To
William H. Clagett
28 February 1862 • Carson City, Nev. Terr.
(MS, damage emended: ViU, UCCL 00037)
‸P.S. Frank Ayres says he will take out the opera glass for me. Tell Oliver that Col. O. will send his trunk out by Weaver, if Weave concludes to go.‸ 1
Carson City, Feb. 28, 1862.
Dear Billy:
The expressman has just arrived, bringing your letter and Capt. Pfersdorff’s, and my deed and John Kinney’s.2 (Kinney leaves for the States to-morrow, overland.) Bully for you! You seem to be [ my getting ]along swimmingly. And a thousand thanks for your liberality to me. “We may be happy yet,”3 you know. Damn the day I left Unionville before there was any [necess‸it‸ ary ]for it. For I have been sitting here swearing like a trooper ever since I arrived—and so far from being able to get out of town, one can hardly even get into the street. I am glad you have secured that lot for me, for I [think, myself, it is much the best ]of the two. Speaking of that “National” ground, P. W. Van Winkle told me to-day that he had been trying to buy a portion of it, but Mr. Fall had concluded not to [sell.—]is going to keep his ground, and go out to Unionville himself.4 However, I will try and find Fall [to-morrow ]myself; and if I can get the ground for Sam, it shall be done—you bet.5 Bully for the “Annie Moffett[”]! (have you spelled it right?) I wouldn’t have had you forget Annie for anything. I shall think a good deal of that 300 feet.6
Well, Billy, I can’t tell just when I shall get back to Humboldt, but I am going to Esmeralda with Bunker in a week or ten days from now.7 It would suit me the best in the world to help shove the wagon out [again., ]and if you and Dad8 think you will be in shortly, I will time myself accordingly. [in margin: Humboldt is the [country ]for us—you bet it is.]
Keep your eye on the old man, Billy, and don’t let him get too enthusiastic, because if he does, he will begin to feel young again, like he did when he fell in the river at Honey-Lake’s;9 and being a lecherous old cuss anyhow, he might [ vi ravish ]one of those Pi-Utes and bring on an Indian war, you know. So, just keep an eye on him.
Oh, d—n that dog. He was always an ungrateful brute. Still, we stole him, and it was but natural that we should overlook his faults and love the [ so long-legged ]son-of-a-bitch anyhow. But Alas, poor [Tom! He had a good, kind ]countenance, and a tender heart, and a long nose—and he was always cold. But he hath gone the way of the beautiful—even as the flowers, that bloom, and wither and die, and are seen no more forever. Peace to his ashes, and damnation to his destroyer. Amen. But I know all about this business. “Kurney” is at the bottom of it. He always had designs against Tom’s life ever since Tom lammed him at Willow Grove.10 Now between you and I, Billy, I set that dog “Kurney” down for a bloodthirsty desperado, the first time I ever looked into his vindictive countenance. And I said to myself, “Now there is a dog which is capable of doing the darkest deeds—and [mind, you, ]my boy, he’ll die with his boots on.” I am astonished that Dad should keep such a reckless beast about him—and still more astonished that he should permit him to run at large. “[ Prodigious]!”
Good for Billy Dixon and Judge Clagett.11 Which reminds me that [ we Orion ]received a letter yesterday from his wife, in which she said your wife was very low-spirited and uneasy, and that, save through our letters, she has not heard from you since Christmas. I answered the letter right away—and if she tells your wife half I intended her to be told, I don’t think she will be uneasy any longer. May be I didn’t confine myself strictly to the truth, you know, but n’importe, my friend, “the end justifies the means,” always. She has received the letters I brought from Humboldt by this time, though. I must be on hand to help you build your house, Billy. I feel like an old hand at that business. Indeed, it [ a is ]a great source of gratification to me to review ‸my‸ efforts up there in the gulch.12 I hope I am not vain-glorious—but, if I do ‸possess‸ one shining talent, ‸I think‸ it is that of building willow houses out of rocks and dirt and things.
“Played out?” Is it true, though? Hath it actually come to pass? Amen, then—and [ a Amen. ]Sic transit gloria mundi!, glory be to God. Amen. I have swung my hat and shouted, [ “A “So ]mote it be.” Alas, how have the mighty fallen! Yet we will be merciful, and temper the wind to the shorn lamb.13
Orion went to the postoffice as soon as we had finished reading your letter, but the expressman had already been there and got everything that belonged to you. Orion told the P. M. to put your letters in our box hereafter, so that we can mail them in a large envelop. I prepaid the express on my letter to you, Billy. I hope you did not have to pay again. We intend to ‸send‸ you the envelops by the expressman to-morrow, if he will take them.
Well, Billy, tell Tom Smith14 that they’ve been and gone and done it. Old Curtis, you know. He has thrashed our Missourians like everything. But by the Lord, they didn’t do it on the Sacred Soil, my boy. They had to chase ’em clear down into Arkansas before they could whip them. There’s consolation in that. If they had remained on the Soil, Curtis couldn’t have done it. It’s all in the Soil, you know. Take a Missourian on his own soil, and he is invincible.15 Now, when I was on the soil, I used to be as terrible as an army with banners;16 but out here on this quartz foundation, you see, I don’t amount to a Damn. That’s what’s the matter with me. And they have taken Fort Henry, and Fort Donelson, and the half of Tennessee—and the stars and stripes wave over the Capitol at Nashville.17
And tell old Sam Montgomery that I have written to several different persons concerning his brother Jim, and I guess I’ll hear from some of them before long. Give my very best regards to the boys, and tell Tom to “stand by!” and be prepared to bet on the black horse18—for with the assistance of that animal and a euchre deck, we’ll make paupers of you and Sam when I get back. But I’ll be d—d if you shall starve, either of you, my lads, even [ if though ]you are Southerners. [in margin: Keep your eye skinned, Billy, and steal another dog—you and Dad.]
