Autobiography of Mark Twain (135 page)

George S. Boutwell (1818–1905) was secretary of the treasury, 1869–73.

146.9–12 Governor of the State was a wiser man than were the political masters of Körner and Petöfi ... he was an army—with artillery!] Locke himself almost certainly told Clemens
this anecdote, which is also reported in an obituary, and there is no reason to doubt its substance. Nasby did, however, receive a commission as a second lieutenant in the Ohio Volunteer Infantry, signed on 5 November 1861 by Governor William Dennison, which required him to recruit a company of thirty men within fifteen days. The 16 November issue of the Bucyrus
Journal
contained Locke’s “valedictory,” and announced that he was “recruiting a company.” Ultimately Locke paid a substitute to fight in his place (Marchman 1957; John M. Harrison 1969, 64–66; “Death of D. R. Locke,” Washington
Post
, 16 Feb 1888, 4). Theodor Körner (1791–1813) and Sándor Petöfi (1823–49) were nationalist poets killed in battle: Körner died fighting for Prussia in the Napoleonic wars, and Petöfi died in the unsuccessful Hungarian revolt against the Austrians.

146.14–15 I saw him first ... three or four years after the war] Clemens heard Locke lecture in Hartford on 9 March 1869 (10 Mar 1869 to OLL and Langdon,
L3
, 158, 159–60 n. 1).

147.20–21 with the slave-power and its Northern apologists for target] For his “Cussed be Canaan” lecture Locke posed as Nasby (without the peculiar dialect he employed in print), making it clear that Nasby’s views were not his own. His argument—couched in satire—was that African Americans should be granted full equality, both economically and politically (John M. Harrison 1969, 192–96). In a letter to the San Francisco
Alta California
Clemens described the lecture as “a very unvarnished narrative of the negro’s career, from the flood to the present day”:

For instance, the interpolating of the word white in State Constitutions existing under a great general Constitution which declares all men to be equal, is neatly touched by a recommendation that the Scriptures be so altered, at the same time, as to make them pleasantly conform to men’s notions—thus: “Suffer little white children to come unto me, and forbid them not!” (SLC 1869b)

147.39–41 I began as a lecturer in 1866 ... added the eastern circuit to my route] Clemens delivered his first lecture, on the Sandwich Islands, in San Francisco on 2 October 1866. For his account of that experience, and the tour that followed, see “Notes on ‘Innocents Abroad.’ ” In March and April 1867 he lectured on the same topic in St. Louis and other towns on the Mississippi, and then three times in New York and Brooklyn in May. In January 1868 he gave “The Frozen Truth” in Washington, D.C., a new lecture about his
Quaker City
voyage, before returning to the West (for the last time), where he delivered it in San Francisco on 14 and 15 April. He then performed it in several of the California and Nevada towns that he had visited on his 1866 tour, lecturing for the last time in San Francisco on 2 July. During the 1868–69 season Clemens toured from 17 November until 20 March, delivering “The American Vandal Abroad” (also about the
Quaker City
trip) throughout the Midwest and East (
L1:
link note following 25 Aug 1866 to Bowen, 361–62; 29 Oct 1866 to Howland, 362 n. 1; 2 Nov 1866 to JLC and family, 366–67 nn. 3, 4;
L2:
19 Mar 1867 to Webb, 19 n. 2; link note following 1 May 1867 to Harte, 40–44; 8 Jan 1868 to JLC and PAM, 147 n. 7; 2–14 Apr 1868 to Fairbanks, 208; 14 Apr 1868 to Williams, 209–10 n. 2; 1 and 5 May 1868 to Fairbanks, 213 n. 4; 5 July 1868 to Bliss, 233 n. 1;
L3:
enclosure with 12 Jan 1869 to Fairbanks, 453–57; “Lecture Schedule, 1868–1870,” 481–83).

148.8 Redpath’s bureau] In the Autobiographical Dictation of 11 October 1906, Clemens describes James Redpath (1833–91) as a man of “honesty, sincerity, kindliness, and pluck.” An abolitionist, author, journalist, and social reformer, Redpath founded the Boston Lyceum Bureau (later called the Redpath Lyceum Bureau) in 1868, in partnership with George L. Fall. This business, one of the first of its kind, managed the tours of popular lecturers, readers, and musicians, arranging bookings and negotiating fees with local committees in cities both large and small. Lecturers paid their own traveling expenses, in addition to a 10 percent commission. (See “Ralph Keeler,” the next sketch, for more about the Redpath Bureau.) Redpath arranged Clemens’s 1869–70 tour, with the lecture “Our Fellow Savages of the Sandwich Islands,” and his 1871–72 tour, with “Roughing It” (after “Reminiscences of Some un-Commonplace Characters I Have Chanced to Meet” and “Artemus Ward, Humorist” were tried and discarded). Clemens did not tour during the 1870–71 season (Eubank 1969, 91–115, 119–20;
L3:
20 Apr 1869 to Redpath, 199 n. 1; 10 May 1869 to Redpath, 214–16, 217–18 n. 8; 30, 31 Oct and 1 Nov 1869 to OLL, 383–84 n. 9; “Lecture Schedule, 1868–1870,” 483–86;
L4:
24 Oct 1871 to Redpath, 478; 8 Dec 1871 to Redpath and Fall, 511; “Lecture Schedule, 1871–1872,” 557–63).

