To Charles H. Bladen
11 September–15 October 1876 • Hartford, Conn.
(New York Times, 29 October 1876, UCCL 01380)
(SUPERSEDED)

A letter addressed to Mr. S. L. Clemens, (Mark Twain,) Hartford, Conn., notifying him that he had been elected a member of the New-York Press Club, and inviting him to be present at their Fall reception on Thursday last, was inadvertently dropped into the letter-box without the required stamp. Postmaster James kindly paid the postage and forwarded the letter, which, in the ordinary course, would have gone in the Dead-letter Office. After thanking Mr. James for his courtesy, Mr. Clemens inclosed a copy of the Postmaster’s letter to the President of the Press Club, and expressed regret that he could not be present at the reception.1 He closed with a compliment to Mr. James as follows:

“By the inclosed printed letter to Postmaster James you will perceive that the term [‘civil’] service is not a sarcasm when applied to the New-York Post Office. Had your unpaid letter passed through the average Post Office of the land I should have received my invitation about three months from now through the Dead-letter Department, after much correspondence [&] ruinous outlay of postage. I would that there were more Postmaster Jameses in the land.”2

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

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1 The letter notifying Clemens of his election to membership in the New York Press Club does not survive. Bladen (1841–99), president of the club in 1876, was on the city staff of the New York Times from 1870 until about 1885. The process of Clemens’s election had begun with the following letter, sent to Hartford and forwarded to Elmira (CU-MARK):

UCLC32408

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On the envelope of Hammann’s letter Clemens wrote “Membership proposed | accepted,” but his letter of consent has not been found. He might have been elected to membership on either of two first Saturdays before the club’s Thursday, 26 October, fall reception—2 September or 7 October. If time is allowed, in either case, for the election notification/reception invitation to reach him, his response can reasonably be dated between 11 September, the day the Clemens family returned to Hartford from Elmira, and 15 October (Agnew 1894, 184; New York Times: “The Press Club Reception,” 27 Oct 76, 2; “Death List of a Day: Charles H. Bladen,” 4 July 99, 4).

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2 Neither New York Postmaster Thomas L. James’s letter to Clemens nor Clemens’s letter of thanks to James is known to survive. The “inclosed printed letter” to James possibly was a newspaper printing of Clemens’s own letter or of someone else’s letter praising post office civility. James’s courtesy may have been prompted by Clemens’s 22 July complaint, to the New York Evening Post, about the dead letter office. James and Clemens had had a less cordial exchange, through the press, in 1874 (see L6, 223, 226 n. 11).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Copy-text:

“Mark Twain Compliments Postmaster James,” New York Times, 29 October 1876, 12.

Emendations and textual notes:

‘civil’ • “civil”

& • and