To Orion Clemens
21 September 1874 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 01128)

Sept. 21.

Dear Bro:

Ys containing ck rec’d—all right.1 Tell Ed the poem is the finest thing I ever read—& I would not lie about a small matter.2 We got home day before yesterday, at last, & I am the gladdest man. Livy would be another, if the house were finished, but it isn’t—full of carpenters yet, on the lower floor. We have thrown down an old carpet or two & are living on the second floor. We sleep in Ma’s bedroom;3 eat in the nursery, & use my study for a parlor. Rosa4 & Susie sleep in Livy’s private sitting room which opens out of the nursery on the east front. We have gas, now, in these apartments, & water in Ma’s & little Susie’s [bath-rooms ]—so we are pretty comfortable, & Margaret’s5 cookery goes ahead of anything we have had at the best table in New York (that is, the Hoffman House, where we tarried ten days buying carpets & furniture, & drilling actors for the play.) I staid on the stage 2 to 4 hours several days in succession showing them how I thought the speeches ought to be uttered. The consequence was, the play went right through without a hitch on the very first night. They are better actors than I am, but of course I wanted the play played my way unless my way was radically wrong.

Livy is pretty well fagged out, but I am hoping she will begin to pick up, now, in spite of the ceaseless banging & hammering down stairs. The stable is all done, & is exceedingly handsome. The house & grounds are not to be described, they are so beautiful. Patrick & family occupy large handsome rooms in the stable.6 I don’t think I ever saw such a bewitching place as ours [is.

Gen. ] Belknap is helping me splendidly to get Sammy appointed to the Naval Academy.

Lovingly

Saml

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 See 28 Aug 74 to OC.

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2 The poem Orion forwarded from Ed Brownell, who had visited Clemens in July (see 29 July 74 to OC), has not been identified.

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3 The room that was to be used by Jane Clemens and, as the next letter suggests, by Mrs. Langdon on visits to Hartford.

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4 Rosina Hay.

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5 Margaret Cosgrave.

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6 Coachman Patrick McAleer and his wife, Mary, had an infant son, James, born in late 1873 or early 1874, enabling Mary to soon become Clara’s wet nurse (see 11 July 74 to JLC, n. 2, and 28? Nov 74 to Langdon; information courtesy of the Mark Twain House).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

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

Previous publication: L6, 238–239.

Provenance:see Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance.

Emendations and textual notes:

bath-rooms • bath-|rooms

is. [¶] • is.—| [¶] Gen.