From Samuel L. Clemens and Clara L. Clemens
(per Samuel L. Clemens)
to Jane Lampton Clemens and Pamela A. Moffett
30 March 1879 • Paris, France
(Transcripts by Pamela A. Moffett and Albert Bigelow Paine:
CU-MARK, UCCL 12755)

7 rue de l’Echelle
Paris, Mch 30.

My Dear Mother & Sister:

We have been here a month, but nothing has happened worth [reporting. I] have had plenty of colds & rheumatism, & consequently my work has stood still; but tomorrow I expect to begin. Livy & the children have tolerably good health, but nothing extraordinary.

By a letter [rec’d] by Miss Clara from our good Baroness Freundenberg, we judge that Sam is coming to Paris about a month from now. We shall be glad to have him here, but I am sorry he does not stay a month or two more with the Baroness, for he [cannot] have so good an opportunity to [learn the language again.] I will translate what the Baroness says about Sam, whereby you will see what impression he has made:

[“We] are all very fond of Mr. [Moffett:] he is a young [man [of] ] uncommon intellect & culture, & yet so modest & good that I already think with pain of the time when he will leave us. He reads a great deal, but prefers not to write. He has made great progress in these 4 [weeks,] & as he is to remain 4 weeks longer I hope he will speak very good German by that [time.”]

The great trouble with Sam is that he “reads a great deal” & [“prefers] not to write.” To write the language is [useful,—]to read it is more an injury [than] a benefit. To speak [it,] & write it, & never read it, is the right course.

Sam has written Miss Clara a bright letter in German, and as bright a one to Livy in English.

I thought Sam promised me he would read only one day in the week, but doubtless he didn’t. It would be the best thing for him.

Livy & Clara are out—Rosa has just gone to dinner, so I must stop writing & take care of the children. Good bye—with love.

Sam.

(From Bay to Grandma. Her exact language.)

Well, that I’ve got a dress, & a new one, & is silk & got gold buttons, & [that] I’m bigger’n thicker’n I was before, & that I got a great big doll, & that t’isn’t broken yet; & that I got a horse, & its broken; the car came off it, & that its car is broken, & that I know how to take it (the ear) out; & two legs is broken, & his tail is come out.

I had a hard pinch in my finger: that I was looking in the looking-glass door & Rosa closed the looking glass; & sometimes Susie plays with my things & I get a-fighting at her. That’s all, now, that I can write.

And that all my names is Clara Lewis O’Day Botheker McAleer McLachlin Bay Clemens. (Her wet-nurses.)

Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

No copy-text. The text is based on two transcripts, which derive independently from the MS:

Tr1	Transcript by Albert Bigelow Paine, CU-MARK ‘7 rue . . . wet-nurses.)’
Tr2	Transcript by Pamela A. Moffett, in a letter to Samuel E. Moffett, 14 April 1879, CU-MARK (UCLC 30096) ‘By a . . . him.”

Previous publication:

Provenance:For the Pamela Moffett letter, see Moffett Collection in Description of Provenance; for the transcript, see Paine Transcripts in Description of Provenance.

Emendations, adopted readings, and textual notes:

reporting. I (MTP) • reporting | I (Tr1)

rec’d (Tr2) • received (Tr1)

cannot (Tr2) • can not (Tr1)

learn the language again. (Tr1) • study learn the language (Tr2)

[¶] “We (Tr2) • [no ¶] “We (Tr1)

Moffett: (Tr2) • Moffet[t] [typed off edge of page] (Tr1)

man [of] (MTP) • man (Tr1, Tr2)

weeks, (Tr2) • weeks; (Tr1)

time.” (Tr2) • time”. (Tr1)

“prefers (Tr2) • prefers (Tr1)

useful,— (Tr2) • useful— (Tr1)

than (Tr2) • than | than (Tr1)

it, (Tr2) • it (Tr1)

that (MTP) • That (Tr1)