To the Muscatine Tri-Weekly Journal
5 March 1855 • St. Louis, Mo.
(Muscatine Tri-Weekly Journal, 14 Mar 55, UCCL 00009)

St. Louis, March 5th.

Business on the levee to-day was rather brisk, and several boats went [out. Yesterday ]and to-day were as bright and pleasant as any one could wish, and fires were abolished, I hope for the [season. March ]has “come in like a lamb,” but many fear it will “go out like a [lion.” The ]river is on a stand at present, but not a particle of ice visible. The James Trabue was lost on the Red River on the 17th ult.1

James Reilly, lately book-keeper at the Democrat office, in this city, went with a friend to take a buggy ride in Illinois, day before yesterday, but had not proceeded far on their excursion when they met two Germans in a wagon, with whom they had a dispute, in the course of which Reilly shot one of the Germans, wounding him. The two St. Louisans then hastened back to the ferry landing, for the purpose of escaping to the city, but the officers of the boat having heard of the transaction, detained them until they were arrested by a constable. Reilly was drunk at the time of the occurrence.2

The examination of witnesses in the O’Blennis murder case will be concluded to-night. The excitement which this tragedy created has subsided, but the people are still anxious to know how the trial will [terminate ]—though, to tell the truth, few expect justice to be done. I doubt if there are a hundred people in St. Louis that do not think O’Blennis ought to be hung, and the number is still less that expect him to be punished at all. Since Jackson and Ward escaped [hanging, people ]seem to have very little confidence in courts of justice.3

The Hospital returns for the past week number 52; the [cemetery ]report I have not seen, though I think sickness is on the increase. There is some small pox in the city, but the number of cases is unimportant. Persons afflicted with this disease are immediately conveyed to the pest hospital, and it is thus prevented from spreading.

[Jamieson], the [tragedian], is playing an engagement at the People’s Theatre. He appears as Ingomar to-night.4 Sol. Smith has purchased Bate’s Theatre, and will open with a new company shortly.5 The Varieties is idle.

The March term of the Criminal Court opened this morning, with one hundred and fifty-five cases on docket, but not a single murder in the list, which is something unusual.

Fourteen convicts were sent off by the Banner State for Jefferson City, [to-day. Hyde], the poet, who recently attempted to commit suicide in jail, could not go, the state of his wound not yet permitting him to travel.6

st. louis market.

Hemp $95 to $105. Lead [$5 50. Flour ]ranges from $8 to $9 50. Wheat, fair white, from $1 65 to $1 80; red, from $1 70 to $1 85. Oats 50c. Barley $1 45. Mess Pork $12 50. Prime Lard 8c. Hay 85 to 90c per 100 [lbs. Potatoes ]$2 to $2 25 per bushel. Navy Beans range from $1 50 to 2 per bushel. Eggs (retail) 30c per dozen—other articles in proportion.7

S. L. C.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Clemens was interested in the James Trabue because, for six months before its trip to the Red River (where it sank near Campti, Louisiana, on 17 February), it had been in the St. Louis–New Orleans trade. For this letter he again drew on news items from the St. Louis press, primarily the Missouri Republican of 5 March.

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2 On 12 March, Reilly was acquitted of the charge of wounding Hugo Meir, on the grounds that he was acting in self-defense (“The Illinoistown Murder,” St. Louis Missouri Democrat, 13 Mar 55, 3).

