The Letters Of Mark Twain, Volume 1, 1853-1866

ame to an end for Mark

our Sack Sanitary Fund

g It. He does not,

ecial fund brought upo

ce one night, after

wrote, for next day

playful, but which pro

ned with the flour-sa

ay, so we cannot judge

rred up

was genuine enough,

to humiliate its enem

forth until nothing w

f this duel, which did

ewhere, both by Mark

ing letter-a revelatio

offense-has never b

tler, in C

, May 23

. K. C

tted, or who has shown any disposition to be lenient with me. Had the note of the ladies been properly worded, I would have published an ample apology instantly-and possibly I might even have done so anyhow, had that note arrived at any other time-but it came at a moment when I was in the midst of what ought to have been a deadly quarrel with the publishers of

nk you very kindly and sincerely for the consideration you have shown me in this matter, and for your continued frien

truly

L. CL

with the failure of t

ed, making it a felony

on the whole, rather

a good time to go acr

Gillis, a printer, o

who had been more th

was to have served as

in due time was in th

n the Mor

eral times in San Fr

tter of that summer,

is arrival. He was sti

and contributing li

h Bret Harte, unknow

just above the rooms

nds. San Francisco had

ast, centered around t

follows Clemens woul

he was a frequent co

was of this band of l

rles Warren Stoddard,

us C.

ens and Mrs. Moff

25,

ing where I was never out of sight of snow peaks twenty-four hours during three years. Here we have neither snow nor

to be married, in a week or two, to a very pretty girl worth $130,000 in her own right

rooms or with the people-we are the only lodgers in a well-to-do private family, with one grown daughter and a piano in the parlor adjoining our room. But I need a change, and must mov

lks to pay me $25 a week and let me work only in daylight. So I get up at ten every morning, and quit work at five or

le a week, fifty dollars a month. I quit the "Era," long ago. It wasn't high-toned enough. The "Californian" circulates among

st night for the Californian, so that lets me out for two weeks. T

here, by railroad. Town of 6,000 inhabitants, buried in flowers and shrubbery. The climate is finer tha

to the city of Mexico, to be gone six or eight weeks, or possibly longer, but I could not

office-Massey's undertaker establishment, a few weeks ago. I published the wickedest article on th

as a population of 130,000. They d

af

A

, and one for Aunt Ella-th

ll ceased before the

cribed in Roughing It

ishaps, and to show h

of fact, he left

n immediately contrib

brought him a satisfac

ketch with which this

has been told the stor

letters, and of Mark

uolumne Hills. Also h

eard the frog anecdot

me. There are no lette

. It is probable that

bt, that he had v

here is not a line tha

year; the jumping frog

ed East and West, and

had not come to him,

eems not to have

ens and Mrs. Moff

ISCO, Jan

s so uneventful. I wish I was back there piloting up and down the

should single out a villainous backwoods sketch to compliment me on! "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog"-a squib which

ne, generally speaking, and it could be no cred

e New York correspondence

ng past

the Saturday Press of

mping Frog,' has set a

have made his mark.

author, and the paper

the best thing of

keep Mark all to its

ely without first bein

rnia p

Co. gave the sketch to the Saturday Press

nts me to club a lot of old sketches together with a lot of his, and publish a book. I wouldn't do it, only he agrees to take all the trouble. But I want to know whether we are going to make any

rs

A

ns had by this time

te to Eastern periodi

th Coast journalism. T

the Sandwich Islands,

to paper to spy out t

ons there. His lett

this was somethi

ens and Mrs. Moff

SCO, March

e days. My friends seem determined that I shall not lack acquaintances, for I only decided today to go, and they have already sent me letters of introduction to everybody down there worth knowing. I am to remain th

the Columbia river, the Pend d'Oreille Lakes, through Montana and down the M

for the

ur

A

the islands are nume

so delightful that he

l young enough to air

dined with the Grand

it the

f the islands exactly

them-always planning

ed. In one of his note

ol, vine-shaded home;

s land of happy cont

California a

ag

ere are on the

ever fade and the

story of his sojourn,

rly five

ens and Mrs. Moff

WICH ISLANDS,

lds-I guess I will bring you some of them. I went with the American Minister and took dinner this evening with the King's Grand Chamberlain, who is related to the royal family, and although darker than a mulatto, he has an excellent English education and in manners is an accomplished gentleman. The dinner was as ceremonious as any I ever atten

gone I shall sail for the other islands of the group and visit th

r

A

ens and Mrs. Moff

SUGAR PL

AUI, H. I.,

darkest country, when the moon don't shine; I stumbled and fell over my

gether too spirited; I went to tighten the cinch before mounting him, when he let out with his left leg (?) and kicked me across a ten-acre lot. A native rubbed and doctored me so

