Hartford, Feb. 18/83.
J. W. Bouton, Esq—
Dr Sir—
Draw & be damned. I subscribed for your Portfolio one year & no more. I paid for it. Since then you have thrust it upon me & persecuted me with it at your own risk & in defiance of my several protests.
You’ll “draw” on me! The hell you will! Messrs. Slote & Co “refer” you to me. No!—why you can’t be in earnest. If they refer you to me, of course it must be all right. Dear me, why didn’t you get the peanut man on the corner to add his authority.
Well, what a marvelous sort of publisher you must be, sure enough! You ought to write a book, & call it “How to Combine the Methods of the Highwayman & the Publisher s Successfully.”
I kiss you, Sweetheart!— Goodbye, good-bye—ta–ta!—ta–ta!
Dearest, I am
Truly Yours
S L Clemens
Source text(s):Previous publication:
MicroML, reel 5.
Provenance:
see Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance.
