To Jane Lampton Clemens
9 October 1882 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS, typewritten, from dictation: CU-MARK, UCCL 02289)
hartford conn. oct. 9th. 1882.
my dear mother,
[liva] has gone shopping to new york with clara spaulding for a few days. every body here is well but myself, and in my case some doctors think it is malaria, and some think it is laziness. i am taking medicine for both.
i sent charlie to fredonia with a very savage article exposing that watch company, and told him to read it to them and if they did not make me [hold] to the last penny, to publish it in a advertisement and spread it over fredonia in the form of hand bills. they squared my account very promptly, and i think that charlie got the rest of you out of that scrape very cleverly. i think it a great pity that you did not take charge of orion and pamela. they evidently needed [intelligelnt][help.
the] giving up of an unlimited ticket for a limited one, was about the chuckle headedest thing i ever heard of a grown person’s doing. it almost equaled some of my own performances. it is a thing which i could have done myself seven years ago, i could do it now with howells to help me.
charlie has gone to chicago on some business matters of mine. all that are here send love to your house-hold, and the rest would duplicate it if they were here.
affectionately,
s. l. clemens.
Textual Commentary
Source text(s):Previous publication:
MicroML, reel 4.
Provenance:
See Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance.
Emendations and textual notes:
liva • [sic]
hold • [sic; i.e., ‘whole’]
intelligelnt • [correction handwritten]
help. [¶] the • [space added to indicate new unindented paragraph; no extra space between paragraphs in MS, here and hereafter]
