To Orion and Henry Clemens
26–?28 October 1853 • Philadelphia, Pa.
(MS and transcript: NPV and Muscatine
Journal, 11 Nov 53, UCCL 00002)

[Philadelphia, Pa.] Oct. 26, 1853.

[My Dear Brother:

[I[t] ] was at least two weeks before I left New York, that I left received my last letter from home: and since then, devil take the word have I heard from any of you. And now, since I think of it, it wasn’t a letter, either, but the last number of the “Daily Journal,” saying that that paper was sold, and I very naturally supposed from that, that the family had disbanded, and taken up winter quarters in St Louis. Therefore, I have been writing to Pamela, till I’m tired of it, and have received no answer. I have been wanting for the last two or [ the three] weeks, to send Ma some money, but [ b devil] take me if I knew where she was, and so the money has slipped out of my pocket somehow or other, but I have a dollar left, and a good [ del deal] owing to me, which will be paid next [ m Monday].1 I shall enclose the dollar in this letter, and you can hand it to her. I know it’s a small amount, but then it will buy her a [hankerchief], and at the same time serve as a specimen of the kind of stuff we are paid with in Philadelphia. You see it’s against the law in Pennsylvania to keep or pass a bill of less denomination than $5. I have only seen two or three bank bills since I have been in the [State. On] Monday the hands are paid off in sparkling gold, fresh [of the] Mint; so your dreams are not troubled, with the fear of having doubtful money in your pocket.2

I am subbing at the Inquirer office.3 One man has engaged me to work for him every Sunday till the first of next April, [ will (when] I shall return home to take Ma to Ky;) [and] ] another has engaged my services for the 24th of next month; and if I want it, I can get subbing every night of the week. I go to work at 7 o’clock in the evening, and work till 3 o’clock the next morning. I can go to the theatre and stay till 12 o’clock, and then go to the office, and get work from that till 3 the next morning; when I go to bed, and sleep till 11 o’clock, then get up and loaf the rest of the day. The type is mostly agate and minion, with some bourgeois; and when one gets a good agate take, he is sure to make money.4 I made $2.50 last Sunday, and was laughed at by all the hands, the poorest of whom sets 11,000 on Sunday; and if I don’t set 10,000, at least, next Sunday, I’ll give them leave to laugh as much as [the[y] ] want to. Out of the 22 compositors in this office, 12 at least, set 15,000 on Sunday.

Unlike New York, I like this Phila amazingly, and the people in it. There is only one thing that gets my “dander” up—and that is the hands are always [ encouraging ] me: telling me [ n “it’s] no use to get discouraged—no use to be down-hearted, for there is more work here than you can do!” “Downhearted,” the devil! I have not had a particle of such a feeling since I left Hannibal, more than four months ago. I fancy they’ll have to wait some time till they see me downhearted or afraid of starving while I have strength to work and am in a city of 400,000 inhabitants. When I was in Hannibal; before I had scarcely stepped out of the town limits, nothing could have convinced me [than ] ] I would starve as soon as I got a little way from home.

The] grave of Franklin is in Christ [Church-yard], [cor.] of Fifth and Arch streets. They keep the gates locked, and one can only see the flat slab that lies over his remains and that of his wife; but you cannot see the inscription distinctly enough to read [ th it]. This inscription, I believe, reads thus:

I counted 27 [cannons (6 pounders)] planted in the edge of the [side walk ] ] [ on in] Water [st.] the other day. They are driven into the [ground,] about a foot, with the mouth end upwards. A ball is driven fast into the mouth of each, to exclude the [water; they] look like so many posts. They were put there during the war. I have also seen them planted in this [manner,] round the old [churches,] in [N.Y.]

