And to offset that one jest, the Tribune paid me one compliment Dec.23, by publishing my note declining the New York New England dinner, while merely (in the same breath,) mentioning that similar letters were read from General Sherman and other men whom we all know to be persons of real consequence.
Well, my mountain has brought forth its mouse, and a sufficiently small mouse it is, God knows.And my three weeks' hard work have got to go into the ignominious pigeon-hole.Confound it, I could have earned ten thousand dollars with infinitely less trouble.However, I shouldn't have done it, for I am too lazy, now, in my sere and yellow leaf, to be willing to work for anything but love.....I kind of envy you people who are permitted for your righteousness' sake to dwell in a boarding house;not that I should always want to live in one, but I should like the change occasionally from this housekeeping slavery to that wild independence.A life of don't-care-a-damn in a boarding house is what Ihave asked for in many a secret prayer.I shall come by and by and require of you what you have offered me there.
Yours ever, MARK.
Howells, who had already known something of the gathering storm, replied: "Your letter was an immense relief to me, for although Ihad an abiding faith that you would get sick of your enterprise, I wasn't easy until I knew that you had given it up.
Joel Chandler Harris appears again in the letters of this period.
Twichell, during a trip South about this time, had called on Harris with some sort of proposition or suggestion from Clemens that Harris appear with him in public, and tell, or read, the Remus stories from the platform.But Harris was abnormally diffident.Clemens later pronounced him "the shyest full-grown man" he had ever met, and the word which Twichell brought home evidently did not encourage the platform idea.
To Joel Chandler Harris, in Atlanta:
HARTFORD, Apl.2, '82.
Private.
MY DEAR MR.HARRIS,--Jo Twichell brought me your note and told me of his talk with you.He said you didn't believe you would ever be able to muster a sufficiency of reckless daring to make you comfortable and at ease before an audience.Well, I have thought out a device whereby Ibelieve we can get around that difficulty.I will explain when I see you.
Jo says you want to go to Canada within a month or six weeks--I forget just exactly what he did say; but he intimated the trip could be delayed a while, if necessary.If this is so, suppose you meet Osgood and me in New Orleans early in May--say somewhere between the 1st and 6th?
It will be well worth your while to do this, because the author who goes to Canada unposted, will not know what course to pursue [to secure copyright] when he gets there; he will find himself in a hopeless confusion as to what is the correct thing to do.Now Osgood is the only man in America, who can lay out your course for you and tell you exactly what to do.Therefore, you just come to New Orleans and have a talk with him.
Our idea is to strike across lots and reach St.Louis the 20th of April--thence we propose to drift southward, stopping at some town a few hours or a night, every day, and ****** notes.
To escape the interviewers, I shall follow my usual course and use a fictitious name (C.L.Samuel, of New York.) I don't know what Osgood's name will be, but he can't use his own.
If you see your way to meet us in New Orleans, drop me a line, now, and as we approach that city I will telegraph you what day we shall arrive there.
I would go to Atlanta if I could, but shan't be able.We shall go back up the river to St.Paul, and thence by rail X-lots home.
(I am ****** this letter so dreadfully private and confidential because my movements must be kept secret, else I shan't be able to pick up the kind of book-material I want.)If you are diffident, I suspect that you ought to let Osgood be your magazine-agent.He makes those people pay three or four times as much as an article is worth, whereas I never had the cheek to make them pay more than double.
Yrs Sincerely S.L.CLEMENS.
"My backwardness is an affliction," wrote Harris....."The ordeal of appearing on the stage would be a terrible one, but my experience is that when a diffident man does become familiar with his surroundings he has more impudence than his neighbors.Extremes meet."He was sorely tempted, but his courage became as water at the thought of footlights and assembled listeners.Once in New York he appears to have been caught unawares at a Tile Club dinner and made to tell a story, but his agony was such that at the prospect of a similar ordeal in Boston he avoided that city and headed straight for Georgia and safety.
The New Orleans excursion with Osgood, as planned by Clemens, proved a great success.The little party took the steamer Gold Dust from St.Louis down river toward New Orleans.Clemens was quickly recognized, of course, and his assumed name laid aside.The author of "Uncle Remus" made the trip to New Orleans.George W.Cable was there at the time, and we may believe that in the company of Mark Twain and Osgood those Southern authors passed two or three delightful days.Clemens also met his old teacher Bixby in New Orleans, and came back up the river with him, spending most of his time in the pilot-house, as in the old days.It was a glorious trip, and, reaching St.Louis, he continued it northward, stopping off at Hannibal and Quincy.'
To Mrs.Clemens, in Hartford:
QUINCY, ILL.May 17, '82.
Livy darling, I am desperately homesick.But I have promised Osgood, and must stick it out; otherwise I would take the train at once and break for home.
I have spent three delightful days in Hannibal, loitering around all day long, examining the old localities and talking with the grey-heads who were boys and girls with me 30 or 40 years ago.It has been a moving time.I spent my nights with John and Helen Garth, three miles from town, in their spacious and beautiful house.They were children with me, and afterwards schoolmates.Now they have a daughter 19 or 20 years old.