A Family Sketch and Other Private Writings

by Twain, Mark, Griffin, Benjamin

  Mamma was the daughter of Mr. Jervis Langdon, (I don’t know whether Grandpa had a middle name or not) and Mrs. Olivia Lewis Langdon, of Elmira New York. She had one brother, and one sister, uncle Charlie, Charles J. Langdon; and aunt Susie, Susan Langdon. Mamma loved Grandpapa more than any one else in all the world, he was her idol, and she his, I think mamma’s love for Grandpa must have very much resembled, my love for mamma. Grandpa was a great and good man, and we all think of him with respect, and love. Mamma was an invalid when she was young, and had to give up study a long time.

  Soon papa [came] back east, and papa and mamma were married. Papa wrote mamma a great many beautiful love letters when he was engaged to mamma, but mamma says I am too young to see them yet; I asked papa what I should do for I didn’t [know] how I could write a Biography of him without his love-letters, papa said that I could write mamma’s oppinion of them, and that would do just as well. So I will do as papa says, and mamma says she thinks they are the loveliest love-letters that ever were written, she says she thinks that Hawthorne’s love-letters to Mrs. Hawthorne are far inferior to these. Mamma [and papa] were going to board first in Bufalo and Grandpa said he would find them a good boarding house. But he afterwards told mamma that he had bought a pretty house for them, and had it all beautifully furnished, he had also hired a young coachman, and had bought a horse for them, which all would be ready waiting for them, when they should arive in Bufalo; but he wanted to keep it a secret, from “Youth” as Grandpa called papa. What a delightful surprise it was! Grandpa went down to Bufalo with mamma and papa. And when they drove up to the house, papa said he thought, the landlord of such a boarding house, must charge a great deal, to those who wanted to live there. And when the secret was told papa was delighted beyond all degree. Mamma has told me the story many times, and I asked her what papa said, when Grandpa told him that the delightful boarding house was his home, mamma answered that he was rather embariesed, and so delighted he didn’t know what to say. About 6 months after papa and mamma were married Grandpapa died; it was a terrible blow on mamma, and papa told aunt Sue he thought Livy would never smile again she was so broken hearted. Mamma couldn’t have had a greater sorrow than that of dear Grandpapa’s death, or any that could equal it exept the death of papa. Mamma helped take care of Grandpapa during his illness, and she couldn’t give up hope till the end had realy come. After that she went back to Bufalo; and a few months after dear little Langdon was born. Mamma named him Langdon after Grandpapa, he was a wonderfully beautiful little boy, but very, very delicate. He had wonderful blue eyes, but such a blue that mamma has never been able to discribe them to me, so that I could see them clearly in my mind’s eye. His delicate health was a constant anxiety to mamma, and he was so good and sweet, that that must have troubled her too, as I know it did. While a little baby he used to carry a pencil in his little hand, that was his great plaything; I believe he was very seldom seen without one in his hand. When he was in aunt Susy’s arms and would want to go to mamma he would hold out his hands to her with the backs of his hands out toward her, instead of with his palmes out. About a year after Langdon was born, I was born, and my chief occupation then was to cry so I must have added greatly to mamma’s care! Soon after little Langdon was born, papa and mamma moved to Hartford to live. Their house in Bufalo reminded them too much of dear Grandpapa, so they moved to Hartford soon after he died. Soon after little Langdon was born a friend of mamma’s came to visit her (Emma Nigh.) And she was taken with the typhoid fever, while visiting mamma. At length she became so delirious, and was so hard to take care of, that mamma had to send to some of her friends in Elmira N.Y. to come and help take care of her. Aunt Clara, came, (Miss Clara L. Spaulding) she is no relation of ours but we call her aunt Clara, because she is such a great friend of mamma’s. She came and helped mamma take care of Ema Nigh, but in spite of all the good care that she received, she grew worse and died. Just after I mentioned, that mamma and papa couldn’t stay in their house in Bufalo because it reminded so much of Grandpapa, mamma received a letter from aunt Susy, in which aunt Susy says a good deal about Grandpapa, and the letter shows so clearly how much every one that knew Grandpapa loved and respected him; that mamma let me take it to copy what is in it about Grandpapa. And mamma thought it would fit in nicely here.

