September 17 Thursday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mr. Eaton: “Dear Mr. Eaton I could not do it at any price. I have a thousand pardons for my tardiness—I have been away from home. Sincerely Yours
SL Clemens” [MTP: Christie’s East, 22 Feb. 1995, Item 326]. Note: may be Frank L. Eaton.
Sam also replied to George Gregory Smith’s Sept. 5 letter about the Villa situation and the falling-through of a lease agreement with the Misses Barlow on Villa Papiniano:
Dear Mr. Smith—: / I do not mind losing the Papiniano, but I shall miss the [Barlow] girls. I have been allowing myself to dream that they would consent to live in their house along with us, and play with our girls, and make life gay and innocent and frivolous and refine us, and life us up, and help us to be good so that in time
(the rest of it edited out by the fireside censor)
It is plain that we should not have felt fre, in Papiniano: we should have had no feeling of independence. As for me I should have felt that I was treading upon holy ground all the time, and defiling it with unsanctified feet. That would have angered me, it would have made me wish that that holy ground in hell elsewhere it belonged. I am not grieving about the loss of that sanctuary.
Miraville [another possibility suggested by Smith in his Sept. 5] does seem very attractive. We are a little afraid though that it may not have bed-rooms enough. We occupy 5 although we are but ourselves and two daughters in family. Could you employ some one to pencil off a simple plan of the house marking the sizes of the several rooms? Your brother [Edward Curtis Smith] drew a plan of Papiniano for us which explained the house perfectly. It showed us that we could have 9 bed rooms, besides servant rooms.
As for myself, I lean toward [Villa] La Luna, so I am waiting, with interest for your letter to come.
We are just as grateful to you as we can be, for taking all this trouble for us; and also for vouching for us financially so kindly and heartily; we thoroughly appreciate it. I mean to instruct the bank to send u100 to meet some of the outlays and a possible first payment on some Villa. Of course if it should be an expensive one I will at once send more.
It hurts me, that the [Barlow] girls should have made that unkind remark about contagious diseases, for it was unjust and undeserved. I give you my word I am the only person in this family that is addicted to them in anything like an intemperate and profligate way, and with the blessing of God I am breaking myself gradually, insomuch that I have hardly any of them this week. Sulphur is all I am using now. / Sincerely yours…[Orth 36; MTPO]. Note: Sam’s response suggests he knew the Misses Barlow.
Sam’s notebook: “Shylock Bliss stands out for his trifle of royalties” [NB 46 TS 24].
The Washington Times, p.5, ran an article with Sam’s Sept. 1 letter to Mark Bennett of the World’s Fair offices, St. Louis.
TWAIN WOULD RIDE WITH MONK’S GHOST
Great Humorist Who Immortalized Stage Driver Talks of St. Louis Exhibit.
That stage driver of the pioneer days played an important part in the development of the great West, and fairly won a place in the national history, is evidenced by the deep interest that has been aroused by the announcement that the Hank Monk relics will be exhibited by Nevada at the World’s Fair, St. Louis.
It has been announced that J. A. Yerrington, [sic Yerington] Nevada’s executive commissioner, has secured the old coach that Hank Monk drove—the one in which he took Horace Greeley into Placerville “on time,” and will use it at the World’s Fair as the coach of State for Nevada.
In “Roughing It” Mark Twain’s first famous book, Hank Monk was immortalized by the famous humorist, when he described the celebrated drive by which Hank Monk got the great editor into Placerville in time to keep a lecture engagement.
Dr. Clemens, at his picturesque Quarry Farm, in Elmira, N.Y., remembers well the thrilling early days, and when information reached him of Mr. Yerrington’s intention to exhibit the Hank Monk relics he said:
“This announcement brings a weight of years down upon my head. Those two names carry me back thirty-two years—Hank Monk and Yerrington. I think I was present when the watch was given Monk, but one cannot be very sure of things that happened in such ancient times. I am only sure that I knew Monk a little and that I knew Mr. Yerrington’s father well. I made one trip with Monk in that old stage; I wish I could be in St. Louis on my day next June and make one with his ghost.”
Hank Monk was a New Yorker, having been born in Waddington, St. Lawrence county. He was a stage driver all his life. He spent his early years driving a stage between Wellington and Massena. George A. Monk, a brother of the famous stage driver, now lives in Gouvernor, N. Y., and a sister, Mrs. R. N. Kellog lives in Hartford, Conn. George A. Monk has a number of relics that he will loan Mr. Yerrington [sic J.A. Yerington] and they will be added to the World’s Fair collection.
“Hank always had a desire to drive stage,” said Mr. Monk in speaking of the proposed exhibit, “from the days when he was a mere boy at Waddington, and could scarcely trudge around and was only strong enough to snap a whip with great exertion of his little arms. When he was only twelve years old he drove stage from Waddington to Massena, and I am told by the older residents of the town that he was a good driver, even at that early age.
“Hank was born in Waddington in 1828. He was the eldest of a family of four children. Our family was of the same origin as the good Vermont stock in ‘Eben Holden.’ Grandfather and grandmother came from Vermont in 1809, making the journey to Waddington through the woods. When Hank first took the Waddington-Massena route many shook their heads and said he was too young, but he showed the doubters that he was a natural driver.
“When gold was discovered in 1849 Hank wanted to make a trip to the coast. Mother objected strongly, and he deferred the trip for a time, holding to the stage route while he remained in this part of the country. But when he was twenty-four years of age, in 1852, the fever was too much for him and he went West. The next time the people at home heard from him he was driving a six-horse stage coach in the Sierras. For many years he drove the Wells-Fargo stage, from Sacramento to Placerville. It was here that he first became acquainted with Joaquin Miller, California’s poet, who later won such fame in verse.
“Hank was running out of Virginia City when Horace Greeley made the trip to Placerville, which is described by Dr. Clemens in ‘Roughing It.’ The distance was forty miles and the trip was made in four hours.
“Nearly everyone on the coast and directly east of the mountains came to know my brother, either personally or by repute, as early as the sixties, and gradually his reputation crossed the divide, and came through the East. He was an adventurous fellow, but he took no chances when his coach was loaded. He died in 1883.”
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[Note: Henry Marvin Yerington (spelled with one “r”) (b. 1828) went to Carson City in 1863, the same year Sam worked for the Territorial Enterprise, and covered the Legislative meetings (See Vol. I). Yerington became one of Carson’s most prosperous business men. Among his earliest work was the construction of the Merrimac mill for the crushing of Comstock ore, the first mill in the state of that description, which stood on the Carson river. He then was involved in railroad construction and from 1868 to 1910 was Superintendent for the Virginia City Truckee RR. He is likely the Yerington whom Sam remembered knowing well. Henry had three sons including the J.A. Yerington of this article. Yerington, Nevada is named after him. Source: A History of the State of Nevada: Its Resources and People, by Thomas Wren, 1904]
Chatto & Windus’ Jan. 1, 1904 statement to Clemens shows 1,500 2s.0d. copies of TS were printed, for a total printed to date of 43,500 [1904 Financials file MTP].