[Dear Red:
I ]am not going to lecture any more forever. I have got things ciphered down to a fraction now. I know just about what it will cost us to live [& ] I can make the money without lecturing. Therefore old man, count me out.1
Your friend,
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
Mark Twain. ——— “Mark Twain” (Mr. Clemens), we fear, must be
numbered for a season among the Lost Stars of the Lyceum firmament. The fate of Midas has overtaken this brilliant but unfortunate
lecturer. He lectured—and made money; he
edited—and made money; he wrote a book—and
made money: and when a relative, under the guise of friendship,
perpetrated “a first-class swindle” on him, he
made a great deal of money by that. Even the income-tax collector
has failed to soften the rigor of his fate. Under these
disheartening circumstances, he cannot be made to see the necessity
of lecturing:— “Just for a vault full of silver he left us!” R. & F. For the “first-class swindle,” see
pp. 45–49; for Clemens’s encounter with the tax
collector, see 2 and 3 Mar 70 to Langdon, n. 5. Redpath and
Fall’s closing quotation was a play on a line from Robert
Browning’s “The Lost Leader”:
“Just for a handful of silver he left us.”
Source text(s):Previous publication:
L4, 94; In addition to the copytext, MTB, 1:409, with omissions.
Emendations and textual notes:
Buffalo, March 22. • Buffalo, March 22, 1870.
Dear Red: [¶] I • [¶] Dear Red,—I
& • and
Clemens • Clemens
