Mark Twain Project :: Letters :: : an electronic text

To Jerome B. Stillson
per Telegraph Operator
18 September 1874 • New York, N.Y.
(MS, copy received: ViU, UCCL 01125)

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the atlantic and pacific and franklin telegraph companies.1

no.

the rules of these companies require that all messages received for transmission shall be written on the message blanks of the companies, under and subject to the conditions printed thereon, which conditions have been agreed to by the sender of this message.

———

john duff, president.e. d. l. sweet, executive manager.2

1218650

dated, Hoffman House received at

to Jerome B StillsonSept 181874

World Office

Been wanting to come down and thank Wheeler Cordially for doing that thing up so thoroughly & handsomely himself when I could not have said a word If he had followed his perfectly natural impulse and made somebody else do it but we leave tomorrow and so have been rushed to death with shopping 3

Sam’l L Clemens

54 Paid 108

[telegram docketed:] Pd I

Explanatory Notes

Editorial Signs

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1 The Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company (affiliated with the Franklin Telegraph Company) had numerous offices in New York City, including one at 1113 Broadway, adjacent to, or possibly in, the Hoffman House (Wilson 1874, 48).

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2 Duff, a railroad contractor from Boston, remained president of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company until January 1875, when he was replaced by Thomas T. Eckert, who left his position as general superintendent of the Western Union Telegraph Company. E. D. L. Sweet became second vice-president (James D. Reid, 594–601).

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3 Andrew Carpenter Wheeler (1835–1903) was the well-known music and drama critic of the New York World, writing under the pseudonym “Nym Crinkle.” His lengthy unsigned review of the 16 September New York debut of the Gilded Age play appeared the following day. It is transcribed in Reviews of the Gilded Age Play. For other critical reaction to the play, see the next letter, n. 2.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, a telegram blank filled out by the receiving telegraph operator, Clifton Waller Barrett Library, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville (ViU).

glyph Previous publication: L6, 232–233.

glyph Provenance:Deposited at ViU by Clifton Waller Barrett on 17 December 1963.