The Exchange is [ we where] the different omnibus lines have their starting or stopping place. [That is ]it is the head-quarters; and from this they radiate to the different [parts. of ] ] the city.5 [Well], as I was going to say, I went to the Exchange, yesterday, and deposited myself in a Fairmount stage, paid my sixpence, or “fip,” as these [heathen ] call it, and started.6 We rolled along till we began to [get towards] the [out-skirts]] of the city, where the prettiest part of a large city [ always ] [is. We ] ]passed a [ h large ]house, which looked like a public [ p building]. It was built entirely of great blocks of red granite. The pillars in front were all finished but one. These pillars were [beautiful ]ornamented fluted columns, considerably larger than a hogshead at the [base, ]and [about as high as Caplinger’s second story front windows.] 7 No marble pillar is as pretty as [ this these ]sombre red granite ones; and then to see some of them finished and standing, [and then the ]huge blocks lying about of which [the other was ]to be built, it looks so [massy]; ]and carries one in [imagination, ]to the ruined piles of ancient Babylon. I despise [the infernal ]bogus brick columns, plastered over with mortar. [Marble ]is the cheapest [building stone ]about [Phila. ]This marble is the most beautiful I ever saw. [I[t] ] takes a very high polish. Some of it is as black as Egypt,8 with thin streaks of white running through it, and some is a beautiful snowy white; while the most of it is magnificent black, clouded with white.

But I must go on with my trip. We soon passed long rows of houses, (private [dwellings) ]all the work about the doors, [stoop], &c., of which, was composed of this pretty marble, glittering in the [sun, ] [ lie like ]glass. We arrived at [Fairmount,—got ]out of the [stage, ]and [ pe prepared ]to look around. The [hill, ](Fairmount) is very high, and on top of it is the [great ]reservoir. After leaving the stage, I passed up the [road, ]till I came to the wire bridge which stretches across the Schuylkill [(or Delaware, darned if I know which!—the former, I believe,—but you, know], for you are a better scholar than I am)]. This is the first bridge of the kind I ever saw.9 Here I saw, a little above, the fine [dam, ]which [hold[s] ] back the water for the use of the Water Works. It forms [ n quite ]a nice water-fall. Seeing a park at the foot of the hill, I [entered—and ] found it one of the nicest little places about. Fat marble Cupids, in big marble vases, squirted water [ every upward ]incessantly. Here [stands ]in a kind of mausoleum, [(is that proper?) ] [ ◇ a well ]executed ]piece of sculpture, with the inscription—“Erected by the City Council of Philadelphia, to the memory of Peter Graff, the founder and inventor of the Fairmount Water Works.” The bust looks toward the dam. It is all of the purest white marble. I passed along the pavement by the [pump-house ](I don’t know what else to call [it) ]and seeing a door left open by somebody, I went in. I saw immense [water-wheels] ], &c., but if you will get a [back-number ]of the Lady’s [ b Book], you will find a better description of the [Works, ]than I can [give you.] 10 I passed on further, and saw small [steamboats], with their signs up—“For Wissahickon and [Manayunk]—25 cts.” [Geo. ]Lippard, in his “Legends of Washington and his Generals,” has rendered the [ Wa Wissahickon ]] sacred [in ]my eyes, and I shall make that [trip,—as ]well as one to Germantown, soon.11

But to proceed, again. Here was a long flight of stairs, leading to the summit of the hill. I went [up—of ]course. But I forgot to say, that at the foot of this hill a pretty white marble Naiad stands on a projecting [rock, ]and this, I must [say ]is the prettiest fountain I have seen lately. A [nice ]half-inch jet of water is thrown straight up ten or twelve feet, and descends in a shower, all over the fair water spirit. Fountains also gush out of the rock at [ the her ]feet, in every direction.12 [Well, ]arrived at the top of the hill, I see nothing but a [respectable-sized ]lake, which [ [looks] ]rather out of place in its elevated [situat‸ion‸ ed ]. I can’t say I saw [ nothing ]else, [either:—for ]here I had a magnificent view of the city. Tired of this, I passed up Coates streets, [5 or six ]squares from the hill, and came to the immense ([distributin]) ]branch of the Works. It is built of a kind of dirty yellow stone, and in the style of an ancient feudal Castle. [Passing ]on, I took a squint at the [“House of Refuge,” ]([of which we used to read at ]Sunday [School),—then ] I took a look at the marble Girard College, with its long rows of marble pillars—then jumped into a [’bus, ] and posted back to the Exchange.13

[There is one fine custom observed in Phila. A gentleman is always expected to hand up a lady’s money for her. Yesterday, I sat in the front end of the ’bus, directly under the driver’s box—a lady sat opposite me. She handed me her money, which was right. But, Lord! a St. Louis lady would think herself ruined, if she should be so familiar with a stranger. In St. Louis, a man will stan sit, in the front end of the stage, and see a lady [ star stagger ]from the far end, to pay her fare. The Phila. ’bus drivers cannot cheat. In the front end of the stage is a thing like [and] ] office clock, with figures, from 0 to 40, marked on its face. When the stage starts, the [hands] ] of the clock [is ]turned toward the 0. When you get in and pay your fare, the driver strikes a bell, and the hand moves to the fig. 1—that is, “one fare, and paid for,” and there is [ re your ]receipt, as good as if you had it in your pocket. When a passenger pays his fare and the driver does not strike the bell immediately, ‸he‸ is greeted “Strike that [bell,! ]will you?”