Convey unto Dad my most high-toned love and veneration, and tell him to learn to get up early. I get up as early as [ 7 8 ]o’clock, sometimes, on [purpose ]to enjoy the gorgeous spectacle of [ r Sunrise]. After signifying my approbation, I go back to [bed, ‸again.‸ ]I have been practising this sort of thing for [some, time], and I mean to keep it up, for I am already improving in health, and am convinced that early rising is the cause of it. By the way, has “the old man” built that chimney to Fort Briggs, yet?19 I intended to show him how to do it before I left, but I forgot it. [ T However ], tell him to copy [ of after ]the plan of the fire-place we built in the gulch, and it will do. I superintended that little piece ‸of‸ architecture, you know, and I confess that I am rather proud of it than otherwise.
And look here, you fellows. You can’t depend on the Colonel and I, d—n you, but you must send your petitions for mail routes to the Governor. And you have had your trouble for your pains, and I am not sorry. You can just learn better, now, and get up your petitions again; for they have not been heard of since the expressman delivered them at the Governor’s office. They are lost, my boy.
Billy, if you have altered your name in your seal,20 perhaps you had better send Orion a new copy to be filed here. Orion sends his love.
Orion has written to Capt. Pfersdorff, and enclosed the last dispatches. If there is anything important in the morning paper, I will send it with this.
A lot of my old St. Louis chums will be out in the Spring—and when we get Billy Dixon & the other Keokuk boys here, Oh, no, we won’t stuff ballot-boxes and go to Congress nor nothing. By no means. “I hope I’m not a oyster though I may not wish to live in crowds.” Now I don’t mean to say that Nipper’s remark is [ by at ]all pertinent, you know, but I just happened to think of “them old Skettleses,” and the quotation followed as a matter of course. And equally of course, the whole Dombey family come trooping after: Cap’en Ed’ard Cuttle, mariner, as Uncle Sol’s successor, polishing the chronometers, and making calculations concerning the ebb and flow of the human tide in the street; and watching the stars with a growing interest, as if ‸he‸ felt that he had fallen [ air heir ]to a certain amount of stock in them; and that old fool of a nurse at Brighton, who thought the house was so “gashly;” and “that Innocent,” Toots; and the fated Biler; and Florence, my darling; and “rough old Joey B., Sir;” and “Wal’r, my lad,” and the Cap’en’s eccentric timepiece, and his sugar tongs, and other little property which he [“made over” jintly;” ]and looming grandly in the rear, comes ponderous Jack Bunsby! Oh, d—n it, I wish I had the book.21 Good-bye to you all, Billy, & neglect no opportunity to write.
Your old friend
Sam.
[in pencil on a small scrap of paper, both sides:]
P.S.—Run for Recorder. We have bought a fine pair of hay-scales, and if we go to Humboldt after a while, we’ll probably have them shipped there from Folsom to weigh your quartz with. How would that pay? Then we could weigh, work the “process” and do your Recorder business and leave you entirely free when legal business was pressing.22 When you write me (to Carson, always,) mention all these things in such a way that Orion cannot understand them. I don’t care a d—n for failures and disappointments, but they nearly kill him, you know.
P.P.S. Get the right from Supervisors to put our Scales where all the rock will have to pass over them on its way to the mills.
[in ink:] Wm. H. Clagett, Esq. |Unionville, |Humboldt Co. |Nevada Ty [no postage stamp]
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
Carson City, Dec. 1st, 1861 Wm. H. Clagett, Bought of Sam. L. Clemens, One Black Horse—white face— —
$45.00 Rec’d Payment, Sam. L. Clemens. It is likely that this was the original of the “Genuine
Mexican Plug,” which, according to chapter 24 of Roughing It, Clemens was unable to sell or trade
and finally gave “to a passing Arkansas emigrant whom fortune
delivered into my hand.”
Source text(s):Previous publication:
L1, 163–169.
Provenance:deposited at ViU on 23 Apr 1960.
Emendations and textual notes:
my getting • [‘ge’ over ‘my’]
necess‸it‸ ary • [originally ‘necessary’; ‘it’ over ‘ar’]
think . . . is much . . . best • t[h]ink . . . i[s m]uch . . . b[est] [torn]
sell.— • [dash over period]
to-morrow • to-|morrow
again., • [comma over period]
country •
coun[
r]y [torn]
vi ravish • [‘ra’ over ‘vi’]
so long-legged • [‘lo’ over ‘so’]
Tom! . . . good, kind • To[m]! . . . goo[d, k]ind [torn]
mind, you, • [sic]
Prodigious • Pro-|digious
we Orion • [‘Or’ over ‘we’]
a is • [‘i’ over ‘a’]
a Amen. • [‘A’ over ‘a’]
“A “So • “‸So‸ A [‘S’ over possible ‘A’]
if though • [‘t’ over ‘if’]
7 8 • [‘8’ over ‘7’]
purpose • puprpose [‘r’ over possible ‘p’]
r Sunrise • [‘S’ over ‘r’]
bed. ‸again.‸ • bed. ‸again.‸ [deletion implied]
some, time • [sic]
T However • [‘H’ over possible ‘T’]
of after • o after [‘a’ over ‘o’ and ‘ter’ added]
by at • [‘at’ over ‘by’]
air heir • [‘heir’ over ‘air’]
“made over” jintly;” • [possibly ‘“made over “jintly;”’]