  Langdon Clemens, 1871.

  The FarmApril 16th/85.

  “Livy dear,

  Are you not reminded by todays report of Gen. Grant of father? You remember how as Judge Smith and others whom father had chosen as executors were going out of the room, he said “Gentlemen I shall live to bury you all,” smiled and was cheerful. At that time he had far less strength than Gen. Grant seems to have, but that same wonderful courage to battle with the foe. All along, there has been much to remind me of father, of his quiet patience—in Gen. Grant. There certainly is a marked likeness in the souls of the two men. Watching day by day the reports from the nations sick room brings to mind so vividly the days of that summer of 1870. And yet they seem so far away, I seemed as a child compared with now, both in years and experiance. The best and the hardest of life have been since then, to me, and I know this [is] so in your life. All before seems dreamy—I supose this [is] because our lives had to be all readjusted to go on without that great power in them. Father was quietly such a power in so many lives beside ours Livy dear,—not in kind or degree the same to any one, but oh a power! the evening of the last company, I was so struck with the fact, when Mr. Atwater stood quietly before fathers portrait a long time, and turning to me said, “we shall never see his like again”—with a tremble and a choking in his voice,—this after 15 yrs. and from a business friend. And some stranger a week ago spoke of his habit of giving as so remarkable, he having heard of father’s generosity.” ***************

  Papa made arangements to read at Vassar College the 1st of May, and I went with him. We went by way of N.Y. City; mamma went with us to New York and stayed two days, to do some shopping. We started Tuesday at ½ past two o’clock in the after noon, and reached New York about ¼ past 6. Papa went right up to Gen. Grants from the station, and mamma, and I went to the Everett House. Aunt Clara came to supper with us up in our room. We were going to the theater right after supper, and we expected papa to take us there, and to come home as early as he could. But we got through dinner, and he didn’t come, and didn’t come, and mamma got more perplexed and worried, but at [last] we thought we would have to go without him, so we put on our things, and started down stairs but before we’d goten half down, we met papa coming up, with a great bunch of roses in his hand, he explained that the reason he was so late was that his watch stopped, and he didn’t notice, and kept thinking it, an hour earlier than it realy was. The roses he carried were some Col. Grant sent to mamma. We went to the theater and enjoyed “Adonis,” the play acted very much, we reached home about ½ past 11 o’clock, and went right to bed. Wed. morning we got up rather late, and had breakfast about ½ past 9 o’clock. After breakfast mamma went out shopping, and papa and I went to see papa’s agent about some busniess matters. After papa had gotten through talking to Cousin Charlie, his agent, we went to get a friend of papa’s (Major Pond) to go and see a dog show with us. Then we went to see the dogs with Major Pond and we had a delightful time seeing so many dogs together; when we got through seeing the dogs, papa thought he would go up and see Gen. Grant, and I went with him,—this was April 29th 1885. Papa went up into Gen. Grant’s room, and he took me with him, I felt greatly honored and delighted when papa took me into Gen. Grant’s room and let me see the Gen. and Col. Grant; for Gen Grant is a man I shall be glad all my life that I have seen. Papa and Gen. Grant had a long talk together; and papa has writen an account of his talk and visit with Gen. Grant for me to put into this Biography.

  1885.

