Boston, Dec. 25, 1869.
A m happy Christmas to my darling, & to all that are dear to her! You are at home, now, Livy, & all your labors & vexations are over for a while. Poor child, I am afraid you are pretty well worn out. But you must be quiet, for a few days & recruit your strength, & then I shall find your restored & well when I see you a week hence.
I did not write you yesterday, sweetheart, & I suppose it was mutual, for you could have had no opportunity to write me.1 I called at Redpath’s a while ago when I arrived in town, thinking I might hear from you, but I did not. I shall expect a letter in the loved & familiar hand in New Haven day after tomorrow, though—& a month after that, & a litt we shall close our long correspondence, & tell each other what our minds suggest, by word of mouth. Speed the day!
It is just a year today since I quit drinking all manner of tabooed beverages, & I cannot see but that I have fared considerably better in consequence, than I did formerly—& certainly I have not upon my soul the sin of leading others to dissipate. But all that goes to your credit, not mine. I did not originate the idea.2
I had a delightful time of it last night, with the lecture (in Slatersville—the place was changed,) & was really hospitably entertained in a private family—a rare thing in New England.3 The night before, the dog at whose house I staid took advantage of his hospitality (I was undressing & could not leave) to ask me to abate ten dollars on my lecture price.—asked it as a charity to his society. I told him I wouldn’t—that I hated the dishonored name of charity in the questionable shape it usually comes in. He said they had liked the lecture, & they wanted to keep the society all alive so that they could hear me next winter. I said that when I jammed their hall full of people & then they had the cheek to ask me to abate my price, they hadn’t money enough to hire me to talk in such a place again. In the morning he called me to breakfast, but I said it as it was only 7 o’clock I would manage to do without breakfast until I could get it in some other [town. And] when I went down stairs I said, “Doctor Sanborn, here are ten dollars for my night’s lodging.” He said he was much obliged, & would hand it to the committee. I said he would do nothing of the kind—I would not abate one cent on my price, & he must accept [ ten the] ten dollars for his New England hospitality, or not take it at all. He took it with a world of servile thanks. (He was the chief physician of Rockport & a very prominent citizen.)4
Honey, I got the Jamaica Plains letter, & it did [ w ] just as well as a new one would have done. It was from you, my darling, & that makes a letter always fresh & full of interest.5
Mrs. Barstow has been trying to get a clerkship for her husband in the Treasury Department at Washington, so that he could support her & the children & let her get the rest & recreation her ill health demands, but she couldn’t accomplish it right away. She did not want to bother me, she said, but it was no bother—I wrote to Senator Stewart, & he said he would put Barstow into a clerkship right away. So that is all right.6 I may write again, to-day, sweetheart, but just at present I will close & run down to breakfast.7 God’s peace be with you my darling little wife.
Sam.
[enclosures:] 8
Miss Olivia L. Langdon | Elmira | N.Y. [return address:] young’s hotel, court avenue, boston, mass. [postmarked:] [ boston mass.] dec. 25. 6.p.m. [docketed by OLL:] 163rd
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
Mark Twain perpetrated his talk here last Friday [actually Thursday] evening. His performance
was according to appointment, and still it was a disappointment. A good many of the ticket holders wanted a humorous
lecture, and they all know now just what a humorous lecture is, and the Rockport market is supplied with that style of goods
for the present. The regular lectures are not always weekly; but this one was very weakly. He is accused of being a
humorist, but his hearers here will generally vote for a verdict of not guilty of the charge. He showed at least exceeding
ingenuity, for he contrived to conceal his wit and humor so adroitly, that his audience found it very difficult to detect
it. In short, his lecture was remarkably satisfactory, only with an emphatic dis- before it.
(“Rockport,” Gloucester [Mass.]
Cape Ann Advertiser, 31 Dec 69, 2, TS in CU-MARK)
Many of his facts are new and interesting, but it is a pity that most of his really good stories are familiar to his
audience before he tells them from having already been printed in connection with his lecture. To many, Mark fell rather
below the estimate which had been formed of him from his humorous writings. It would be doing an injustice to the memory of
poor A. Ward to say that the droll Mark was his equal in point of genuine wit and humor. That he approaches him there can be
no doubt, but in that genial, modest, and sparkling flow of fun which Artemus used so happily, the latter was by far his
superior. We do not desire to unduly depreciate the abilities of Mark, for he is very funny, and
eminently satisfactory to his audience. It is by comparison, however, that we determine merit, and, no one, we believe, can
object to the method, for it is the same as that [by] which men, as well as things, are measured and their values
ascertained. Other Washington papers of 9 December expressed no such reservations. In its review, preserved on the same page in the
scrapbook, the Evening Star remarked approvingly on Mark Twain’s similarity to Artemus Ward
while refraining from printing any “fine things” or “funny things” from his
lecture “for they are his property, to be used a good many times in the course of the winter, and he has suffered
already by newspaper depredations” (“Washington News and Gossip,” 1). The National Intelligencer and Express commented that “the lecture abounded in fresh and sparkling witticisms,
which were rendered in Mark’s usual happy vein. The audience were greatly pleased with the
entertainment” (“Amusements,” 2). And the National Republican reported
that Mark Twain “convulsed his hearers with laughter” and achieved “a success of the most
decided character” (“Mark Twain’s Lecture Last Night,”4).
Source text(s):Previous publication:
L3, 435–439; LLMT, 129–30, without the enclosures.
Provenance:see Samossoud Collection, p. 586.
Emendations and textual notes:
town. And • town.— |And
ten the • tenhe
w • [partly formed; possibly ‘n’]
boston mass. • [bos] ton mass. [badly inked]