I must close now. I intend visiting the Navy Yard, Mint, &c. before I write again. You must write often. You see I have nothing to write interesting to you, while you can write nothing that will not interest me. Don’t say my letters are not long enough. Tell Jim to write. Tell all the boys where I am, and to write. Jim Robinson,14 particularly. I wrote to him from N.Y. Tell me all that is going on in H—l.15

Truly your brother

Sam ]

. . . .

Philadelphia is rich in Revolutionary associations.16 I stepped into the State House yesterday to see the sights. In one of the halls, on a pedestal, is the old cracked “Independence Bell,” bearing the inscription “Proclaim [liberty ]throughout the land,” or something to that effect. It was cast 25 or 30 years before it made this proclamation. It was rung for the first time on “Independence Day,” when it “proclaimed liberty” by calling the people together to hear the Declaration of Independence read.17 It is an interesting relic. A small pine bench or pew in this Hall bears this inscription—“Washington, Franklin and Bishop White18 sat on this Bench.” Of course, I “sot down” on it. I would have whittled off a chip, if I had got half a chance. On the pedestal of the statue of Washington, in the same Hall, is a small block of granite, with the inscription—“A piece of the step on which the Secretary’s foot rested when he read the Declaration of Independence.” Full length portraits of William Penn and Lafayette hang in this Hall. There is another thing which should have a place in this Hall. It is a flag which I saw in New York. It was the personal property of Washington, and was planted on the Battery when the British evacuated New York. After that, it was not used until the laying of the corner stone of the Washington Monument. Then this faded and tattered, though time-honored relic of “the days that tried men’s souls,”19 was taken to Washington and unfurled to the breeze at that ceremony. It is said that when the procession reached the Monumental ground in Washington, the flag was unfurled and the announcement made—“This flag belonged to Washington; it proudly waved defiance to the British from the Battery when they evacuated New York; it is here now to display the stars and stripes under which its illustrious owner so nobly fought”—the multitude gazed on it for a moment, and then a shout went up that would have sent the blood from the cheek of a tyrant.

I came here from New York by way of the Camden and Amboy railroad—the same on which the collision occurred some time since. I never thought of this till our train stopped, “all of a sudden,” and then began to go backwards like blazes. Then ran back half a mile, and switched off on another track, and stopped; and the next moment a large passenger train came round a bend in the road, and whistled past us like lightning! Ugh! ejaculated I, as I [looked ]to see if Mr. [Clemens’s ]bones were all safe. If we had been three seconds later getting off that [track], the two locomotives would have come together, and we should no doubt have been helped off. The conductors silenced all questions by not answering them.20

S. C.

Sam]

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Since Clemens reveals in his second paragraph that he was at work in Philadelphia by Sunday, 23 October, his further statement that he received the “last number” of Orion’s Hannibal Journal “at least two weeks before I left New York,” together with his earlier comment that he had received it “the other day” (8 Oct 53 to PAM), suggests that he made the trip by steamboat and rail on the afternoon of 19, 20, or 21 October. See also note 20.

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2 Clemens presumably enclosed a “Liberty Head” gold dollar, the only such coin then in circulation. Between 1849 and 1854 the United States Treasury minted more than 12.6 million of these dollars, which each weighed about one-twentieth of an ounce and measured one-half inch in diameter (Reed, 195).

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3 Jesper Harding’s Pennsylvania Inquirer and National Gazette was the city’s largest morning newspaper, located at 57 South Third Street in the heart of the newspaper district between Market and Chestnut streets (McElroy, 112). In contrast with Clemens’s “permanent situation” in New York (see 31 Aug 53 to JLC), his employment in Philadelphia consisted of substituting temporarily for one or another of the Inquirer’s regular compositors (“subbing”). Under this system, which was used only on newspapers, he was paid on a piecework basis, although probably at somewhat higher rates than a compositor could earn in a book and job office.