  “April 29th 1885. “I called on Gen. Grant and took Susie with me. The Gen. was looking and feeling far better, than he had looked or felt for some months. He had ventured to work again on his book that morn
ing—the first time he had done any work for perhaps a month. This morning’s work was his first attempt at dictating and it was a thourough success to his great delight. He had always said that it would be impossible for him to dictate anything; but I had said that he was noted for cleanness of statement, and a narative was simply a statement of consecutive facts, and that he was consequently peculiarly qualified and equipped for dictation. This turned out to be true; for he had dictated two hours that morning to a short hand writer, had never hessitated for words, had not repeated himself, and the manuscript, when finished needed no revision. The two hours work was an account of Appomatox, and this was such an extremely important feature, that his book would necessarily have been severely lame without it. Therefore I had taken a short hand writer there before to see if I could not get him to write at least a few lines about Appomatox; but he was at that time, not well enough to undertake it. I was aware that of all the hundred versions of Appomatox, not one was realy corect Therefore I was extremely anxious that he should leave behind him the truth. His throat was not disstressing him and his voice was much better and stronger than usual. He was so delighted to have got Appomatox, accomplished, once more in his life—to have got the matter off his mind—that he was as talkative as his old self. He received Susy very pleasantly, and then fell to talking about certain matters which he hoped to be able to dictate next day; and he said in substance, that—among other things—he wanted to settle once for all a question that had been bandied about from mouth to mouth and from newspaper to newspaper and that question was: with whom orriginated the idea of the march to the sea,—was it Grant’s or was it Sherman’s idea?

  Whether I or some one else—being anxious to get the important fact settled—asked him with whom the idea orriginated, I dont remember. But I remember his answer; I shall always remember his answer. Gen Grant said. “Neither of us originated the idea of Shermans march to the sea. The enemy did it.”

  He went on to say that the enemy very necessarily orriginates a great many of the plans that the general on the opposite side gets the credit for; at the same time the enemy is doing that, he is laying open other moves, which the General sees and takes advantage of.

  In this case Sherman had a plan all thought out of course. He meant to destroy the two remaining railroads in that part of the country and that would have finnished up that region. But Gen. How did not play the military part that he was expected to play. On the contrary Gen. How made a dive at Chattanooga. This left the march to the sea open to Sherman. And so after sending part of his army [t]o defend and hold what he had conquered in the Chattanooga region, he was perfectly free to proceed with the rest of it through Georgia. He saw the opportunity and he would not have been fit for his place, if he had not seized it.

  “He wrote me, (the Gen. is speaking) what his plan was, and I sent him word to go ahead. My staff were opposed to the movement,” (I think he said it tried to persuade him to stop Sherman.) The [chief] of his staff the Gen. said even went so far, as to go to Washington without the General’s knowledge, and get the ear of the authaurities, and he succeded in erasing their fears to such an extent that they telegraphed me to stop Sherman. Out of deferance to the goverment I telegraphed Sherman and stopped him twenty four hours; and then considering that that was deferance enough to the government, I telegraphed him to go ahead again.”

  I have not tried to give the Generals language but only the general idea of what he said.

  The thing that mainly struck me was his terse remark that the enemy orriginated the idea of the march to the sea.

  It struck me because it was so suggestive of the generals epegramatic fashion,—saying a great deal, in a single crisp sentence.”

  Mark Twain.

  After papa and Gen. Grant had, had their talk, we went back to the hotel where mamma was, and papa told mamma all about his interview with Gen. Grant. Mamma and I had a nice quiet afternoon together; and papa went to read in public; there were a great many authors that read that Thursday afternoon beside papa; I would have liked to have gone and heard papa read, but papa said he was going to read in Vasser just what he was planning to read in New York. So I staid at home with mamma. The next day mamma planned to take the four o’clock car back to Hartford. We rose quite early that morning and went to the “Vienna Bakery” and took breakfast there. From there we went to a German book store, and bought some German books for Clara’s birth day. Then mamma and I went to do some shopping, and papa went to see Gen. Grant. After we had finnished doing our shopping, we went home to the hotel together. When we entered our rooms in the hotel, we saw on the table a vase full of exquisett red roses. Mamma who is very fond of flowers, exclaimed, “Oh I wonder who could have sent them”? We both looked at the card in the midst of the roses, and saw that it was written on in papa’s hand writing, it was written in German, “Liebes Geschenk on die Mamma.” Mamma was delighted. Papa came home, and gave mamma her ticket; and after visiting a while with her, went to see Maj. Pond, and mamma and I sat down to our lunch. After lunch most of our time was taken up with packing. And at about 3 o’clock, we went to escort mamma to the train. We got on board the train with her, and stayed with her about 5 minutes; and then we said good bye to her and the train started for Hartford. It was the first time I had ever beene away from home without Mamma in my life, although I was 13 yrs. old. Papa and I rode back to the hotel, and got Maj. Pond, and then went to see the “Brooklyn Bridge” we went across it to Brooklyn on the cars, and then walked back across it from Brooklyn to New York. We enjoyed looking at the beautiful scenery, and we could see the bridge moove under the intense heat of the sun. We had a perfectly delightful time, but wer pretty tired when we got back to the hotel.

