j. langdon, miner & dealer in
anthracite &
bituminous coal officeno. 6 baldwin
street
elmira, n.y.June 26th, 186 9.
Mr. Reid—Dear Sir:
I got your note of 24th, just before leaving New York, & was glad to see the Appeal acknowledge your several propositions in such a docile & [un-bloodthirsty ] manner. A dozen lines in the Tribune seem to move their bowels more than all the supplications of the sorrowful pavement-contractors. We thank you again. The correction under the “General Notice” head, which you mention, has been crowded out by press of matter, no doubt, as Mr. Langdon & I are unable to find it in the Tribune [ or of ] yesterday or the day before. But we are still on the lookout for it.1 Mr. Langdon’s patience, even with Memphis Aldermen, was hard to wear out, but it is worn out at last, & he has instructed Brown & Co. to “go for them” in the U.S. courts, without further temporizing. He is the easiest & most generous-hearted creditor, with all sorts of people, I ever saw, but I guess he is pretty hard to manage when he gets mad once.
I hope your little family are well, & enjoying themselves, up there among the pleasant nutmeggers.2
Yrs. Truly
Samℓ. L. Clemens.
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
The contractors are not ill-esteemed; on the contrary, they are
favorably regarded by press and people. The refusal of the City
Council to consent to a reconsideration of the contract with Brown & Co., and to make new terms at their request, does not argue
that they are ill-esteemed. . . . We do appeal to Northern capitalists
to make investments in the South, . . . and what is more, we have the
best reason to believe that our appeals will not be in vain,
notwithstanding the evident effort . . . to make it appear that
Memphis and its people are characterised by unfairness and
dishonesty. Will the Tribune be good enough
to make a correction in accordance with the facts? (“We
copy the following . . . ,” 20 June 69, 2) The “correction” promised by Reid, and awaited by
Clemens and Langdon, finally appeared in the Tribune on 28 June (5):
The Memphis Appeal assents to everything The Tribune has
had to say concerning the Nicolson Pavement, and their difficulties
with the Northern contractors, and their anxiety to get other
Northern capitalists to make investments at the South. But it asks
us to deny that they have any ill opinion of the contractors. We
hasten to make the correction. Nicolson pavement, patented by Samuel Nicolson (1791–1868) in
1854 and popular in American cities of the 1860s, was made up of a bed
of sand upon which were laid one-inch-thick boards, a coat of asphalt,
wooden blocks fixed in place with board strips and coal and pebbles, hot
tar to fill all chinks, and a final covering of coarse sand or pebbles
(Lester; Leggett, 2:1022).
Source text(s):Previous publication:
L3, 278–279.
Provenance:donated to DLC between 1953 and 1973 by Mrs. Helen Rogers Reid and her sons,
Whitelaw Reid and Ogden R. Reid.
Emendations and textual notes:
un-bloodthirsty • un-blood-|thisrsty
or of • orf