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4 Of the three type sizes that Clemens names, agate was the smallest and bourgeois the largest. His comment about a “good agate take,” or assignment of copy, implies that somewhat higher wages were paid for work done in the smallest type sizes: agate, pearl, and (the smallest) diamond.

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5 Twenty-nine omnibus routes (utilizing 275 four- and six-horse coaches) radiated from the Merchants’ Exchange and Post Office Building at Walnut, Dock, and Third streets, near the Camden and Amboy ferry slip (“Omnibus Travel,” Philadelphia Public Ledger, 17 July 54, 2).

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6 “Fip” was a local term meaning “fippenny,” or fivepenny, bit (called a “sixpence” in New York). This silver coin, actually a Spanish half real, circulated in the United States until 1857; it was the equivalent of about six cents (one-sixteenth of a Spanish dollar).

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7 The building under construction has not been identified. Clemens compares the height of its pillars to George W. Caplinger’s Hannibal grocery store, on Main Street, between Bird and Centre streets (“Mr. G. W. Caplinger . . .,” Hannibal Journal, 16 Sept 52, 3; Hannibal Census, 311). When Orion published this letter in the Muscatine Journal, he substituted the phrase “25 or 30 feet high” for “about as high as Caplinger’s second story front windows.”

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8 Compare Exodus 10:21–22. “Egyptian darkness” or “Egyptian night,” meaning unrelieved, impenetrable blackness, was one of Clemens’s favorite metaphors.

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9 Fairmount Bridge, about three hundred and fifty feet long, spanned the Schuylkill, not the Delaware. It was the first cable suspension bridge in the United States. Designed and built by Col. Charles Ellet, Jr. (1810–62), it served the city from 1842 to 1875 (Jackson, 4:1200–1201). Orion omitted Clemens’s parenthetical comment here, as well as one a few lines further on—“(is that proper?).” Both were presumably too personal to be published in the Muscatine Journal.

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10 Clemens probably refers not to a description proper, but to an engraving, captioned “Schuylkill Water Works,” that appeared as a frontispiece in the September 1840 issue of Godey’s Lady’s Book, and Ladies’ American Magazine, published in Philadelphia and edited by Sarah J. Hale, Lydia H. Sigourney, and Louis A. Godey. The engraving was intended to illustrate a poem published in the same issue, “Fairmount,” by Catherine L. Brooke (142). Philadelphia’s famous waterworks at Fairmount had been constructed in 1812–15. By 1822 the Schuylkill had been dammed to provide the necessary power (replacing the original use of steam) to raise the river water to the reservoirs atop Fairmount, about one hundred feet. Clemens mentions this dam and the building which housed the waterwheels and pumps. At the foot of the hill was Fairmount Gardens, where the city had placed an elaborate cenotaph containing the white marble bust of Frederick Graff (1774–1847), superintendent and chief designer and engineer of the water-supply system. The monument was engraved on one side, “To the Memory of Frederick Graff Who Designed and Executed the Fairmount Water Works”; and on the other side, “Erected by the City Councils of Philadelphia June 1 1848” (R. A. Smith, 45–51; Jackson, 3:733–35).

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11 Germantown was just north of the city proper, adjacent to Manayunk, a small manufacturing town on the east bank of the Schuylkill, a source of ample water power. Just below Manayunk, picturesque Wissahickon Creek flowed into the Schuylkill. Philadelphia journalist, author of romances, and visionary George Lippard (1822–54) was particularly enamored of the Wissahickon: he was married on its banks, he lived for a time near it, and he used it as a setting in several of his books. Legends of the American Revolution; or, Washington and His Generals (1847) was, according to its dedication, “an earnest attempt to embody the scenes of the Past, in a series of Historical pictures” (iii). Lippard died in Philadelphia on 9 February 1854, shortly before Clemens left the city (“George Lippard . . .,” Philadelphia Public Ledger, 10 Feb 54, 2).

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12 Probably “Spirit of the Schuylkill,” one of several works by the American sculptor William Rush (1756–1833) which stood in Fairmount Gardens.

