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Add to My Citations From Olivia L. and Samuel L. Clemens to Charles J. Langdon
28? November 1874 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: CtHMTH, UCCL 01156)
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Charlie dear

Your exquisite gift came this morning of course I need not tell you that I was entirely surprized and perfectly delighted— They are so dainty and beautiful, and the case adds ever so much to the pleasure of lookingat them, now you and Ida and Julia must come soon and use them with us, and let youus thank you for them—oh they are so pretty. It was so lovely in you to send them to me and I do truly thank appreciate the thoughtfulness which prompted the gift— 1

I want to write you a long letter and fill it full of my thanks, but I have very little energy these days, so I am sure you will let this little stand for the much that I would say—

Love to Ida, Mother, Julia, and all— 2

always lovingly

Livy—

I thought I would take advantage of the blank space left to testify my thanks & appreciation, too, Charley. The case is a jewel in itself & every new light thrown on it gives it a new beauty. If I had a suit of clothes like it I would want nothing more in this life. Now you come & see “your home” & help us enjoy it. Ida & Julia will enjoy it, too, I can promise them that. I have an admirable billiard table up stairs & am prepared to take pupils. I have taught Theodore the rudiments.

The “bay” had another of those spells yesterday & turned blue & white & scared everybody. Cause—a spoonful of cow’s milk. She will experiment no more. Patrick’s wife will sleep in the house & board her night & day hereafter till she quits school. She is all right again today.3

Theodore & Sue remain with us till Monday. The house is still imperceptibly progressing.4

Now don’t come to New York again without [running ]up here.5 With love to you all—

Yr Bro.

Sam.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

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1 The gift was for Olivia’s twenty-ninth birthday, on 27 November. If Langdon sent it by express from New York on that day (see note 5), it probably reached Hartford the following morning.

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2 Specifically, Ida Langdon, Charles’s wife; Julia, their three-year-old daughter; and Mrs. Langdon.

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3 See 11 July 74 to JLC, n. 2.

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4 This visit by the Cranes may have begun around 12 November, when Clemens left on his excursion to Boston with Twichell. One or both of them regularly came to Hartford to be with Olivia when she was indisposed or while Clemens was away.

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5 On 27 November, the New York Evening Express (3) listed Langdon among the “Morning Arrivals” at the St. Nicholas Hotel.



glyphglyphSource text(s):glyph
MS, Jervis Langdon Collection, Mark Twain House, Hartford (CtHMTH).

glyphglyphPrevious publication:glyph L6, 297–298.

glyphglyphProvenance:glyphThe Jervis Langdon Collection was donated in 1963 by Ida Langdon.

glyphglyphEmendations and textual notes:glyph


running • [‘in’ conflated]