Autobiography Of Mark Twain, Volume 1

by Mark Twain

  302.30–33 He held his sword . . . Death was instantaneous] According to the New York Times, when the duel began, Cavallotti “attacked his opponent vigorously”:

  The first two engagements were without result, but in the third Signor Cavallotti received a thrust in the throat that severed his jugular. At first it was thought he was injured only slightly, but the gravity of the wound was perceived on his putting his hand to his mouth. He withdrew it covered with blood, and thereafter he could not utter a word. . . . Signor Cavallotti expired in ten minutes without speaking again. (“Roman Duel Ends Fatally,” 7 Mar 1898, 1)

  Autobiographical Dictation, 23 January 1906

  302.37–38 Booker Washington’s Tuskegee Educational Institute] Washington (1856–1915), born into slavery in Virginia, taught himself to read. He attended Hampton Institute and became a teacher there. Chosen to head the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama in 1881, he was a prominent advocate for the education and advancement of African Americans. Espousing a policy of “separate but equal” facilities for the races, he secured white as well as black support for the institute and his larger goals, while clandestinely supporting more militant efforts to achieve full civil rights for African Americans.

  303.2–10 Mr. Choate presided . . . Fourth of July reception in Mr. Choate’s house in London] Renowned lawyer, diplomat, and wit Joseph H. Choate (1832–1917) was U.S. ambassador to Britain from 1899 to 1905. Clemens had been acquainted with him since at least 1876, and they had shared the platform on several occasions. Clemens first met Washington at Choate’s reception on Independence Day 1899—where there were over fifteen hundred guests. The day before, Choate had introduced Washington’s lecture on the “condition and prospects of the coloured race in America” at Essex Hall, London (“The Coloured Race in America,” London Times, 4 July 1899, 13; New York Times: “Forefathers’ Day,” 23 Dec 1876, 1; “Independence Day Abroad,” 5 July 1899, 7).

  303.29 CHOATE AND TWAIN PLEAD FOR TUSKEGEE] Clemens dictated the instruction “Here insert the newspaper account of the meeting at Carnegie (of Jan. 22nd). The future editor of this biography can use what he chooses of it, or leave it out.” Hobby transcribed the entire article, which is also reproduced here. In the Autobiographical Dictation of 3 April 1906 he again wrote “[Insert Carnegie Hall speech here.]” on the typescript.

  303.40 Robert C. Ogden] Ogden (1836–1913), a businessman and philanthropist, was a trustee of Tuskegee Institute and the Hampton Institute as well.

  304.3–4 last November, when District Attorney Jerome . . . packing Carnegie Hall] William Travers Jerome (1859–1934), the district attorney of New York County, opposed the corrupt Tammany Hall “bosses.” He held rallies at Carnegie Hall on 18 October and 1 November 1905; at the latter he was introduced by “attendant spellbinder” Joseph H. Choate (New York Times: “Jerome Forces Expect a Big Crowd To-Night,” 18 Oct 1905, 5; “Whip the Bosses, Choate’s Bugle Call,” 2 Nov 1905, 1).

  304.11 wealthy men who swear off tax assessments] Under New York City tax laws of the time, “a person assessed for personal property may ‘swear off’ the assessment by making oath that he does not own so much” (Hoxie 1910, 59).

  304.22 William Jay Schieffelin] Schieffelin (1866–1955), a prominent businessman and civic reformer, was a trustee of Tuskegee Institute (“W. J. Schieffelin of Drug Firm Dies,” New York Times, 1 May 1955, 88).

  304.26–27 Secretary of War Taft, President Eliot of Harvard, Bishop Galloway, and Andrew Carnegie] William Howard Taft, secretary of war since 1904 and later president (1909–13); Charles William Eliot (1834–1926), president of Harvard University (1869–1909), which granted Washington an honorary degree in 1896; Bishop Charles B. Galloway (1849–1909) of the Methodist Episcopal Church South in Mississippi; and Scottish-born industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) (“Bishop Galloway Dead,” New York Times, 13 May 1909, 7).

  305.6–8 I read in a book . . . by Mr. Murphy, Secretary of the Southern Education Board . . . wiped away more than one half ] Edgar Gardner Murphy (1869–1913), an Episcopal clergyman and amateur astronomer, was the board’s executive secretary from 1903 to 1908. Choate referred to Problems of the Present South, in which Murphy claimed that “the illiteracy of the negro males of voting age has been reduced in the Southern States from 88 per cent in 1870 to 52 per cent in 1900” (Murphy 1904, 165; Bailey 2009).