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13 Clemens appears to have mistaken Eastern Penitentiary, on Coates Street between Schuylkill Front and Schuylkill Third streets, for the distributing branch of the waterworks. No such building is described in his own guidebook to Philadelphia, but (as its map shows) the penitentiary was just four or five blocks along Coates. This was a very large structure. “The front is in the castellated style of architecture, having heavy square towers sixty-five feet high, and a splendid arched gateway, with portcullis and central tower” (Scharf and Westcott, 3:1834–35), easily mistaken for “the style of an ancient feudal Castle.” The House of Refuge was just another six blocks along Coates, between Schuylkill Seventh and Eighth streets, near the intersection with Ridge Road. It was a reform school for white juveniles, which received its first inmate in December 1828. The school had recently expanded, building anew at the corner of Parrish and William streets, to accommodate blacks, but Clemens appears to have seen only the older building (R. A. Smith, 141–43). If he then turned northwest on Ridge Road, he was within five blocks of Girard College. Founded by the American shipping magnate and financier Stephen Girard (1750–1831), who provided $3 million for construction and an endowment, the college had offered free education to white, male orphans since 1848. An engraving of the college’s main building, designed after a Greek temple, with thirty-four Corinthian columns each fifty-five feet high, was the frontispiece for Clemens’s guidebook, R. A. Smith’s Philadelphia as It Is, in 1852, which also gave a very full description in the text (Scharf and Westcott, 3:1944–48; R. A. Smith, 119–31; Jackson, 3:726).

Schuylkill Water Works, engraving by W. H. Bartlett (frontispiece, Godey’s Lady’s Book, September 1840; see p. 25, n. 10).

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14 Neither “Jim” nor Jim Robinson has been identified.

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15 Clemens’s abbreviation for “Hannibal” (“H—l”) was calculated to remind Orion of the time he had gone to St. Louis, leaving his brother in charge of the Hannibal Journal for the week of 6–13 May 1853. Clemens had seized this opportunity to generate a mock feud over the ambiguity of a dedication, “To Miss Katie of H—l,” to the poem entitled “Love Concealed.” Upon his return to Hannibal, Orion publicly dismissed the fuss as “a great bore to us, and doubtless to the public generally” (ET&S1, 7, 91–102).

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16 Beginning with this sentence (and barring the final postscript, which is in manuscript) the only surviving text is in the Muscatine Journal, where Orion published what he described as an “extract from a private letter to the senior editor.” The extant manuscript shows that he omitted the first three paragraphs of the letter (indicating the omission with asterisks), as well as the two paragraphs immediately preceding the signature, the signature itself, and an unknown amount of text following it. The exact status of these two paragraphs following the signature remains problematic, but there is no decisive evidence to refute Orion’s statement that he published an extract from a single letter. Since the paragraphs report further sightseeing performed “yesterday,” they must have been written at least one or two days after the part of the letter written on 26 October. Although these passages do not mention either the mint or the navy yard, which Clemens had earlier promised to visit, they do mention the State House (within a few blocks of the mint), and they allude directly to Clemens’s recent trip from New York to Philadelphia. Presumably Clemens added a postscript to the original letter (which ends with a blank verso) by starting on a fresh sheet with a new date: but Orion omitted this part of the text along with the concluding paragraphs of the first section, making the two parts read continuously as a letter written on 26 October. It is conceivable that Clemens actually sent two letters, but the sole documentary basis for this part of the letter (or letters) represents it as a single document.

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17 The inscription is from Leviticus 25:10: “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof.” Originally cast in 1752, and then recast twice in 1753, the bell hung for many years in the tower of the State House. It was rung on 8 July 1776 at the first reading of the Declaration of Independence in Independence Square. The bell cracked in 1835, and again in 1846.

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18 The Right Reverend William White (1748–1836), rector of Christ Church in Philadelphia for most of his life, became a chaplain of Congress during the Revolution and numbered many of its leaders among his congregation. In 1786 he was elected the first bishop of the new diocese of Pennsylvania, and in 1796 he became the Protestant Episcopal church’s presiding bishop.

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19 Thomas Paine in The American Crisis (1776–83): “These are the times that try men’s souls.”

