To Mary Mason Fairbanks
17 February 1869 • Franklin, Pa.
(MS: CSmH, UCCL 00258)

Livy, Feb. 32, 1946.

Dear Livy Mother—

You are mistaken. I hardly ever think of Livy. I hope I am not a [school-boy]. I should think I ought to be able to contain my feelings at my time of life. I don’t see why ‸you‸ should think love “simplifies” a man—because it does seem to me sometimes that ‸it‸ don’t [don ] anything but complicate him. You ought to see how it gets me tangled up now & then.

My Livy came to hand all right ‸on Monday,‸ & I am ever so much obliged to you.1 You see I should have lectured at Livy Monday night, but was persuaded to go to Livy instead, because, you know I [ di ] wasn’t advertised to talk at Livy till the 18th anyhow, & so I thought I could make it. It begins to look a little shaky, now, though, for it is a long trip.2 I talked here, to a crammed house, to-night, & gave the very best satisfaction—better than last night, I think, for a drunken man annoyed me a little [there.3 On] the 19th I shall reach Elmira—the lecture appointed for that night is postponed—& I shall say [a few] words to Livy, on general topics, until the evening of the 22d, when I shall sail for Trenton, N. J., if the wind is fair. Bless you for a blessed good mother, both to Livy & me. Good bye. After Trenton, comes Stuyvesant, N. Y., 25th—& then Hartford for 2 or 3 weeks.4 Love to all.

Your happy scrub

Sam.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Clemens probably refers to the ring borrowed from Olivia to facilitate the sizing of her engagement ring. Mrs. Fairbanks later sent the engagement ring itself directly to Elmira (see 5 Feb 69 and 27 Feb 69, both to Fairbanks).

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2 Clemens lectured in Alliance, Ohio, on Monday, 15 February, instead of in New York City as originally planned. He was scheduled to lecture at Geneseo, New York, on 18 February, the appointment he was now unsure he could keep.

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3 No reviews of Clemens’s 17 February lecture in Franklin have been located. The previous evening, in Titusville, his performance had been disrupted by

an unseemly disturbance in the rear of the hall, which was equally annoying to the audience and the speaker. A policeman was present, and was in duty bound to eject the blackguard summarily, instead of doing which, as he was directed, he only parleyed with him, and the noise and confusion were kept up with impunity. (“Mark Twain’s Lecture Last Evening,” Titusville Morning Herald, 17 Feb 69, 3)

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4 Clemens’s 19 February lecture, which was not rescheduled, was to have been in Auburn, New York. For the remaining engagements of the present tour, both before and after his Hartford stay (5–13 March, not “2 or 3 weeks”), see Lecture Schedule, 1868–1869.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif. (CSmH, call no. HM 14245).

Previous publication: L3, 108–109; MTMF, 76–77.

Provenance:see Huntington Library, pp. 582–83.

Emendations and textual notes:

school-boy • school-|boy

don • [‘n’ partly formed]

di • [‘i’ partly formed; possibly ‘de’]

there. On • there.— |On

a few • af few [false start; ‘f’ partly formed]