

I showed the specimens to Theodore, but they did not favorably impress him. He says they have been offered a solid vein of bituminous coal 9 feet thick, in Ohio, right on a railway, for $150 an acre & declined it.1

By nature you are bound to find a butterfly to chase, wherever you go, & you would soon strike another if you threw this one by. As you cannot alter your nature, since God has forbidden that privilege to all men, perhaps you had better abide with the bituminous butterfly. But doubtless there is only one safe way in the matter. Draw a contract with the owner of the land giving you a half interest in all the ‸bodies of‸ mineral you can find within a year or two. Then uncover the vein with your own shovel, if it be a vein—& then sell out. Nevada has taught you that a man has to be rich in order to hold on to mining ground.2

The new baby grows in grace & strength day [ bu by ] day & is [ p ] doubtless going to eclipse Susie. Livy is able to sit up a trifle this tenth day. We all send love.

Yr Bro

Sam.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Theodore W. Crane, Clemens’s brother-in-law, had been a partner in J. Langdon and Company, the family coal firm, since May 1870 (L4, 140 n. 2, 157–58 n. 1, 536). Orion’s coal specimens must have accompanied one of his unrecovered letters from Keokuk. On 14 June he supplied additional details:

Sam:—We saw to-day that somebody had been scratching at the coal bank, which I suppose to have just been revealed by a hard rain when I discovered it and wrote to you. The Surveyors have since been laying off a new road, which may cut it. The rain has washed some more, and it shows more plainly, and its black substance forms the bottom of the gully—a few inches square. The coal (if it is coal) is in layers like slate, and not a confused heap as it would be if an accidental deposit. (CU-MARK)

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2 In the 1860s shares, or “feet,” in Nevada mines were cheap to acquire but costly to retain. Shareholders were subject to frequent assessments, by which mining companies raised operating capital. A failure to meet such assessments resulted in the sale at auction of one’s shares, as the Clemens brothers knew from personal experience (L1, 134 n. 4, 219 n. 1, 300 n. 4, 309 n. 5, 316 n. 5, 319 n. 5).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

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

Previous publication: L6, 164–165.

Provenance:see Moffett Collection in Description of Provenance.

Emendations and textual notes:

bu by • buy

p • [partly formed; doubtful]