148.15–16 De Cordova—humorist] Raphael J. De Cordova (1822–1901) was a merchant until 1857, when an economic panic forced him to turn to writing and lecturing. He served on the staff of the New York
Evening Express
for a time, and contributed to the New York
Times
, but became best known as a humorous writer and lecturer. During the 1871–72 season he offered eight humorous talks through the Redpath Bureau, and he continued to appear on the platform until at least 1878 (“Death List of a Day,” New York
Times
, 5 Apr 1901, 9;
Annual Cyclopaedia 1901
, 419;
Lyceum
1871, 17–18).

148.21 We took front seats in one of the great galleries—Nasby, Billings and I] Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw, 1818–85) was well known for the homespun philosophy he expressed in his humorous essays and sketches.
Josh Billings’Farmer’s Allminax
, his third book and the first of a series of ten comic annuals, was published in October 1869 and sold over ninety thousand copies in three months. Clemens, Billings, and Nasby were photographed together in the second week of November of that year, when all three were in Boston on tour. On 27 October Billings delivered his popular lecture “Milk and Natral Histry” at Boston’s Music Hall, where Nasby appeared on 9 November, and Clemens himself the following night. De Cordova gave four readings at Tremont Temple (not Music Hall) in mid-November; the three men probably heard him on 8 or 12 November (“Lecture Course,” Boston
Post
, 6 Nov 1869, 3;
L3:
9 Nov 1869 to PAM, 386–87, 389 n. 4; 15 and 16 Nov 1869 to OLL, 397 n. 3; 24 and 25 Nov 1869 to OLL, 406, 408 n. 10).

148.25–27 Dickens arrangement of tall gallows-frame ... overhead-row of hidden lights] Clemens heard Dickens read in New York on 31 December 1867, when he accompanied Olivia Langdon and her family (8 Jan 1868 to JLC and PAM,
L2
, 146 n. 3). He described the occasion for his
Alta California
readers:

Mr. Dickens had a table to put his book on, and on it he had also a tumbler, a fancy decanter and a small bouquet. Behind him he had a huge red screen—a bulkhead—a sounding-board,
I took it to be—and overhead in front was suspended a long board with reflecting lights attached to it, which threw down a glory upon the gentleman, after the fashion in use in the picture-galleries for bringing out the best effects of great paintings. Style!—There is style about Dickens, and style about all his surroundings. (SLC 1868c)

148.40–41 But the house remained cold and still, and gazed at him curiously and wonderingly] The Boston correspondent of the Springfield (Mass.)
Republican
agreed with Clemens’s opinion of De Cordova, but not with his assessment of the audience’s reaction: “Mr De Cordova is, among the lecturers, what one of the illustrated weeklies of the poorer sort would be among newspapers, provided it were better printed and on better paper. There is no wit in him, and no humor. His audience, however, seemed pleased, and not bored by his vivacious nothingness” (William S. Robinson 1869).

149.13–14 Dr. Hayes when he was fresh from the Arctic regions] Isaac I. Hayes (1832–81), a physician and explorer, accompanied Elisha Kent Kane on an Arctic expedition in 1853–55. He later led two Arctic expeditions of his own, in 1860–61 and 1869. The Redpath Lyceum booked his popular lectures from 1869 to 1878 (9 Mar 1858 to OC and MEC,
L1
, 78 n. 6; Eubank 1969, 295–306).

150.1–2 San Francisco in the early days—about 1865—when I was a newspaper reporter] Clemens was hired as the local reporter for the San Francisco
Morning Call
in June 1864, soon after arriving from Virginia City, Nevada Territory. (He had corresponded for the
Call
from Nevada the previous year.) The “fearful drudgery” (as he characterized it) of covering the news of the courts and theaters—plus other events of interest he could discover—ended in October, when he was “advised” to resign (see AD, 13 June 1906;
CofC
, 16–24; 18? May 1863 to JLC and PAM,
L1
, 254 n. 7).

