1 Clemens parodied the first stanza of a popular hymn by Phoebe Hinsdale Brown (1783–1861): “I love to steal, awhile, away/From every cumbering care,/And spend the hours of setting day/In humble, grateful prayer.” It was included in Henry Ward Beecher’s Plymouth Collection of Hymns, which Clemens knew well. He was following early returns from the 7 November presidential election. As a supporter of Hayes, the Republican, he was disturbed that Hartford and Connecticut had already gone for Tilden, the Democrat, with the Hartford Courant projecting: “The decided probabilities are that Mr. Tilden is elected” (“The Result,” “The Result in Connecticut,” 8 Nov 76, 2; Beecher 1855, 799–800; L2, 276 n. 12, 402, 411; L3, 183–84 n. 9, 250, 384 n. 11).