to Jervis Langdon
26 February 1870 • Buffalo, N.Y. (MS: CtHMTH, UCCL 00433)
lc
Your note came to late in all respects, I had already written Mr and Mrs Barnard,1explanatory note such a note as it was it went home unsealed so that Mother could read it if she chose, it was truthful, and yet I think would be satisfactory—
The laundry tubs were already changed when your letter came, and I cannot really regret it, because that selar cellar was very damp— I did wish at the time that I had you here to counsel with at first when your letter cameⒶemendation When your letter came I felt like mourning that I had done it, but I reflected that as I had done to the best of my ability, I would not worry, that is your phylosophy, Father—
The cost of moving the tubs, t carpenter and plumbers work is to be 28.00—they are all moved now— You may readily believe that we shall be slow to make alterations—
I am as happy in housekeeping as you can immagine— I have been all about the house this morning, all through the cellar, told Patrick2explanatory note about looking over a barrell of apples that are decaying— I wish that you and Mother would run up and see us next week. Can’t you do it,? we will rest you like every thing—
I had two disagreeable things to speak with Ellen and Harriet about this morning, and I did dread it, but I went right at it, and being assiled in that thatⒶemendation way the mountain became an anthill and amounted to nothing at all—
I have, as yet had none ofⒶemendation the trouble that ladies groan over, but I suppose a three weeks experience is hardly enough to crow over, Hattie Marsh Tyler was here yesterday and was telling me about how much trouble the Buffalo ladies have with their girls, I hope it will not come to me and some way believe it will not— No more this time dear, darling Father, we do love you with all our hearts. I use we advisedly—
—Love to Grandma, Mother, Sue, 3explanatory note and all, I shall write again today or tomorrow—
Dear Father—It was to please me that Livy moved the wash‐tubs, I maybe—because I said “Let them be moved, Mrs. Clemens—I have hunted high & low & cannot find anything aboutⒶemendation the house to alter or improve, & it is entirely too bad—it is not showing proper respect to a father who pulls his house to pieces all the time—Move the wash‐tubs, madam, into the woodhouse, Madam, pile the wood in the stable & put the horse in the laundry—I tell you something must be altered quick, or your father won’t like it.”
OLC: Mr J. Langdon | Elmira | N.Y. on the flap: lc postmarked: buffalo n.y. feb 26
References
- Mark Twain House and Museum, Hartford, Conn.
- Machlis, Paul, ed. Union Catalog of Clemens Letters. Edited by Paul Machlis. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. [In some cases, UCCL catalog numbers cited in this volume supersede those assigned in 1986 and reflect corrections or additions to the catalog since publication. An updated version of the catalog can be consulted via the Letters Search page at MTPO.] 1986
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 4: 1870–1871. Edited by Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, and Lin Salamo. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1995
- Wecter, Dixon. The Love Letters of Mark Twain. Edited by Dixon Wecter. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1949
MS, Mark Twain House, Hartford (CtHMTH).
L4 , 79–80; LLMT , 147 n. 1, excerpt.
donated to CtHMTH in 1963 by Ida Langdon.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.