Mark Twain Project :: Letters :: : an electronic text

To Adolph H. Sutro
per Telegraph Operator
29 August 1871 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS, copy received: NvHi, UCCL 10728)

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[the western union telegraph company.]

dated

Hartford Conn 187 1
received at

Aug 29
to

Adolph Sutro.

Gilsey House

How long will tunnell be when finished 1 find Riley at American Minister give me your London address

Saml L Clemens

149 Asylum St

right manicule this telegram has just been received at the office in

Gilsey House

where any reply should be sent.

17 Paid direct wires.

[telegram docketed:] 1871. | Samℓ L Clemens | Hartford | Aug 29.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Sutro responded with the estimated size of the tunnel—two thousand feet deep and eight miles long—but Clemens probably did not make use of the information until December, when he read chapter 52 of Roughing It in proof and added a footnote about the tunnel (RI 1993, 360n, 867–68).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS facsimile. The editors have not seen the MS, copy received, telegram blank filled out in the hand of a telegraph operator, Nevada State Historical Society, Reno (NvHi). The printed verso of the telegraph form, identical to the form reproduced in facsimile on p. 680, has not been transcribed as part of the text.

glyph Previous publication: L4, 450.

glyph Emendations and textual notes:

the . . . company. • [words on telegram blank identical to those reported in the commentary for 7 Nov 70 to Langdon]