  307.37 Dr. Parkhurst] In 1892, New York Presbyterian clergyman Charles Henry Parkhurst (1842–1933) preached a sermon attacking the Tammany government’s complicity in crime and vice. A grand jury decided that his charges were made without sufficient evidence; but Parkhurst rose to the empirical challenge, researching New York’s underworld in person and through detectives, obtaining enough data to instigate the Lexow Investigation and Tammany’s defeat (1894).

  308.8–9 historian John Fiske, whom I knew well and loved] The historian John Fiske (1842–1901) published many works on evolutionary theory, and was a popular lyceum circuit lecturer. He lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Clemens knew him through Howells (MTHL, 1:36–37, 181 n. 5).

  308.12–15 his wife . . . little son] Fiske married Abby M. Brooks (1840–1925) in 1864 and they had six children (“Obituary Notes,” New York Times, 13 Jan 1925, 19).

  308.29 Henry Clay Trumbull] James Hammond Trumbull’s brother was a Hartford Congregational minister and author (1830–1903).

  308.39 Thomas Dixon, Jr.] Dixon (1864–1946), born in North Carolina but a resident of New York City, was an actor, lawyer, politician, and Baptist minister before becoming an immensely popular and controversial author. At the time of this Tuskegee benefit, his latest novel was The Clansman (1905), in which the Ku Klux Klan free the South from “negro rule”; the book was ultimately the basis of D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915).

  310.12 Langdons, the family into which I married] See the Autobiographical Dictation of 1 February 1906, note at 321.25–27.

  310.20–22 reference was made . . . in Washington, day after to-morrow] Clemens spoke at the meeting of the Gridiron Club on 27 January 1906. Its tradition of inviting the president and other officials for an annual satirical “roast” continues to this day. In 1906 the target of fun was the Panama Canal; President Roosevelt, Secretary of War Taft, and Colonel Harvey were among the invited guests. Evidently Clemens considered reviving his Whittier dinner speech for this occasion; earlier he had spoken of delivering it at Boston’s Twentieth Century Club (“A Night in Panama,” Washington Post, 28 Jan 1906, 1, 6).

  310.37–38 Reverend Charles Stowe, a son of Harriet Beecher Stowe] Charles Edward Stowe (1850–1934), a Congregationalist minister, was the youngest of the seven children of fellow Nook Farm residents Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–96), the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) and other works, and her husband, Calvin Ellis Stowe (1802–86), a retired professor of theology (10 and 11 Jan 1872 to OLC, L5, 20 n. 4; “Rites Set for Rev. C. E. Stowe, Son of Author,” Los Angeles Times, 26 July 1934, 6; “Nook Farm Genealogy” 1974, 5, 28–29).

  310 footnote *May 25 . . . I gave it a final and vigorous reading . . . my former admiration of it. M. T.] On his copy of the Whittier dinner seating plan, Clemens later wrote: “Note, 1907. This is Mr. Whittier’s 70th birthday dinner—that disastrous cataclysm! See account of it in my Autobiography. SLC” (CU-MARK). Given his praises of the speech in the present dictation and in the dictation of 11 January 1906, it is likely that “disastrous cataclysm” was ironic hyperbole.

  311.3–4 Rev. Dr. Burton’s “Remains,” . . . your remarks at his funeral] See the Autobiographical Dictation of 12 January 1906. By “Burton’s ‘Remains’ ” is meant the posthumous collection of his lectures, which was prefaced with the funeral orations by both Twichell and Parker (Burton 1888, 27).

  312.21 The Character of Man] Clemens dictated the instruction, “Put old MS. here.” He wrote this essay in 1884 or 1885, and revised the manuscript in January 1906 before Hobby transcribed it. The essay was first published in Pain
e’s edition of the autobiography (MTA, 2:7–13; see also WIM, 60–64, 586).

  312.26–27 Creator. * * * *] Here, and below at 313.1 and 313.26, Clemens canceled passages in his manuscript and substituted asterisks to indicate the omissions. The canceled passages are transcribed in the Textual Commentary, MTPO.

  313.32–35 one single independent man . . . to breed his fellow] In his manuscript Clemens interlined “H. L. Goodwin” in pencil above “fellow” and then canceled the interlineation in ink. Henry Leavitt Goodwin (1821–99) was a longtime resident of East Hartford, a member of the Connecticut general assembly in the early 1870s, and always much involved in public affairs. Over the course of years he “protested irregularities in the Hartford transit system and the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad Company” (WIM, 537; “Henry L. Goodwin Dead,” Hartford Courant, 17 Mar 1899, 1). It has not been determined when this “one single independent man” took his stand for seating.

  313.35–36 Asylum street crossing] In Hartford.

  313.42 Mrs. Grundy] An imaginary personage, proverbially standing for the threat of society’s disapproval; derived originally from Thomas Morton’s play Speed the Plough (1798).