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20 Clemens presumably took the 2:00 p.m. Express Line (cost, three dollars) to Philadelphia. This trip lasted four and a half hours: by steamboat from New York to South Amboy, New Jersey, and from there by rail to Camden, and by ferry across the Delaware River to the wharf at Walnut Street (advertisement, New York Tribune, 6 Oct 53, 3; R. A. Smith, 411). The collision Clemens recalls was one between two passenger trains on the Camden and Amboy line which occurred on 9 August 1853. Four passengers were killed, and several others seriously injured, when the trains collided head on on a curve near Old Bridge, New Jersey (“Another Railroad Tragedy,” New York Times, 10 Aug 53, 1; “The Camden and Amboy Railroad Accident—Verdict of the Jury,” Philadelphia Public Ledger, 13 Aug 53, 1).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, Vassar College Library (NPV), is copy-text for the first part of the letter, ‘Philadelphia . . . Sam’ (19.1–23.4), and for the note ‘Please . . . Sam’ (24.9–11). A contemporary transcript presumably set from the MS, “From Philadelphia,” Muscatine Journal (weekly) (11 Nov 53), 1, is copy-text for the remainder of the letter, ‘Philadelphia . . . S. C.’ (23.6–24.8). Newsprint was examined in the collections of the P. M. Musser Public Library, Muscatine, Iowa (IaMu), and the Historical Library, The State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines. The Journal text appeared under the heading:
From Philadelphia.
Tomb of Franklin—Planted Cannon—The
Exchange—Ride to Fairmount—Philadelphia
Marble—Fairmount Water Works—
RevolutionaryAssociations, &c. Extract from a
private letter to the senior editor, dated
Philadelphia, Oct. 26, 1853.
The Journal text itself consists of: ‘* * * * * The grave . . . Exchange.’ (20.16–22.19) followed with no break or sign of omission by the section for which the Journal is copy-text. Orion Clemens, being “the senior editor,” was probably the one primarily responsible for the editing of this letter as it was printed in the Journal. He may even have set the type for the letter himself. Collation of the MS and the Journal printing, presented below, shows the nature and extent of the changes Orion felt free to make when publishing his brother’s letter, and suggests the kinds of changes he probably imposed on the parts of this letter, as well as on other letters, for which MS does not survive. Besides correcting lapses, he altered sentence breaks, paragraphing, hyphenation of compound words, and other punctuation. He sometimes misread the MS, changed the language to suit his own taste, omitted words he may have found offensive, such as ‘infernal’ (21.8), and deleted personal remarks addressed to himself and discussion of the personal affairs of his brother or other members of the family.

Previous publication: L1, 19–28; in addition to the copy-text, MTB, 1:99–100, excerpts from MS; MTL, 1:25–28, text of MS, with omissions; Lorch 1929, 410–13, text of Muscatine Journal.

Provenance:See McKinney Family Papers, pp. 459–61. About 1880, Orion Clemens numbered each page of the MS in ink for inclusion in his autobiography. He also used a pencil to make eleven changes in the MS and to write ‘Transfer to end’ in the upper left corner of the first MS page, with a line running to Clemens’s note ‘Please . . . Sam’ (24.9–11). Orion was evidently directing a transcriber or compositor where to place Clemens’s note, which is written across the first paragraph of the letter. For several reasons, it is probable that Orion marked the MS in pencil at the same time he added the ink page numbers, in 1880, not in 1853. Orion’s marks in the MS do not correspond to the Journal text: most of the changes in the Journal text were not marked in the MS, and most of the changes marked in the MS were made in passages not printed in the Journal. The Journal did not print the end of the letter or the cross-written note Orion wanted placed there, nor did it include the passages in which Orion made seven of his eleven MS changes. True, the Journal does incorporate the four changes Orion made in the part of the MS printed there, but all are changes of the sort an editor would have to make to produce a corrected and grammatically conventional text: three (21.10, 21.23, and 22.10) are necessary corrections of lapses in the MS, and one, the addition of a comma following ‘That is’ (20.31) where the MS all but calls out for a comma, is virtually a correction as well. Finally, the entire texture of the two sets of changes—the ones made in the Journal text and those marked in the MS—is different. Orion edited the letter for the Journal with a free hand, shaping it to suit himself, but he marked the MS scarcely at all. Besides the added comma at 20.31, he made only one other change in the MS that is not a necessary correction: he replaced Clemens’s somewhat idiosyncratic ‘of’ by more conventional ‘from’ at 19.20. In 1880 Clemens felt that Orion had followed his advice to write the autobiography “in a plain, simple, truthful way, suppressing none of the disagreeables” (9 June 80 to W. D. Howells, MH-H, in MTHL, 1:312); Orion’s light editing of the MS of this letter for inclusion in the autobiography is evidently part of that simplicity. Interestingly enough, where Clemens omitted a necessary verb at 22.10, Orion supplied ‘looks’ in the Journal text, but he penciled ‘is’, a less suitable choice, in the MS. This difference suggests that Orion did not have a copy of the Journal text at hand when marking the MS for inclusion in his autobiography. Orion sold his interest in the Muscatine Journal in June 1855; the publisher’s file of the Journal is probably the one now in the Musser Public Library.

