To W. D. McJilton
13 September 1875 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: Jacobs, UCCL 11183)

Sept. 13.

My Dear Mr. McJilton:1

I have examined my legs & find that no part of Mr. s C.’s communication fits me except the closing remark—to-wit: “i never could war an artificial leg.” Evidently I am not the man. Therefore please give the pension to the other fellow—if you can find out where he lives.

We have been home a week & are consequently happy. Mrs. Clemens joins me in remembrances & kind wishes to you.

Ys Truly

Samℓ. L. Clemens

[enclosure:]

yorse truley S. W. Clements.

P H Fitzgerald

I fill the card as i understood it to explain the fact clearley i was shot in the right leg below the knee which cased my leg to ‸be‸ ampitated and at the same time was struck on the right hip ‸with a canon ball‸ it never bothered me mutch till the last two years it has caused mutch paine and my leg and hip has pereshed away so i have no strength hardley in that legg and in 1870 a Wagon up set with me and mash my left ankel all to peases so i have no use of it if i ad had my outher Leg i could a save myself so if the government will give increase i think i need it bad for i ‸am‸ badley cripeld i never could war a artificial leg

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Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

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1 W. D. McJilton was a clerk in the Pension Office of the Department of the Interior in Washington, where he had been employed since at least 1871. He was born in Maryland and appointed to his position from New York (U.S. Department of the Interior: 1872, 158; 1876, 342). Clemens’s closing remarks indicate that he had met McJilton during his recent vacation at Bateman’s Point, Rhode Island. They probably discussed Clemens’s interest in “queer letters” (samples of which he received regularly from Barnum). McJilton evidently sent Clemens the enclosure, a letter received in the Pension Office some months earlier, and asked in jest if Clemens were the “Mr. C” who had requested an increase in his pension. P. H. Fitzgerald has not been identified, but may have been a Pension Office employee who had previously written to Clements, whose comment “I fill the card” suggests that this may not have been his first letter to the office.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, collection of Victor and Irene Murr Jacobs, seen at Sotheby’s, New York City, while awaiting sale (Sotheby 1996).

Previous publication: L6, 532–533; Sotheby 1996, lot 203, paraphrase and excerpt.

Provenance:The Jacobses purchased the MS in 1972 from Seven Gables Bookshop; it was offered for sale again on 29 October 1996 through Sotheby’s.

Emendations and textual notes:

slc • [torn away]

17 1875 • [1]7 [1]875 [badly inked]