May 1, 1903 Friday

May 1 FridayWilliam Dean Howells wrote to Sam.

Though it isn’t quite down to your level, I don’t wonder you like my literature—it’s nearly all about you. But you’d better take a brace, and try to get up as high as “Putnam Place.” Now you’re sick, I ‘ve a great mind to have it out with [you] about Jane Austen. If you say much more I’ll come out and read “Pride and Prejudice” to you.

Say, that was a mighty good thing of yours on the age of consent. Why is civilization such a carrion of falsehood?—That poor girl and her murdered baby; it made [me] sick to read about her; but one is so limp and helpless in the presence of the injustice which underlies society, and I am getting so old. I’m glad you’re still young.

—Mrs. Howells was born on the 1st of May, well, some years ago, and I called out to her today, when I happened to remember it, “Happy Birthday!” and she called back, “All right; and don’t you say another word about it” [MTHL 2: 769-70].

Note: Howells referred to Sam’s article in the May 2 Harper’s Weekly, “Why Not Abolish It?” Note 3 of the source: “In his article Mark Twain expressed indignation that no action had been taken against the seducer of a girl who had drowned her illegitimate baby and was to receive a life sentence, because she had reached ‘the age of consent.’ He maintained that the law should recognize no such age when self-respect and a family’s reputation were at stake, and by implication urged his readers to sign the petition then being circulated for the girl’s pardon.”

Day By Day Acknowledgment

Mark Twain Day By Day was originally a print reference, meticulously created by David Fears, who has generously made this work available, via the Center for Mark Twain Studies, as a digital edition.   

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