Emendations and textual notes:

[MS is copy-text for ‘Philadelphia . . . Sam’]

the three • theree [‘r’ over ‘e’]

b devil • [‘d’ over partly formed ‘b’ or ‘t’]

del deal • delal [‘a’ over ‘l’]

m Monday • [‘M’ over ‘m’]

hankerchief • [sic]

State. On • State.— |On

will (when • w‸hen‸ ill ‸(when‸ [‘hen’ over ‘ill’. Although ‘w‸hen‸ill’ was only marginally legible, Clemens let it stand and continued the sentence, perhaps until, the closing parenthesis following ‘Ky;’ (19.24) having made an opening parenthesis necessary, he rewrote ‘when’ as ‘(when’.]

and • and | andand • and |and (MS); and |and (MS—OC)

encouraging • encuouraging [‘o’ over ‘u’]

n “it’s • [quotation mark above possible partly formed ‘n’]

than • [sic] than (MS) • that n [‘t’ over ‘n’] (MS—OC)

th it • [‘it’ over ‘th’]

side walk • [possibly ‘sidewalk’] side walk (MS) • sidewalk, (J)

on in • o in [‘i’ over ‘o’]

we where • wehere [‘h’ over ‘e’]

parts. of • parts.of [deletion implied] parts. of • parts. of (MS); parts‸ of (J)

out-skirts • out-|skirtsout-skirts • out-|skirts (MS); outskirts (J)

is. We • is.— |Weis. We (J) • is.— |We (MS)

h large • [‘l’ over ‘h’]

p building • [‘b’ over ‘p’]

this these • thisese [‘e’ over ‘is’]

massy • [Clemens wiped something out before writing this word in the same space, but no trace of any prior inscription is legible; as many as three characters could have been written in the space, or Clemens may have wiped away something as meaningless as a blot of ink.] massy; (MS) • massy, (J)

building • biluilding [‘u’ over ‘il’]

lie like • lieke [‘k’ over ‘e’]

pe prepared • perepared [‘r’ over ‘e’]

you, know • [sic] (or . . . am) (MS) • [not in] (J)

n quite • [‘q’ over ‘n’]

every upward • [‘upwa’ over ‘every’]

◇ a well • [‘a’ over unrecovered wiped out character] well executed (MS) • well-executed (J)

water-|wheels • water-wheelswater-|wheels • water-wheels (MS); water wheels (J)

b Book • [‘B’ over ‘b’]

Wa Wissahickon • Waissahickon [‘i’ over ‘a’] Wissahickon (MS) • Wassahickon (J)

the her • ther [originally ‘the’ but ‘t’ never crossed; ‘t’ canceled; ‘r’ added]

situat‸ion‸ ed • [‘ion’ over ‘ed’]

distributin • [sic] (distributin) (MS) • (distributing) (J)

star stagger • stargger [‘g’ over ‘r’]

and • [sic] and and (MS) • and (MS—OC)

hands • [sic] hands (MS) • hands (MS—OC)

is • [sic]

re your • [‘yo’ over ‘re’]

bell,! • [exclamation point over comma]

[Muscatine Journal is copy-text for ‘Philadelphia . . . S. C.’]

liberty • libert[y]

looked • looked

Clemens’s • C——’s [As in 24 Aug 53 to JLC, Orion’s newspaper disguised the personal name.]

track • track Philadelphia . . . S. C. (J) • [not in] (MS)

[MS is copy-text for ‘Please . . . Sam’]

∎ Collation:  This collation reports variants of four kinds: Samuel Clemens’s inscription in the MS (labeled MS); Orion Clemens’s changes in the MS (MS—OC); the readings of the Muscatine Journal (J); and the readings of this edition when they differ from all three texts.

