Saint Louis, Thursday,—M.1
Dear Aunt Betsey:2
Ma has not written you, because she did not ‸know‸ when I would get started down the river again—and sh I could not write, because, between you and I, Aunt Betsey, for once in my life I didn’t know any more than my own mother—she could not tell when she and the coal-tinted white tom-cat might hope to get rid of me, and I was in the same lamentable state of ignorance myself.
You see, Aunt Betsey, I made but one trip on the packet after you left, and then concluded to remain at home awhile.3 I have just discovered, this morning, that I am to go to New Orleans on the Col. Chambers—“fine, light-draught, swift running passenger steamer—all modern accommodations—and improvements—through with dispatch—for freight or passage apply on board or to”—but—I have forgotten the agent’s name—however, it makes no difference4—and as I was saying, or had intended to say, Aunt Betsey, ‸ that ‸ probably, if you are ready to come up, you had better take the “Ben Lewis,” the best boat in the packet line. She will be at Cape Girardeau at noon on Saturday (day after tomorrow,) and will reach here at breakfast time Sunday.5 If Mr. Hamilton is Chief Clerk,—very well. I am slightly acquainted with him.6 And if Messrs. Carter, Gray and Dean Somebody (I have forgotten his other name,) [ —very well are in the ]pilot-house—very well again—I am acquainted with them.7 Just tell Mr. Gray, Aunt Betsey—that I wish him to place himself at your command.
All the family are well except [myself—I ] am in a bad way again—disease, Love, in its most malignant form. Hopes are entertained of my recovery, however. At the dinner-table, [ I— ]excellent symptom—I am still as “terrible as an army with banners.”8
Aunt Betsey—the wickedness of this world—but I haven’t time to moralize this morning.
Good-bye.
Sam. Clemens
P. S.—All send their love.
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
She wasn’t anybody’s aunt in
particular, she was aunt to the whole town of Hannibal; this
was because of her sweet and generous and benevolent nature
and the winning simplicity of her character. . . . She and
my mother were very much alive; their age counted for
nothing; they were fond of excitement, fond of novelties,
fond of anything going that was of a sort proper for members
of the church to indulge in. . . . they were always ready
for Fourth of July processions, Sunday-school processions,
lectures, conventions, camp-meetings, revivals in the
church—in fact, for any and every kind of
dissipation that could not be proven to have anything
irreligious about it—and they never missed a
funeral. (AD, 30 Nov 1906, CU-MARK, in AMT, 62) In 1894 Clemens used Elizabeth Smith and his mother
as the models for Aunt Patsy Cooper and Aunt Betsy Hale in
“Those Extraordinary Twins.” In 1897 he used
Mrs. Smith as the model for “old aunt Betsy
Davis” in “Hellfire Hotchkiss” (Inds, 109–33), and a year later
for the “widow Dawson” in the
“Schoolhouse Hill” version of The Mysterious Stranger (MSM, 175–220).
I believe he once saved my life, his own and six others. Our
steamer was lying above Cairo on a sand-bar. We were out of
wood, and the captain ordered Sam, me and the six roustabouts to
get in a yawl and row up the river and bring down a flat-boat
loaded with wood. The river was full of floating ice. We rowed
up on the opposite bank from the flat-boat. The ice was running
almost solid, with an occasional opening by the ice blocking up.
We took advantage of these openings to shoot across the river.
When we got into the channel a short distance I saw the danger
we were encountering. The ice was liable to close in on us and
drown the whole outfit. I appealed to Sam to row back. There was
an opening in the rear. Sam resolutely said
“No.” In another minute the ice broke in
the path behind the boat and crushed by with terrific force. Had
we turned back when I suggested it, we would have been
“goners,” every mother’s son of
us. Sam’s judgment was not questioned again on that
trip. (Grant Marsh 1881, no
page) Clemens later confirmed this account (marginal comment on Joseph M.
Hanson to SLC, 9 July 1906, CU-MARK) and in turn praised Marsh’s
skill in piloting the flatboat down to the stranded steamer: When we were taking that wood flat down to the Chambers, which was
aground, I soon saw that I was a perfect lubber at piloting such a
thing. I saw that I could never hit the Chambers with it, so I
resigned in Marsh’s favor, and he accomplished the task
to my admiration. We should all have gone to mischief if I had
remained in authority. (Ca. late Aug 81 to John B. Downing, MTL, 2:496–97, misdated 1888) The Chambers finally reached Cairo safely on 29
December, and continued downriver to New Orleans on 31 December
(“River News,” St. Louis Missouri Republican, 30 Dec 59, 5). The boat subsequently
grounded at about the site of the December grounding on 3 February 1860,
while on its fourth and final trip before returning to the Missouri
trade, but the weather conditions on that occasion do not correspond to
those in Marsh’s account.
Source text(s):Previous publication:
L1, 93–96; MTL, 1:44–45, misdated (see p. 94, n. 1), with omissions.
Provenance:Robert Daley provided CU-MARK with a photographic facsimile of the MS in August
1976.
Emendations and textual notes:
—very well are in the •
—very [
l]
are in the [‘are in the’ over ‘—very’ and
possible ‘well’]
myself—I • myself| [—] I [dash obscured on photocopy by crease in MS; MTL reads ‘myself—I’]
I— • [dash over ‘I’]