150.2–4 Bret Harte ...
The Golden Era
] As the most important literary weekly in San Francisco in the early 1860s, the
Golden Era
provided a vehicle for the apprentice work of many western writers. Its editor from 1860 to 1866, Joseph E. Lawrence, was known for his genial nature and generosity. He aimed at pleasing both a rural and urban readership by offering serialized sensation novels, poetry, and local news and gossip, as well as higher-quality literature. Clemens contributed several articles to the
Golden Era
in late 1863 and early 1864, but later that year abandoned it in favor of a new journal, the more “high-toned”
Californian (L1:
link note following 19 Aug 1863 to JLC and PAM, 265–66; 25 Sept 1864 to JLC and PAM, 312, 314 n. 5). Harte (1836–1902) began setting type in 1860 for the
Golden Era
, which was soon publishing his verse and prose sketches. When the
Californian
began publication in May 1864 he became a major contributor, and, while serving as its editor in the fall, solicited Clemens’s work. (Clemens discusses Harte at length in the Autobiographical Dictations of 13 June, 14 June, and 18 June 1906, and 4 February 1907.) Ambrose Bierce (1842–?1914) did not arrive in San Francisco until early 1867, by which time Clemens had left for the East Coast. The two must have met in April or July 1868, when Clemens was on his last visit to San Francisco.
Bierce’s first published article appeared in the
Californian
in September 1867, and his first
Golden Era
article was in the July 1868 issue. Lawrence invited Prentice Mulford (1834–91) to write for the
Golden Era
in 1866, after reading his poems and humorous stories in the Sonora
Union Democrat
. For Stoddard, see “Scraps from My Autobiography. From Chapter IX,” note at 161.27–30 (1 May 1867 to Harte,
L2
, 40 n. 1; Walker 1969, 119–32, 142–45, 190–91; Bierce 1868; Joshi and Schultz 1999, 75–76; Davidson 1988, 23;
L6:
8 Apr 1874 to Chatto and Windus, 102 n. 1; 1 Feb 1875 to Stoddard, 364, 366 n. 4; Hart 1987, 46–47, 191, 208, 337–38).

150.5 Aldrich] See “Robert Louis Stevenson and Thomas Bailey Aldrich.”

150.5 Boyle O’Reilly] John Boyle O’Reilly (1844–90) was an Irish poet, editor, and nationalist. Convicted of conspiracy for his activism in the Fenian movement, he was transported to Australia in 1868 but escaped to America the following year. He edited the Boston
Pilot
for many years, in which he advocated Home Rule, and became a popular lecturer.

150.5 James T. Fields] James Thomas Fields (1817–81) became a partner in the publishing company of William D. Ticknor and Co. when only twenty-five, and then the head of Ticknor and Fields in 1854. He edited the
Atlantic Monthly
, published by his firm, from 1861 to 1871, and was also a poet and the author of several books of reminiscences (Winship 1995, 17–18).

150.10–11 Mr. Emerson ... Longfellow] Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82), John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–92), Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–94), James Russell Lowell (1819–91), and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) all published their works through firms with which James T. Fields was associated: Ticknor and Fields and, after 1868, Fields, Osgood and Co. (Austin 1953, 16, 38).

150.17–23 He probably never had a home ... an account of his travels in the
Atlantic Monthly
] Ralph Olmstead Keeler (1840–73) was born in Ohio. Orphaned at age eight, he was sent to an uncle in Buffalo but ran away and began a vagabond life, working first on lake steamers and trains, and then as an entertainer in “negro” minstrel shows. After supporting himself through four years of college, he went to study in Germany, where he corresponded for several journals. He moved to San Francisco around 1863, where he lived by teaching and lecturing, as well as writing a humorous column—and a number of stories—for the
Golden Era
(1 Nov 1871 to OLC,
L4
, 485–86 n. 3; Walker 1939, 138–42). His articles for the
Atlantic Monthly
—“Three Years as a Negro Minstrel” (July 1869) and “The Tour of Europe for $181 in Currency” (July 1870)—were later collected in
Vagabond Adventures
, published by Fields, Osgood and Co. (Keeler 1869b, Keeler 1870a, Keeler 1870b).

150.23–24 “Gloverson and His Silent Partners;” ... found a publisher for it] Keeler’s novel, set in San Francisco, was a conventional and unimaginative tale with the stock ingredients of romance, adversity, pathos, and comic relief. Howells, in a fond reminiscence of Keeler, recalled reviewing his manuscript for possible publication in the
Atlantic Monthly
. When he “reported against it,” Keeler published the book in 1869 “at his own cost” (Howells 1900, 276). In 1874 Clemens facetiously predicted to Howells that this “noble classic” would be “translated into all the languages of the earth” and “adored by all nations & known to all
creatures” (20 Nov 1874 to Howells [1st],
L6
, 291, also in AD, 12 Sept 1908; Keeler 1869a; Walker 1969, 141–42).