Philadelphia, Pa. (MS) • Philadelphia, (J)

I[t] • I (MS); It (MS—OC)

of the (MS) • of ‸from‸ the (MS—OC)

and • and |and (MS); and |and (MS—OC)

the[y] • the (MS); they (MS—OC)

than (MS) • that n [‘t’ over ‘n’] (MS—OC)

My . . . home. [¶] The (MS) • [¶] * * * * * The (J)

Church-yard (MS) • Church yard (J)

cor. (MS) • corner (J)

cannons (6 pounders) (MS) • cannons, (6 pounders,) (J)

side walk (MS) • sidewalk, (J)

st. (MS) • street, (J)

ground, (MS) • ground,‸ (J)

water; they (MS) • water. They (J)

manner, (MS) • manner,‸ (J)

churches, (MS) • churches,‸ (J)

N.Y. (MS) • New York. (J)

That is (MS) • That is, (MS—OC); That is, (J)

parts. of • parts. of (MS); parts‸ of (J)

[no ¶] Well (MS) • [¶] Well (J)

heathen (MS) • heathens (J)

get towards (MS) • near (J)

out-skirts • out-|skirts (MS); outskirts (J)

always (MS) • always (J)

is. We (J) • is.— |We (MS)

beautiful (MS) • beautiful, (J)

base, (MS) • base‸ (J)

about . . . windows. (MS) • 25 or 30 feet high. (J)

and then the (MS) • with (J)

the other was (MS) • others are (J)

massy; (MS) • massy, (J)

imagination, (MS) • imagination‸ (J)

the infernal (MS) • [not in] (J)

[no ¶] Marble (MS) • [¶] Marble (J)

Phila. (MS) • Philadelphia. (J)

I[t] • I (MS); It (MS—OC); It (J)

dwellings) (MS) • dwellings,) (J)

stoop (MS) • stoops (J)

sun, (MS) • sun‸ (J)

Fairmount,—got • Fairmount, |—got (MS); Fairmount,‸got (J)

stage, (MS) • stage‸ (J)

hill, (MS) • hill‸ (J)

great (MS) • [not in] (J)

road, (MS) • road‸ (J)

(or . . . am) (MS) • [not in] (J)

dam, (MS) • dam‸ (J)

hold[s] • hold (MS); holds (MS—OC); holds (J)

entered—and (MS) • entered‸ and (J)

stands (MS) • stands, (J)

(is that proper?) (MS) • [not in] (J)

well executed (MS) • well-executed (J)

pump-house (MS) • pump-house, (J)

it) (MS) • it,) (J)

water-|wheels • water-wheels (MS); water wheels (J)

back-number (MS) • back number (J)

Works, (MS) • Works‸ (J)

give you. [no ¶] I (MS) • give. [¶] I (J)

steamboats (MS) • steam |boats (J)

Manayunk (MS) • Wamoyunk (J)

Geo. (MS) • George (J)

Wissahickon (MS) • Wassahickon (J)

in (MS) • to (J)

trip,—as (MS) • trip‸ as (J)

up—of (MS) • up, of (J)

rock, (MS) • rock; (J)

say (MS) • say, (J)

nice (MS) • [not in] (J)

[no ¶] Well (MS) • [¶] Well (J)

respectable-sized (MS) • respectably-sized (J)

[looks] • [not in] (MS); ‸is‸ (MS—OC); looks (J)

nothing (MS) • nothing (J)

either:—for (MS) • either‸—for (J)

5 or six (MS) • five or six (J)

(distributin) (MS) • (distributing) (J)

[no ¶] Passing (MS) • [¶] Passing (J)

“House of Refuge,” (MS) • ‸House of Refuge,‸ (J)

of which . . . at (MS) • which . . . about at (J)

School),—then (MS) • School;)‸‸then (J)

’bus, (MS) • ’bus‸ (J)

and (MS) • and (MS—OC)

hands (MS) • hands (MS—OC)

There . . . Sam (MS) • [not in] (J)

Philadelphia . . . S. C. (J) • [not in] (MS)

Please . . . Sam (MS) • [not in] (J)