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3 In May 1854 William A. Jackson shot and killed James B. Laidlaw while on a buggy ride. Jackson, a dancer, and Laidlaw, a scenery painter, were both employed at the People’s Theatre in St. Louis. After Jackson’s capture that August he was indicted for first-degree murder, but on 7 December, after only twenty-four hours’ deliberation, the jury acquitted him, much to the public’s dismay (“Jackson Acquitted,” St. Louis Missouri Democrat, 8 Dec 54, 3; St. Louis Missouri Republican: “Murder,” 6 May 54, 2; “To Be Tried for Murder,” 20 Aug 54, 3; “Jackson’s Trial,” 10 Dec 54, 2). In November 1853 the wealthy and socially prominent Matthew F. Ward shot and killed William H. G. Butler, a respected high-school teacher and principal in Louisville, Kentucky, in the presence of his students. Butler had reprimanded Ward’s younger brother, one of his students, for lying. Brought to trial in April 1854, Ward was found not guilty. Clemens was in Philadelphia at the time of the murder, which received detailed coverage in the local newspapers (for example, “The Louisville Tragedy,” Philadelphia Public Ledger, 14 Nov 53, 1). Several current reports in St. Louis papers had mentioned Ward as a notorious unpunished murderer (“The Cry of Blood throughout the Land,” St. Louis Intelligencer, 5 Mar 55, 2; “In the Hands of the Law,” St. Louis Evening News, 5 Mar 55, 2).

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4 George W. Jamieson (1812–68) had been an important actor and playwright in Edwin Forrest’s company before being named chief corespondent in the scandalous Forrest divorce case of 1851, which permanently blighted his career. The Missouri Republican called his 5 March performance in the title role of Ingomar the Barbarian—Maria A. Lovell’s popular translation of Der Sohn der Wildnis by Friedrich Halm (Baron Eligius von Münch-Bellinghausen)—“finely conceived and admirably executed” (“People’s Theatre,” 6 Mar 55, 3; Mantle and Sherwood, 461).

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5 Clemens was apparently repeating a rumor here, source unknown. Solomon F. Smith (1801–69), the famed comedian and theatrical manager, had withdrawn from his extensive management concerns in 1853 and begun to practice law in St. Louis. Although on 1 May 1855 the theater formerly owned by John Bates reopened as the St. Louis Theatre (the name that Smith and his partner, Noah M. Ludlow (1795–1886), had previously used for their playhouse), there is no evidence that either Smith or Ludlow was connected with it (“The St. Louis Theatre,” St. Louis Missouri Republican, 30 Apr 55, 2; Noah M. Ludlow, 708–9). Both men published exhaustive memoirs of their theater years in which they made no mention of an involvement with a second St. Louis Theatre (see the reference list).

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6 Jefferson City was the site of the Missouri state penitentiary. Thomas L. Hyde, a nineteen-year-old Louisianan, became known as the “felon poet” for the newspaper verse he wrote from his prison cell. Convicted in January 1855 for burglary and larceny, Hyde slashed his left arm at the elbow in late February. Following his pardon and a subsequent conviction and release, Hyde killed himself by swallowing arsenic in March 1858 (St. Louis Missouri Republican: “Criminal Court,” 18 Jan 55, 3; “Suicide Attempted by a Jail Prisoner,” 25 Feb 55, 3; “Suicide of Thomas L. Hyde,” 22 Mar 58, 2; St. Louis Missouri Democrat: “Crazed,” 23 Oct 57, 3).

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7 Clemens’s source was “Semi-Weekly Review St. Louis Market” (St. Louis Missouri Republican, 5 Mar 55, 2).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

“Correspondence of the ‘Journal’,” Muscatine Tri-Weekly Journal, 14 Mar 55, 2, in the P. M. Musser Public Library, Muscatine, Iowa (IaMu), and the Historical Library, The State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines.

Previous publication: L1, 55–62; Branch 1942, 26–27.

Provenance:The Musser Public Library file of the Muscatine Journal may be the one kept by the publisher.

Emendations and textual notes:

out. Yesterday • out.— |Yesterday

season. March • season.— |March

lion.” The • lion.”— |The

terminate • terminato

hanging, people • hanging, people

cemetery • cemetry

Jamieson • Jameison

tragedian • trag[e]dian

to-day. Hyde • to-day.— |Hyde

$5 50. Flour • $5 50.— |Flour

lbs. Potatoes • lbs.— |Potatoes