To Orion Clemens
26 March 1882 • Hartford, Conn.
(Typed transcription by or for Albert Bigelow Paine: CU-MARK, UCCL 12734)
Private.
Hartford Mch 26/82.
My Dear Bro—
I make this “Private” to arrest your attention at once—for I shall say things which must be kept permanently private—otherwise they might sometime or other come to Ma’s [ears.
1. Pamela] is going to California to live. 2. Ma refuses to go there. 3. We dare not invite her to stay with us; for with three children & a lot of servants, Livy has already as heavy a burden as she can possibly wag under: to add a care & a solicitude would be to add the one thing more than she could bear up under.
Now the thing is narrowed down to just this: Ma likes the idea of going to live with you, but she won’t do it except upon the condition that you shall be doing something & earning something. We have insisted that you are not receiving a pension, but [an] income fairly & righteously derived from money saved to me by your exposure of Bliss’s swindling methods.
But it doesn’t do a bit of good; she stubbornly sticks to her point; she will not budge from that stipulated condition.
Consequently she must either go to a hotel, (which she plainly has a fondness for), or we must get around her with a ruse. Pamela & Livy & I have consulted, & we have decided upon this; [you] are to go now—at once—immediately—to some Keokuk lawyer & take a position as office lawyer in [his] establishment for nothing—he is to allow you, free of expense to him (or for a dollar a year) to assist him as well & diligently as you can—& you & Mollie are to let on to Ma that these labors of yours add money to your income, then she will be satisfied.
She will pay you $20 a month (she wouldn’t pay a cent more in Heaven—she is obstinate upon this point,) & as long as she remains with you & is content, I will add $25 a month to the sum which Perkins already sends you.
And by & by if she grows discontented & moves to California, I will transfer the $25 to Pamela, & she will take a turn at trying to make Ma satisfied & happy.
Such is the program. Tell me if you agree. If you can write literature in that law office if you want to; but if you do it, don’t confess the fact to Ma; for she crowded out of me my opinion as to the chances of your autobiography, before I saw her drift.
I told her I [had read] 800 pages & found but little to preserve; & that although I should go on reading & editing it, from time to time, & would afterward re-revise it from beginning to end, putting many weeks of time upon it worth a hundred dollars an hour, I believe I should have my labor for my pains at last, & [that] the book would not prove to be worth such a sacrifice.
Now therefore, she is determined that you shall not waste your time upon the creation of our promising literature—so, don’t tell her you are continuing to write literature: it would put her in a sweat at once.
Nobody here is well, but all send lots of love to you & Mollie.
Affly
Sam.
Textual Commentary
Source text(s):Provenance:
See Paine Transcripts in Description of Provenance.
Emendations and textual notes:
ears. [¶] 1. Pamela • [space added to indicate new unindented paragraph; no extra space between paragraphs in MS, here and hereafter]
an • on
you • You
his • his his
had read • hadread
that • thaf
