Submitted by scott on

January 20 Thursday – Clemens wrote from Hartford to an unidentified person:

      I have examined the wonderful watch made by M. Matile, & indeed it comes nearer to being a human being than any piece of mechanism I ever saw before. In fact, it knows considerably more than the average voter. It knows the movements of the moon & keeps exact record of them; it tells the days of the week, the date of the month & month of the year, & will do this perpetually; it tells the hour of the day & the minute & the second, & even splits the seconds into fifths & marks the divisions by “stop” hands; having two stop hands, it can take accurate care of two race horses that start, not together, but one after the other; it is a repeater, wherein the voter is suggested again, & musically chimes the hour, the quarter, the half, the three-quarter, & also the minutes that have passed of an uncompleted quarter-hour—so that a blind man can tell the time of day by it to the exact minute.

      Such is this extraordinary watch. It ciphers to admiration; I should think one could add another wheel & make it read & write; still another & make it talk; & I think one might take out several of the wheels that are already in it & it would still be a more intelligent citizen than some that help to govern the country. On the whole I think it is entitled to vote—that is if its sex is the right kind [MTP]. Note: this had been under 1877 with a ? This ran in the Middletown, Conn. Constitution for Jan. 31, 1877, which likely led the earlier surmise it was 1877.

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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