To Joseph H. Twichell
20 July 1883 • Elmira, N.Y.
(Hartford Courant, 24 July 1883, p. 2, UCCL 09080)

[unknown amount of text missing]1

[For] the time that has elapsed since I came here, I’ve a day’s work to show for every single working day. I’m not suffering in any way that I know of, except the old difficulty, only twenty-four hours in a day, [&] not days enough in the [week.]

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[Day] before yesterday, feeling not in condition for writing, I left the study; but I couldn’t hold in—had to do something; so I spent eight hours in the sun with a yard-stick measuring off the reigns of the English kings on the roads in these grounds, from William the Conqueror to 1883—calculating to invent an open-air game which shall fill the children’s heads with dates without study. I give each king’s reign one foot of space to the year, & drive one stake in the ground to mark the beginning of each reign;—& I make the children call the stake by the king’s name. You can stand in the door & take a bird’s eye view of English monarchy, from the Conqueror to Edward IV.; then you can turn & follow the road up the hill to the study & beyond, with an opera glass, & bird’s eye view the rest of it to 1883.

You can mark the sharp difference in the length of reigns, by the varying distances of the stakes apart. You can see Richard II., 2 feet; Oliver Cromwell3, 2 feet; James II., 3 feet, & so on—& then big skips: pegs standing 45, 46, 50, 56 & 60 feet apart, (Elizabeth, Victoria, Edward III., Henry III., & George III.—by the way. Third’s a lucky number for length of days, isn’t it?)

Yes, sir, by my scheme you get a realizing notion of the time occupied by reigns.

The reason it took me eight hours was because with little [Jean’s] interrupting assistance, I had to measure from the Conquest to the end of Henry VI. three times over—& besides I had to whittle out all those pegs.

I did a full day’s work & a third over, yesterday, but was full of my game after I went to bed,—trying to fit it for indoors. So I didn’t get to sleep till pretty late; but when I did go off, I had contrived a way to play my history game with cards & a cribbage [board.]

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Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1The Courant printing of the letter begins as follows: “The recent newspaper reports of Mr. Clemens’s illness at Elmira, where he is spending the summer with his family, are entirely without foundation. Writing to a friend in this city, under date of July 20th, he says:”

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2The Courant printing reads here: “In the interval of his work Mr. Clemens has invented a new game, of which he gives the following account:”

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3Richard Cromwell. See Twichell to SLC, 24 July 1883, CU-MARK: “The History Game makes a mighty nice little piece in this morning’s Courant. But, some smarty in the office changed Richard Cromwell into Oliver and probably thinks he ought to be thanked for it—the ignoramus.”

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

Hartford Courant, 24 July 1883, 2.

Emendations and textual notes:

For • “For

& • and [here and hereafter]

week. • week.”

Day • “Day

Jean’s • J——’s

board. • board.”