To the Editors of Childhood’s Appeal
30 November 1880 • Hartford, Conn.
(Boston Childhood’s Appeal,
9 December 1880, UCCL 02134)

[Hartford], Nov. 30, 1880.

[Dear Editors]:—

I do it with pleasure, . . . but I also do it with pain, because I am not in sympathy with this movement. Why should I want a “Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children” to prosper, when I have a baby downstairs that kept me awake several hours last night with no pretext for it but a desire to make trouble? This occurs every night, [&] it embitters me; because I see now how needless it was to put in the other burglar alarm, a costly [&] complicated contrivance, which cannot be depended upon, because it’s always getting out of order [&] won’t “go,” whereas, although the baby is always getting out of order too, it can nevertheless be depended on, for the reason that the more it gets out of order, the more it does go.

Yes, I am bitter against your society, for I think the idea of it is all wrong; but if you will start a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Fathers, I will write you a whole book.

Yours with Emotion,

[Mark Twain].

Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

“Correspondence,” Boston Childhood’s Appeal, 9 December 1880, 4.

Previous publication: Clemens 1894, 187.

Emendations and textual notes:

Hartford • Hartford

Dear Editors • Dear Editors

& • and

& • and

& • and

Mark Twain • Mark Twain