To
Jane Lampton Clemens and Pamela A. Moffett
18? May 1863 • San Francisco, Calif.
(MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00065)
[two MS pages (about 400 words) missing]
When I first came down here,1 I was with Neil Moss2 every day for about two weeks, but he has gone down to Coso3 now. He says he is about to realize something from those mines there, after roughing it & working hard for three years. He says he has had a very hard time ever since he has been in California—has done pretty much all kinds of work to make a living—keeping school in the country among other things. He looks just like his father [ be did ]eight or ten years ago—though a little rougher & more weather-beaten perhaps. The man whom I have heard people call the “handsomest & finest-looking man in California,” is Bill Briggs.4 I meet him on [ the str Montgomery ] street every day. He keeps a somewhat extensive gambling hell opposite the Russ House.5 I went up with him once to see it.
I shall remain here ten days or two weeks longer, & then return to [Virginia.,], & go to work again.6 They want me to correspond with one of thes [e] dailies here, & if they will pay [me ]enough, [ [about nine words torn away] ] I’ll do it.7 {The pay is only a “blind”—I’ll correspond anyhow. If I don’t know how to make such a thing pay me—if I don’t know how to levy black-mail on the mining companies,—who does, I should like to know?}8 If I had [ Mr. ] Moffett here, the position would be worth $20,000 a year. For instance: I black-mailed a company to the extent of 40 feet, two months ago. Since I have been here, the stock went to $10000 a foot, & [ the Mr. ]Moffett or any other sensible man would have cleared it out at that figure; but I, and the rest of the fools went on pleasure-seeking, & let the opportunity go by. That stock will never breathe again for three [months—]maybe six.
Ma, I have got five twenty-dollar greenbacks—the first of that kind of money I ever had. I’ll send them to you—one at a time, so that if one or two get lost, it will not amount to anything. I [ m have ]been mighty careless neglectful about remittances heretofore, Ma, but when I return to Virginia, I’ll do better. I’ll sell some wildcat every now & then, & send you some money. Enclosed you will find one of the rags I spoke of—it’s a ratty-looking animal, anyway. Love to all.
[penciled notation by Jane Clemens on the first extant page:] No 1—$20— 9
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
Mark Twain has abdicated the local column of the Enterprise, where, by the grace
of Cheek, he so long reigned Monarch of Mining Items, Detailer of Events, Prince of Platitudes, Chief of Biographers,
Expounder of Unwritten Law, Puffer of Wildcat, Profaner of Divinity, Detractor of Merit, Flatterer of Power, Recorder of
Stage Arrivals, Pack Trains, Hay Wagons, and Things in General. . . . He has gone to
display his ugly person and disgusting manners and wildcat on Montgomery street. In all of which he will be assisted by his
protegee, the Unreliable. (“Mark Twain,” clipping in Scrapbook 2:43, CU-MARK)
The son of wealthy parents, here he was, in a strange land, hungry, bootless, mantled in an ancient
horse-blanket, roofed with a brimless hat, and so generally and so extravagantly dilapidated that he could have
“taken the shine out of the Prodigal Son himself,” as he pleasantly remarked. He wanted to borrow
forty-six dollars—twenty-six to take him to San Francisco, and twenty for something else; to buy some soap with,
maybe, for he needed it. Clemens loaned the money to Moss—after borrowing it himself from a Virginia City banker (see 17 Sept 64 to Wright, n. 2).
We knew Bill Briggs, successful professional gambler of that later time who came to Shasta Springs for
summer visits. Conservative guests avoided him, but others found him an engaging person, devoted to his small son and
talking of everything but cards. His profession he left at home, and nothing could persuade him into a game while he
sojourned among us. But he wore his mustache and wide-awake hat and the largest solitaire diamond I have ever seen in a
ring. When he died, he left a fortune to the little son, then at a military school, and a reputation for square dealing.
(Neville, 41)
Source text(s):Previous publication:
L1, 252–254.
Provenance:see Moffett Collection, p. 462.
Emendations and textual notes:
be did • [‘di’ over ‘be’]
the str Montgomery • [‘Mont’ over ‘the str’]
Virginia., • [comma over period]
me • me me
[about . . . away]
•
[ A narrow strip was carefully torn away across the bottom of the MS leaf.
Parts of letters too fragmentary to read survive on the torn edge, indicating that the lost strip bore writing. The paper
appears to be the same as that used for Clemens’s letters of 11 and 12 April, 1 June, and 4 June 63, all of
which are 27 cm long. This leaf varies in length from 24.7 to 26.2 cm because of the unevenness of the torn edge, but
clearly just enough paper was torn away to accommodate one line of writing plus perhaps one word at the end of the
preceding line. Clemens himself probably tore the strip away before mailing the letter, presumably as the quickest and
most complete method of cancellation. Since the sentence from which the words were torn is complete as it stands, running
up to the torn edge at the foot of MS page 3 and concluding at the top of page 4, he may have torn away the strip before
finishing that sentence. At any rate, he probably tore it before finishing the letter, for the letter ends just at the
torn edge on the other side of the leaf, with no sign of any inscription below the signature.
Mr. • [period doubtful]
the Mr. • [‘Mr.’ over ‘the’]
months— • [possibly ‘months,—’]
m have • [‘h’ over ‘m’]
affctiny • [‘ny’ scrawled; doubtful]
Sam • [written just above the torn edge, with no sign that any text was removed when the sheet was torn]