  314.15–18 Hartford clergyman . . . relative of mine] Clemens probably refers to Matthew Brown Riddle (1836–1916), professor at Hartford Theological Seminary from 1871 to 1887. Well known locally as one of the principal American contributors to the Revised Version of the New Testament (1881), he seems also to have been related to James G. Blaine (WIM, 537; “Dr. M. B. Riddle Dead, Aged 80,” Hartford Courant, 2 Sept 1916, 18).

  314.22–23 the Cid, and Great-heart, and Sir Galahad, and Bayard the Spotless] These paragons of virtue are drawn variously from legend, literature, and history. The Cid, Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar (ca. 1030–99), is Spain’s great hero of medieval romance; Great-heart is from Part Two of Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678); Sir Galahad, in Arthurian legend, is the knight whose purity enables him to attain the Holy Grail; Bayard the Spotless is French knight Pierre du Terrail (1475–1524).

  314.35 The preacher who casts a vote for conscience’ sake, runs the risk of starving] Clemens expands on this comment in the Autobiographical Dictations of 24 January and 1 February 1906.

  314.38–315.1 Mr. Beecher may be charged with a crime . . . stand by him to the bitter end] In 1872 Henry Ward Beecher, the world-famous preacher of Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, was accused of committing adultery with Elizabeth Tilton, one of his parishioners. In August 1874 Beecher was officially exonerated by a church council, whose verdict was strongly approved by the parishioners. That same month, Theodore Tilton sued Beecher for alienation of affections; the trial ended in a hung jury in 1875 (29? July 1874 to Twichell, n. 2, L6, 202–3; Applegate 2006, 440–42).

  314 footnote Blaine] James G. Blaine (1830–93), the Republican presidential candidate in 1884, was accused by many, including some in his own party, of graft during his terms as congressman. Clemens joined with the faction of Republicans (the “mugwumps”) who repudiated Blaine and pledged to vote for Grover Cleveland, or another candidate, in protest. Their objections to Blaine are set forth in the public letter “To the Republican Voters of Connecticut,” which was signed by some one hundred Connecticut Republicans, including Clemens and Twichell (“Connecticut Independents,” New York Times, 13 Oct 1884, 1; N&J3, 77–78 n. 39; see AD, 24 Jan 1906).

  314 footnote Hammond Trumbull] See the Autobiographical Dictation of 12 January 1906, note at 272.31–32.

  315.1–2 but who so poor to be his friend . . . a vote for conscience’ sake] In 1884 Beecher, formerly a staunch Republican, declared he could not vote for Blaine, and campaigned for Cleveland, despite the revelation that Cleveland had fathered an illegitimate child. Beecher’s support of Cleveland—and the suspicion it engendered that he felt for Cleveland as a fellow adulterer—earned him public mockery and private threats (Chicago Tribune: “Campaign Chronicles,” 30 Sept 1884, 2; “Beecher’s Support of Cleveland,” 20 Oct 1884, 7; Beecher and Scoville 1888, 576–81; Applegate 2006, 462–64).

  315.2 Take the editor so charged] Clemens apparently alludes to Charles Dudley Warner, who was editor and part owner of the Hartford Courant (see AD, 24 Jan 1906, and note at 317.35–40).

  Autobiographical Dictation, 24 January 1906

  315.14 this old article] That is, “The Character of Man” (AD, 23 Jan 1906).

  315.23–24 father of the William R. Hearst of to-day, and therefore grandfather of Yellow Journalism] George Hearst (1820–91) was born into a family of farmers in Franklin County, Missouri. He migrated West with the Gold Rush and by the 1860s owned several silver and copper mines, which he would develop into a colossal mining empire. In 1886 he was appointed to the seat vacated by the death of California Senator John Miller, and was subsequently elected for a full term. In 1880 he acquired the San Francisco Examiner, chiefly for the propagation of his political opinions and ambitions; his son William Randolph Hearst (1863–1951) made it the cornerstone of a newspaper empire whose publications were frequently criticized as sensationalist and irresponsible. On Clemens’s attitude toward “yellow journalism,” see Budd 1981.

  316.13–14 Sam Dunham . . . Edward M. Bunce] Samuel G. Dunham (b. 1849), brother of Austin Dunham, was a Hartford wool merchant at the time of Blaine’s nomination, and later vice-president of the Hartford Electric Light Company and a director of the Aetna Life Insurance Company (Dunham 1907, 38–39; Geer 1882, 65). Like Ned Bunce, he played billiards regularly at Clemens’s house. Bunce (1841–98), also of a prominent Hartford family, was for many years a cashier at the Phoenix National Bank and a director of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company (N&J2, 382 n. 76, 426 n. 229; “Edward M. Bunce,” Hartford Courant, 22 Nov 1898, 5). He was a close friend of the Clemens family; after his early death, Clemens wrote, “Ned was nearer & dearer to the children than was any other person not of the blood” (2 Dec 1898 to Bunce, CtHMTH).

