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1
A principal passage through the Sierra Nevada, named for Patrick Henness,
one of the men who discovered it in 1850 (“The Henness
Pass,” North San Juan [Calif.]
Hydraulic Press, 9 June 60, 2; Gudde,
131–32). Clemens probably chose the Henness Pass route to
California because it bypassed Carson City, where he would have been
persona non grata at this time (
Mack 1947, 323).
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2
In his later explanations of his departure from Nevada Territory, Clemens
expanded upon the motives suggested here. In chapter 55 of
Roughing It he professed to have been bored with
his reportorial duties and eager to travel, so that he was happy to
accept Dan De Quille’s offer of a chance to go to New York
with two others to sell a Nevada silver mine on commission. (Purportedly
an unlucky double failure in communication caused Clemens to miss the
San Francisco–New York steamer and lose his opportunity to
participate in the enterprise.) In 1906, however, Clemens claimed that
he and Gillis had to leave Nevada because he had sent a challenge to
James L. Laird and Gillis had carried it, making them both subject to
“two years apiece in the penitentiary, according to the
brand-new law” against dueling (
AD, 19 Jan 1906,
CU-MARK, in
MTA, 1:359). There was such a law in effect—section 35 of
“An Act concerning Crimes and
Punishments”—although it was not
“brand-new,” having been passed on 26 November
1861. It established a penalty of from two to ten years’
imprisonment for both the sending and the delivering of a challenge (
Laws 1862, 61). Enforcement of this law was
sufficiently strict to make some antagonists cross from Nevada into
California to do battle. For Clemens’s and
Gillis’s accounts of their dueling experiences see:
SLC 1872, 90–91;
MTB, 1:250–52; and Fulton, 54. A discussion of
Clemens’s versions, and their factual basis, can be found in
Krauth, 141–53.
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3
This stratagem was not “safe” because of another
law passed on 26 November 1861—“An Act to Regulate
Proceedings in Criminal Cases in the Courts of Justice in the Territory
of Nevada.” Section 84 of this act stipulated:
“When an inhabitant or resident of this territory shall, by
any previous appointment or engagement, fight in a duel without the
jurisdiction of this territory, and in such duel a wound shall be
inflicted upon any person whereof he shall die within this territory,
the jurisdiction of the offense shall be in the county where the death
shall happen” (
Laws 1862, 444).
Clemens may have witnessed one duel fought in California, the 28
September 1863 encounter in which Joseph T. Goodman wounded Thomas Fitch
(see
ET&S1, 263–64).
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4
The Hale and Norcross Silver Mining Company was incorporated in March
1861. Its relatively small but well-developed claim of 400 feet was
located on the southern portion of the Comstock lode. Clemens had
explored the mine in early July 1863 in his capacity as
Enterprise “local” (see SLC
1863 [MT00172], 1). The company was known for its relative freedom from mining
litigation and its powerful machinery, which soon penetrated the
Comstock lode to the greatest depth then attained by any company. It was
also known for the frequent assessments it levied on stockholders as a
means of raising operating capital. In 1868 Clemens remembered owning
six shares of Hale and Norcross stock—a fact that his
1864–65 assessments substantiate (see
28 Sept 64 to OC and
MEC, n. 5, and
11 Nov 64 to OC, n.
5)—and claimed to have sold them for $300 a
share (
SLC 1868, 2). Almost forty years later, however,
he recalled that on a tip from mining speculator Herman Camp he had
acquired fifty shares at that price, buying them on margin by putting up
twenty percent. This purchase, which he indicated came during his
May–June 1863 sojourn in San Francisco, “exhausted
my funds. I wrote Orion and offered him half, and asked him to send his
share of the money.” Clemens “waited and
waited” for the money, which never reached him, although
Orion had sent it. In the meantime the stock rose thousands of dollars
and then began to fall steadily “until it fell below the
price I had paid for it. Then it began to eat up the margin, and when at
last I got out I was very badly crippled” (
AD, 5 Apr 1906,
CU-MARK, in
MTA, 2:319–20). Although this account certainly
exaggerates the number of shares purchased, it accords with a major boom
in Hale and Norcross stock during the two months in 1863 that Clemens
lived in San Francisco. In early May, when he arrived, the stock was
quoted at $915 per share, and at the end of June, just before
he departed for Virginia City, it was selling for over $2,000
per share. By the time of the present letter, however, the bid price had
fallen to $500 (
By-laws, 1; Hague, 99,
174; “San Francisco Stock and Exchange Board,” San
Francisco
Alta California: 1 May 63, 4; 30 June
63, 4; 26 May 64, 6). Apparently Clemens attempted to “fix
the Hale & Norcross in a safe shape” by putting
part of the stock in Orion’s name (see
13 and 14 Aug 64 to OC and
MEC).
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Source text(s):
MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley (
CU-MARK).
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Previous publication:
L1, 299–301; MTEnt, 203.
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Provenance:
see Mark Twain Papers, pp. 461–62. A penciled underscore below
‘Henness Pass’ (299.5) may have been added by Orion
Clemens, either when he received the letter or perhaps when he was preparing
his autobiography in 1880; Clemens wrote the letter in ink. Although Paine
did not publish this letter, two notes on the MS,
‘[Thursday]’ above the date and
‘Imp.’ below it, appear to
be in his hand. Since Clemens announces in the letter his secret plan to
leave Virginia City on Sunday, it is indeed important—if that is
what ‘Imp.’ means—to
know that the letter was written on Thursday.
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Emendations and textual notes:
comfortably. However •
comfortably.— |However
it., •
[comma over
period]
us., •
[comma over
period]
w away •
[‘a’ over partly formed
‘w’]