February 23 ca. – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to an unidentified person [MTP].

I recognize that Chapter X. of “Captain Jinks” is a successful satire on General Funston—at least almost a successful one. No satire of Funston could reach perfection, because Funston occupies that summit himself, and all other applicants must be content with a stage below. In his own person Funston is a satire incarnated, and exhaustively comprehensive: he is a satire on the human race. He has made the whole race of man ridiculous, including our Government—which has made him a Brigadier General in the regular army, after loftily refusing that very position to a worthier man in civil life at Sing Sing who had nothing against him except that he had robbed a church and skinned his grandmother—improprieties which would really amount to ameliorating decorations for a person under the blight of Funston’s mephitic record.

Mark Twain

Private. Will the above do? Yes, use anything I said about Beard’s pictures.

Sincerely Yours, S. L. Clemens. I wrote a short article about Funston last night for the May North American.

Note: In Dec. 1901 Daniel Carter Beard asked Twain if he would review Captain Jinks by Ernest Howard Crosby. Beard illustrated the book. This paragraph may be the result, and if so, the letter may be to Crosby. See Dec. 11, 1901 entry.