  316.17 George] George Griffin.

  317.23–24 General Hawley, the editor-in-chief . . . of the paper . . . his post in Congress] In addition to being editor and part owner of the Hartford Courant, Joseph Roswell Hawley (1826–1905) was a lawyer, antislavery crusader, founder of the Connecticut Republican party, Civil War veteran (retired as a brevet major-general), and, briefly, governor of Connecticut (1866). At the time of Blaine’s nomination he was a U.S. senator (13 and 14 Feb 1869 to OLL, L3, 97 n. 5).

  317.33 Charles Hopkins Clark’s editorship] Clark (1848–1926) became editor-in-chief in 1900; he had been on the editorial staff since 1871, the year he graduated from Yale (29 Apr 1875 to Holland, L6, 471 n. 2).

  317.35–40 Charles Dudley Warner . . . election day] Clemens was in error: Warner neither refused to toe the Courant’s party line nor resigned as editor. In an 1884 letter Clemens chastised Warner, along with others, for concealing his private reservations: “Even I do not loathe Blaine more than they do; yet Hawley is howling for Blaine, Warner & Clark are eating their daily crow in the paper for him” (31 Aug 1884 to Howells, NN-BGC, in MTHL, 2:500–503; Kenneth R. Andrews 1950, 115).

  317.41 conversation with the learned American member] Probably Matthew Riddle (see AD, 23 Jan 1906, 314.15–18 and note).

  318.3–4 James G. Batterson . . . Travelers Insurance Company] Batterson (1823–1901) was also president of the New England Granite Works and an amateur Egyptologist (“James G. Batterson,” New York Times, 19 Sept 1901, 7).

  318.23–24 At that time the voting was public] Only in the 1890s did the secret ballot begin to be used in the United States. In Connecticut in 1884, the voter was observed; he was permitted to fold the ballot so that it could not easily be read, but social and political pressures guaranteed that this option was seldom exercised (Lynde Harrison 1890).

  318.37–319.1 Twichell had most seriously damaged himself . . . his vote for Cleveland] Clemens’s extended account of Twichell’s vote and its aftermath is distorted. In the first place, Twichell is represented as having voted for Cleveland; in fa
ct, he could not bring himself to support the Democrats in any cause, and cast his vote for the Prohibition Party candidate. Furthermore, although Twichell’s vote did cause “displeasure,” as he put it, “among my friends and parishioners,” there is no evidence that he was ever asked to resign his pastorate (Kenneth R. Andrews 1950, 115–16; Strong 1966, 87–88; Courtney 2008, 216–20).

  Autobiographical Dictation, 1 February 1906

  319.22–23 Mr. Hubbard . . . business manager and part owner of the Courant] Stephen A. Hubbard (1827–90) had been part owner and managing editor of the Hartford Courant since 1867 (McNulty 1964, 91; “Obituary,” Hartford Courant, 13 Jan 1890, 1).

  320.4–6 fortieth anniversary . . . weeks ago] Twichell’s fortieth year as pastor of Asylum Hill Congregational Church was celebrated on 13 December 1905 (“Rev. Mr. Twichell 40 Years Pastor,” Hartford Courant, 14 Dec 1905, 12).

  320.32–34 I saw her first in the form of an ivory miniature . . . the following December] Olivia’s brother, Charles Langdon, was a youth of seventeen when his parents sent him on the Quaker City excursion as a safe alternative to a traditional grand tour. He struck up a friendship with Clemens near the end of the voyage, and showed him the miniature of Olivia on 5 or 6 September 1867, when the ship was in the Bay of Smyrna (link note following 8 June 1867 to McComb, L2, 63–64). Clemens’s Autobiographical Dictations leave some room for doubt about the dates of his first meetings with Olivia. The dictation of 13 February 1906 states that they were introduced on 27 December 1867 and met again five days later; this ignores a known meeting on 31 December, when Clemens went with the Langdons to hear Dickens read at Steinway Hall (see AD, 12 Oct 1907). It is possible that this, and not the twenty-seventh, was the day he met Olivia (L2: 8 Jan 1868 to JLC and PAM, 145–46 n. 3; “Itinerary of the Quaker City Excursion,” 394–95; “Mr. Dickens’ Readings,” New York Times, 31 Dec 1867, 4; for the excursion see “Notes on ‘Innocents Abroad,’ ” note at 227.13–14).