Haleakala-the largest in the world; it is ten miles to the foot of the mountain; it rises 10,000 feet above the valley; the crater is

d Hah-wy-ye,) to see the greatest active volcano in the world-that of Kilauea (pronounced Kee-low-way-ah)-and from thence back to San Francis

s

A

ious time-one of the

eer. No form of trave

ce Mark Twai

n Clemens, i

U, May

ive weeks there, riding backwards and forwards among the sugar plantations-looking up the splendid scene

ught of business, or care or human toil or trouble or s

at active volcano of Kilauea. I shall not get back here for four or five

ait for me to go hom

op the publication of a piratical boo

e-good-by

B

A

ens and Mrs. Moff

DWICH ISLANDS

tain road in the world. I staid at the volcano about a week and witnessed the greatest eruption that has occurred for years. I lived well there. They charge $4 a day for board, and a dollar or two extra for guides and horses. I had

d of Kauai, to be gone three weeks

ance and dance for the dead, around the King's Palace all night and ev

around-so I climbed out of bed and dressed and shaved pretty quick and went up to the residence of the American Minister and called on them. Mr. Burlingame told me a good deal about Hon. Jere Clemens and that Virginia Clemens who was wounded in a duel. He was in Congress years with both of them. Mr. B. sent for his son, to intro

I could get his views on this new condition of Sandwich Island politics, I would sail for California at onc

that I ever knew in Hannibal and Palmyra. We used to sit up all night talking and then sleep all day. He lives like a Prince. Confound that Isl

ds of the language. Take it altogeth

s Af

A

lkenburgh were on the

he islands just at th

nce to Mark Twain.

ry of the newspaper l

ote to his mother and

vives, in which he te

vors of the ship Horn

the first news repor

. Jane Clemens and Mrs.

U, June

sorts of things to accommodate me. You know how I appreciate that kind of thing-especially from such a man, who is acknowledged to have no superior in the diplomatic circles of the world, and obtained from China concessions in favor of America which were refused to Sir Frederick Bruce and Envoys of France and Russia until procured for them by Burlingame himself-which service was duly acknowledged by those dignitaries. He hunted me up as soon as he came here, and ha

how thi

rs

A

ll be buried tomorrow with great ceremony-a

Twain's personal let

ws letters there were

readers of the Union

letters to-day it is

were set in fine no

day eyes simply refus

ay standards, is not

the Union with the is

te March 18th-tells o

or in it is not alwa

humor today at all.

tters in 1866 (he was

later, have written th

s a phenomenon in l

however, do show the t

mor of the Comstock an

in the Innocents Ab

nding itself, and his

personality of Anson

y. Burlingame pointed

better way. No more

bring about a

letters, however, mus

ience-a little more

ss subtle than the At

his Coast prestige.

m the first Sandwi

orm, continued with a case of wine, a small assortment of medicinal liquors and brandy, several boxes of cigars, a bunch of matches, a fine-toothed comb, and a cake of soap, and ended with a pair of socks. (N. B. I gave the

e to imagine humor in

le of the e

xt, at least, in desc

. In this letter, als

tic strain, of the gre

n Francisco and Hawaii

he ports, in order th

ns, by which course

perseded. But the hum

scarcely provoke

e, he still urges the

ates, finds himself im

have converted canni

ue bits of the

ted chiefly by French

ests were by n

from let

g. That's him in the buggy. I kn

bearded; green frock-coat, with lapels and collar bordered with gold band an inch wide; plug hat, broad gol

river of one of the nobility. The king wasn't present at all. It was a great disappointment to me. I heard afterwards that the comfortable, easy-going king, Ka

the flavor of the man

ignation to disappoint

uches in

I had not shaved sinc

re I hunted up a stri

ad a yearning to be a

any rate, it will alw

am not a king, I am

haved by the

of cats. He saw cat

saw cats-tomcats, Mar

-eyed cats, wall-eyed

s, white cats, yello

ts, wild cats, singed

ns of cats, companies

illions of cats, and

d asleep." Which i

e humor we were to k

tion, in which he

during his periods of

not so fond of looking

s, "that swathe the s

uld idle less, and w

se of his letters. So

dently they were popul

, handsome paper-bea

press-work; more beau

machine-set type, thei

ghtning presses. A

e are those trifling

y call Manilas-ten fo

nd of them to be worth

thirty-five dollars'

othing but a despera

and take

rs form about half th

Kanakas and mercanti

fourth is made up of

and there are just ab

un

, he says: "An excursi

rove, was planned to-

alf a dozen gentlemen

ointed hour except mys

utes past five o'clock

rcumstance that Cap.

