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

office of pacific mail steamship company, 59 & 61 wall street,

new york, 12th Feby 1874

Samuel L. Clemens, Esq.

Hartford, Conn.

Dear Sir,

Having heard, with pleasure, of your safe return, from what I trust was a remunerative tour, I take the liberty of approaching you with an appeal in behalf of a great and noble charity, which is explained briefly, as follows.

You probably have learned from the public journals the terrible state of demoralization into which this Company has fallen, and that efforts have lately been made to resuscitate it by its present management which I have the honor to represent.2

Our efforts in this direction have been made mainly through the introduction of the latest pattern of Iron propellers, with which so far, we have met with a decided success.3

But we desire further, in behalf of the public, to combine enlightenment with progress, and to that end desire to supply each of these new and first-class vessels with several copies of your different works, feeling confident that we shall thereby earn the increased gratitude of all travellers by the Isthmus and China routes.

How can we most satisfactorily arrange this?—

We wish to make a trade of some kind and, in the present state of the Companys finances, do not feel warranted in making any great outlay of cash

Hence our appeal to the charitable instincts of your nature.

We may, however, be able to make an entirely business arrangement which would be satisfactory.

Have you not some relative or near friend whose demise might prove a source of melancholy pleasure, and who, (according to the representations of our Overland rivals) might succumb to old age on our Steamers before arriving at destination.

If so, we should only be too happy to furnish him or her with a free pass to San Francisco by our oldest and slowest boats,—and in the event of the scheme proving successful, we would provide the subject, thoroughly embalmed, with a return passage free of all charges.

Feeling certain that you yourself have a weakness for the Pacific slope, we hesitate about offering you a similar trip, lest you might think that we were endeavoring to take advantage of said weakness to further our own designs.

Or that, (taking the reports of the Railroad people to be correct), you might decline from fears for your own personal safety.

We can assure you however that we are so situated that you can be accomodated in either way, as we have some of the poorest and also the very finest Steamers afloat.

And should your time and inclination dispose you to consider such an offer we would be only too happy to afford you a passage by these new vessels to San Francisco feeling certain that the voyage would prove productive to you, of health and pleasure, and to ourselves—of books.

In short we desire to supply all of our Steamers, some thirty five in number with copies of your works and wish to know whether you are disposed or are able to make any special arrangement with us to that end.

And we have addressed you from the belief that your acquaintance, with the disposition of the older editions, would enable you to put us in the way of accomplishing our object in a satisfactory manner.

Trusting that, you will appreciate the spirit in which this is written, and that you will give a favorable consideration to the request of one who has been a constant reader and admirer of all your productions.

I remain

Yours truly

Rufus Hatch4 Vice Pres’t
& Managing Director, P.M.S.S. Co.

Explanatory Notes

Editorial Signs

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2 The “terrible state of demoralization” was indicated by the New York Times of 30 January 1874, which reported that the company’s assets were some $7 million, while its liabilities were in excess of $20 million. The root of the problem lay in years of poor management compounded by increasingly stiff competition from the transcontinental railroad, completed in 1869. Until then, the Pacific Mail—which carried mail, freight, and passengers to and from the Far East—also provided the major link between the West and East coasts of the United States: by steamer from San Francisco to Panama City, by railroad across the Isthmus to Aspinwall (now Colón), then by steamer to New York, the whole passage occupying a month. (In 1866–67, Clemens made what proved a harrowing journey by the “opposition” steamers of the North American Steamship Company, from San Francisco to New York, via Nicaragua: see N&J1, 238–99, and MTTB, 11–81.) The transcontinental railroad, which in good weather made the crossing in seven days, had captured most of the passenger traffic. For slower freight traffic, particularly in winter, the steamship company could still compete, sometimes well enough to extract freight-sharing and rate-fixing agreements from the railroad. But such partial remedies could not repair the Pacific Mail’s finances or offset its weak administration. Financier Russell Sage (1816–1906) had been its president since 1873, although the “present management” effectively was Hatch, a New York stock-broker. Under him, the company was attempting to reduce expenses and rates, renewing the battle with the railroad, while also building new ships (see the next note). Hatch made an upbeat report to stockholders on 1 May, but despite his repeated assertions of prosperity, the firm was beset with debt, financial irregularities, and dissension on its board of directors. In early December Sage resigned amid charges of fraud and insider stock speculation, claiming that Hatch had deceived him about the company’s financial condition. A few days later, the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives began a three-month investigation into the company’s alleged payment of nearly $1 million in bribes to secure an 1872 increase of its legislative subsidy to $1 million per year for expanded mail service to China. (The original subsidy, $.5 million annually, had been authorized in 1865 and provided for ten years of service, beginning in 1867.) The investigation confirmed the bribery and the stock speculation, as well as corrupt bookkeeping and other sharp practices by Hatch and his predecessors. Hatch was forced to resign in March 1875, shortly after the Union and Central Pacific railroads assumed control of the steamship company (New York Times: numerous articles, editorials, and letters to the editor, Jan–May 74 and Nov 74–Mar 75, especially “Annual Report of the Pacific Mail Steam-ship Company,” 30 Jan 74, 8; “Pacific Mail,” 30 Apr 74, 5; “China and Japan Trade,” 3 May 74, 2; “Full Exhibit of the Financial and Business Position of Pacific Mail,” 5 May 74, 5; “Business Notes,” 9 Nov 74, 2; “Business Interests,” 12 Nov 74, 6; “Pacific Mail Company,” 4 Dec 74, 5; “The Plundered Company,” 23 Feb 75, 5 [a summary of much of the 1874–75 coverage]; “Pacific Mail: Report of the Ways and Means Committee,” 28 Feb 75, 1; “In another column. . . ,” 28 Feb 75, 6; “Commercial Interests,” 4 Mar 75, 7; “Financial Affairs,” 25 Mar 75, 10; Gundelfinger, 33, 36; Kemble, 13–18; Lavender, 296–97).

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3 To qualify for the 1872 increase of its subsidy for the Far East line, the company was obliged to

double the frequency of its sailings, thus making them fortnightly, and build iron, screw-propelled steamers for the line. The last requirement accelerated a program of modernization already under way. In 1873, the first of the Pacific Mail’s iron, screw steamers, Acapulco, City of Guatemala, Colima, Colon, and Granada, were delivered by their builder, John Roach. These were followed in 1874 by City of Peking, City of Tokio, and City of Panama, and in 1875 by City of New York, City of San Francisco, and City of Sydney. (Kemble, 13–14)

Previously the Pacific Mail had employed wooden side-wheel steamers. Its failure to build all of the required iron vessels on schedule brought calls for an end to the 1872 subsidy even before the congressional investigation of misconduct began. In early 1875, as a result of the investigation, the 1872 subsidy was revoked, although steamer service to the Far East continued under the 1865 subvention (Kemble, 13, 17; New York Times: “Washington,” 10 Apr 74, 1, 18 Apr 74, 6, 12 Dec 74, 1, 25 Jan 75, 1; “The little explosion at Washington. . .,” 15 Dec 74, 4; “Pacific Mail and the Government,” 24 Dec 74, 4; “Pacific Mail,” 14 Feb 75, 1).

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4 Hatch signed his name, but the rest of the letter, including his title, is in another hand, doubtless his secretary’s.