To Willard M. White
3 March 1873 • Hartford, Conn.
(Transcript: CtY, UCCL 00880)

Hartford, Conn., March 3, 1873.

[Mr. White],1—Dear Sir:

There is nothing that a just & right feeling man rejoices in more than to see a mosquito imposed on [&] put down, & brow-beaten & aggravated,—& this ingenious contrivance will do it.2 And it is a rare thing to worry a fly with, too. A fly will stand off & curse this invention till language utterly fails him. I have seen them do it hundreds of times. I like to dine in the air on the back porch in summer, & so I would not be without this portable net for anything; when you have got it hoisted, the flies have to wait for the second table. We shall see the summer day come when we shall all sit under our nets in church & slumber peacefully, while the discomfited flies club together & take it out of the minister. There are heaps of ways of getting priceless enjoyment out of these charming things, if I had time to point them out & dilate on them a little.

[Mark Twain].

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

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1 White (1843–1923) was born in nearby Canton, Connecticut. He graduated from Amherst College in 1872, shortly after Clemens lectured there on 27 February. In 1862 he had enlisted in the Twenty-second Regiment of the Connecticut Volunteers, serving until 7 July 1863. He graduated from Boston University Law School in 1875, was admitted to the bar that same year, and until 1880 practiced law in Boston. From 1880 until 1897 he worked in the oil business in Pennsylvania, eventually moving to Boise, Idaho, where he built electric power plants. White had helped to organize the Amherst lecture series in which Clemens appeared, presumably the occasion of their becoming acquainted (Amherst alumni obituary, courtesy of John Lancaster, Amherst College Library).

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2 In November 1872 White obtained patent number 133,279 for a Mosquito-Net Frame, designed for attachment to a bed (Official Gazette, 2:584). He must have asked Clemens for his help in promoting his “ingenious contrivance,” for this letter was published in an advertising circular which is now the sole source for the text. Two other endorsements, both dated 1 March 1873, were also included: one from W. H. H. Murray, who spoke two weeks before Clemens in the Amherst lecture series, and another from Edward Hitchcock, M. D., an Amherst faculty member (“Course of Lectures in College Hall, Amherst,” Amherst College Library, PH in CU-MARK, courtesy of Thomas A. Tenney).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

Printed transcript in an advertising circular (BAL 3356), Willard S. Morse Collection, Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University (CtY-BR).

Previous publication: L5, 307–308.

Provenance:The Morse Collection was donated to CtY in 1942 by Walter F. Frear.

Emendations and textual notes:

Mr. White • MR. WHITE

& • and [here and hereafter]

Mark Twain • MARK TWAIN