1 Barnes was editor and co-owner of the San Francisco Morning Call. He had fired Clemens from the paper in October 1864, after four months of his “indifferent” local reporting, but the two men had remained on good terms (L1, 302, 317–18 n. 3; L3, 354–55). On 15 February, he published the following:

In 1956, Barnes’s grandniece, Elizabeth D. Theobald, who presumably inherited the wedding cards, reported that the

The Langdons were following the fashion, reported early in 1869 by the New York Home Journal, of embellishing wedding invitations, and doubtless announcements as well, “with a large monogram in relief, entwining the combined initials of the bride and groom” (Rochester [N. Y.] Democrat, 1 Mar 69, reprinting the Home Journal). Probably accompanying the cards was “a note announcing the marriage on the 3d [i.e., 2d] of February, in New York” (6? Feb 70 to McComb). The cards reproduced here are in the Mark Twain Papers. They are off-white, however, and perhaps were proofs or have faded from pink. The date assigned would have allowed Barnes’s cards to reach the West Coast by overland mail in time for his 15 February notice in the Call. Clemens probably addressed cards to his special friends at a single sitting, and so the same date has been assigned to each of the next five letters. Except for the one to John McComb, however, any of these might have been mailed somewhat later, judging by a request Olivia made on 12 February in a letter to her family in Elmira: “If you will send us about 50 after cards we will address them to people that Mr C. forgot to mention” (CtHMTH). In Elmira, Annie Moffett also mailed wedding cards for Clemens (9 Feb 70 to the Langdons).