calls his top buggy

horse that was here

the savor of his subs

es poorly with that wh

the natives singing Am

rching Through Geor

ys: "If it had been

gone around by the wa

arching thro

10 were not of specia

to San Francisco as

rs. H

vise San Francisco as

ure the whaling trade,

pulling" sea captains

up, and show the w

on when he

he tells of a trip to

ts. At one place he l

eha I. drove the army

entury

ry of the tropics attr

ies unknown had taken

d around and about th

ed their meeting ten

with all his art, cou

met

alace, "The Bungalow,"

cost of from thirty to

shone its regal neigh

to decay after passin

resque Theban ruin by

si

(written May 23d), he

is trip to the island

o pleasant a month bef

so reg

s the Legislature, an

is six feet high, bon

tands so straight he l

is head long, up and d

oratory all show and p

weak, insipid, and a

ublished July 16th, he

he Princess Victoria K

to him, of the arriv

a, and Gen. Van Valken

stay ten or fourteen

ade to have them

: "Burlingame is a man

r anywhere, no matter

s." Then, in the same

rived here yesterday,

Island of Hawaii, of

buffeting a stormy se

ir ship, the Hornet,

n board had taken fire

. west. When they ha

or two, and the cra

lded to the ship-wreck

solemnly drew lots to

furnish food for his

and they saw land. T

(Not yet cor

s fully told in his le

to Honolulu, and with

ens, laid up with sadd

hospital, where, ai

recked men, securing

erious writing he ha

Union-of date June 25

issue of July 19. It

officers and crew,

d members

etter

and Co., informing them that a boat, containing fifteen men in a helpless and starving condition, had drifted ashore at Sanpahoe, Island of Hawaii, and that they had belonged to t

nd two passengers, Samuel and Henry Ferguson, of New York City, eighteen and twenty-eight years, are still at Hilo, but are expected her

e terrible narrative,

bstantial form, and

d three and a half col

course, constituted

ey appreciated to the

pon the writer's ret

nd 15. he gives furth

the princess, and fu

who was still in the

are unim

in Mark Twain's life

ways filled with sunl

luminous dream; in th

d ship, becalmed und

tting end of t

ens and Mrs. Moff

SHIP Sm

July 3

North-east trades," but we soon ran out of them. We used them as long as they lasted-hundred of miles-and came dead straight north until exactly abreast of San Francisco precisely straight west of the city in a bee-line-but a long bee-line, as we were about two thousand miles at sea-consequently, we are not a hundred yards nearer San Francisco than you are. And here we lie becalmed on a glassy sea-we do not move an inch-we throw banana and orange peel overboard and it lies still on the water by the vessel's side. Sometim

thers, in an open boat at sea for forty-three days, lately, after their ship, the "Hornet," was burned on the equator.) Both these boys, and Captain Mit

d calms,-that we shall be two or three weeks at sea

Morning

sets. And the ship is so easy-even in a gale she rolls very little, compared to other vessels-and in this calm we could dance on deck, if we chose. You can walk a crack, so steady is she. Very different

tude of the ocean makes all hands light-hearted and cheerful. We think the ship is the "Comet," which left Honolulu several hours before we did. She is about twelve miles a

chairs on either side against the bulwarks; last Sunday we had the shadow of the mainsail, but today we were on the opposite tack, close hauled, and had the sun. I am leader of the choir on

of us in a dead calm. With the glasses we can see what we take to be men and women on her deck

d all our passengers, without waiting to dress-men, women and children. There was a perceptible breeze. Pretty soon the other ship swept down upon us with all her sails set, and made a fine show in the luminous s

sea in the distant horizon-an almost invisible mark in the bright sky. D

eck and walk seven or eight steps with eyes close shut, and try to find it. They kneel-place elbows against knees-extend hands in front along the deck-place knife against end of fingers-then clasp hands behind back and bend forward and try to pick up the knife with their teeth and rise up from knees without rolling over or losing

read to the breeze and she is speeding over the sea like a bird. There is a large brig right astern of us with all her canvas set and chasing us at her best. She came up fast while the winds were light, but now it is h

We sail directly east-this brings the brig, with all her canvas set, almost in the eye of the sun, when it sets-be

25 days out from Honolulu, both ships entered the Golden Gate of San Francisco side by side, and 300 yards apart. There was a gale blow

d accounts with the Union. They paid me

s

A