  Maj. Pond, and Miss Jessie, a friend of his took dinner with us up in our hotel rooms. They left a little while, after we had finnished dinner and then papa and I went to bed. The next morning we rose early, took our breakfast and took an early train to Poughkeepsie. We had a very pleasant journey to Poughkeepsie, the Hudson, was magnificent shrouded with beautiful mists. When we arived at Poughkeepsie, it was raining quite hard; which fact greatly dissapointed me, because I very much wanted to see the outside buildings of Vassar College, and as it rained, that would be impossible. It was quite a long drive from the station to Vassar College, and papa and I had a nice long time to discuss and laugh over German profanity. One of the German phrases papa particularly enjoys, is “Ah heilige Maria, Mutter Jesus”! Jean has a german nurse and this was one of her phrases, there was a time when Jean exclaimed “Ach Gott!” to every trifle, but when mamma found it out, she was shocked and instantly put a stop to it.

  We at, length reached Vassar College, and she looked very finely, her buildings and her grounds being very beautiful. We went to the front doore and rang the bell, the young girl who came to the doore wished to know who we wanted to see. Evidently we were not expected. Papa told her who we wanted to see, and she showed us to the parlor. We waited no one came; and waited no one came, still no one came, it was beginning to seem pretty awkward, “Well this is a pretty piece of business” papa exclaimed. At length we heard footsteps coming down the long corridors, and Miss C.— . (the lady who had invited papa) came into the room. She greeted papa very pleasantly, and they had a nice little chatt together. Soon the lady Principal also entered the room, and she was very pleasant and agreable. She showed us to our rooms, and said she would send for us when dinner was ready. We went into our rooms, but we had nothing to do for half an hour, exept to watch the rain drops as they fell upon the window panes. At last we were called to dinner and I went down without papa as he never eats anything in the middle of the day. I sat at the table with the lady Principal and enjoyed very much seing all the young girls trooping into the dining room. After dinner I went around the College with the young ladies and papa stayed in his room and smoked. When it was supper time papa went down and ate supper with us and we had a very delightful supper. After supper the young ladies went to their rooms to
dress for the evening, papa went to his room and I went with the Lady Principal. At length the guests began to arive, but papa still remained in his room, until called for. Papa read in the chapell. It was the first time I had ever hurd him read in my life, that is in public. When he came out onto the stage I remember the people [b]ehind me exclaimed “oh how queer he is! “isn’t he funny!” I thought papa was very funny although I did not think him queer. He read “A Trying Situation” and “The Golden Arm” a ghost [story] that he heard dow[n] South when he was a little boy. The Golden Arm papa had told me before but he had startelled me so that I did not much wish to hear it again. But I had resolved this time to [be] prepared and not to let myself be startled. But still papa did and very, very much, he startled the whole room full of people and they [jumped] as one man. The other story was also very funny and interesting and I enjoyed the [reading] inexpressibly much. After papa had finnished reading, we all went down to the Collation in the dining-room. And after that there was dancing and singing then the guests went away. And papa and I went to bed. The next morning we rose early took an early train for Hartford and reached Hartford at ½ past 2 o’clock. We were very glad to get back. *****