To James R. Osgood
13 January 1875 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: MH-H, UCCL 01179)

Hartford, Jan. 13.

My Dear Osgood:

Indeed I wish I could go but the madam has made me promise that I wouldn’t absent my self from home until this epidemical & wh dreadful membranous croup has quitted the atmosphere hereabouts. It kills somebody’s child every day & all the mothers are in a state of fright which nobody can realize who s hasn’t seen it. Our small Susie was threatened last night, & I never have seen Mrs. Clemens so scared before. If I had been from home she might have been frightened entirely to death I am afraid. You see it is a wonderfully sudden disease & incurable.

When you & all those other splendid people are enjoying your fish, remember with admiration one who wanted to be there but who nobly sacrificed himself upon the inconspicuous alte ar of domestic duty, & remained at home.1

Ys Ever

S. L. Clemens

Explanatory Notes

Editorial Signs

Click to add citation to My Citations.

1 In an unrecovered letter, Osgood had invited Clemens to a 20 January dinner at the Nautilus Club in Boston. The interfering outbreak of membranous croup provided material for “The Experiences of the McWilliamses with Membranous Croup,” published in Sketches, New and Old (SLC 1875, 85–92).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Rogers Memorial Room, Houghton Library, Harvard University (MH-H).

Previous publication: L6, 349–350.

Provenance:The Henry M. Rogers and Kathleen Rogers Collection was donated in 1930.