My Dear Brother:–

Your very welcome letter contains a great deal of pleasant information.

1. That Livy will soon be well enough to move.

And 2. That we may look for you as a resident of our city. Bliss says he will furnish the information about taxes. I will see him when he comes in and get the figures unless he is going to write you the information himself. He says if you will only write we will take care of your furniture and it shan’t cost you anything. He knows an upper story, new and free of bugs, that can be rented cheap. Besides, we will hunt up any information you want, and do anything else you want done, if you will only write. He is in earnest. He is decidedly worked up about it. He says, put yourself in our place. A new enterprise, in which “Twain” was to be a feature, and so widely advertised. He receives congratulations in New York at the Lotus Club that you and Hay are to write for the paper. Everybody likes it. It starts out booming. Are you going to kick the pail over? Think of yourself as writing for no periodical except the Publisher. “Have you seen Twain’s last?” says one. “It’s in the Publisher.” He goes and buys it because there is no other chance to get it. It gives us prestige. Look how it helps me. I should be an editor with something to edit. This “Publisher” may as well be built up into something large as not. With a great circulation, giving only once a month a taste of “Twain,” to whet people’s appetites for books, it acts as an advertisement, and we have an incentive to “write up” “Twain,” so far as his own efforts leave us anything in that way to do. Under these circumstances, with your pen withdrawn from the Galaxy, and held aloof from small books, and confined to the larger and more elevated description worthy of your mettle, and writing only for us, who publish a paper as a branch of your publisher’s enterprise, you would not be writing too much nor too little, but just exactly enough. Squarely, we must have something from you or we run the risk of going to the dickens. Bliss says he will pay you, but we must have something every number. If you only give us a half column, or even a quarter of a column—a joke or an anecdote, or anything you please—but give us something, so that the people may not brand us as falsifiers, and say we cried “Twain,” “Twain,” when we had no “Twain.” If you don’t feel like writing anything, copy something from your book. Are you going to let the Galaxy have a chapter and give us nothing? If you don’t feel like taking the trouble of copying from the book say we may select something. We shall have time enough if you send some chapters in four or five days, as we you proposed. If you prefer it I will hunt out something from my old file of Californians and send it to you to revamp. That paper never had much circulation east.

Junius Henri Browne and Signor Blitz have books under way. In the first number of the Publisher you may have noticed articles without other than the usual credit, “by Junius Henri Browne,” and “By Signor Blitz.” These were simply extracts from their forthcoming books, put in as original communications for our paper. Why can’t we do that with your book?—that is, when we all get in a tight place like the present.

Mollie suggests another plan of taking care of your furniture. If a house were rented in which the best could be stored and leave a few rooms in which we could “keep house,” using the plainest things, the furniture might be better taken care of and better guarded against the only accident outside of insurance policies—stealing. Fix it to suit yourself and we will attend to it carefully any way you want it done.

Do not understand that we fail or slacken in sympathy for you. We appreciate the sad fact that you have been sorely tried by an affliction which brought with it the shadow of a gigantic and irreperable shadow sorrow, brought it close enough to chill you to the marrow; we do appreciate your exhaustion, your prostration, and the fearful strain it would be to you to attempt now to write for us. I could not have found it in my heart to insist now on the imposition of the least labor upon you if it had not been for the very serious moment the matter is to us—and even then we only insist so far as to request the privilege of copying a little from your book, or using other compositions without present labor to you.

Bliss wants me to say (he read the preceding except the paragraph in relation to Mollie’s proposition) that he was so much troubled about the prospect of not getting you into our next two numbers that he may have forgotten to express the earnest sympathy he feels for you, and wishes me to convey the expression of it to you. He says he laid awake till 2 o’clock last night thinking of your communications for the paper, and of the amount of work he had before him between now and the first of April. He says he wrote you about the taxes—that they are 1½ per cent.

Mollie and I go to-night to a children’s party at Blisss—75 invited, and to-morrow at 6 to tea with a fine lady on Elm Street—Mrs. Sargent. She means to have Hodge and his wife also. Hodge is pastor of our church (Presbyterian) and has had us at his house twice to dinner on Sunday—as we have a long walk. Hodge’s wife has translated some Swiss tracts, which have been published by the Dutch Reformed Church. She has a sister married to Colgate of soap celebrity, and the great telegraph inventor, Morse, is her uncle. She says her Uncle Sidney (five years younger than Morse the telegraph inventor is an enthusiastic inventor, but very quiet, says little, and slowly perfects his inventions. For one he has been offered a hundred thousand dollars by the United States. He refused. He has another under way (though I suppose this is confidential) a new motive power designed to cross the Atlantic in 24 hours. Singular coincidence that it should be so near in the line of what I am trying to do—he working at the engine and I at the wheel—and that without my giving her any more of a hint than that I was merely trying to invent something, she should say that her brother was such a lover of inventions, if she should tell him there was an inventor here wanted his advice it would be her best chance to get him here. My love to Livy and the baby,

Friend Clemens. Your brother has handed me your letters— I cannot conceive what we have done to draw your fire so strongly— I believe some misapprehension exists on your part of the position—& although you interdict the subject, I cannot let it drop without a reply,— If I overpressed you to write monthly for us, I am sorry. I did so denied all intentions to do it at the time—& intended merely to set forth the advantages it would be to us & your brother to have you do it— You say in yours “drop all advertisements about my writing exclusively for the Publisher”

Will you do me the favor to say whether you have seen any advertisements of ours to that effect? We have never made use of this word in any shape, hinted or said such a thing that we are aware of: Again you say, “Say nothing more about my appearing in the paper on any other footing than occasionaly like the other authors” Have you ever seen anything from us that has placed you in any different position—or thrust you prominently forward. In every advt. or card issued by us your name has appeared with the others—& nothing said specially about you— The only special mention made of you by us to my knowledge, was in the excuse for articles last issue, which your brother wrote & inserted on strength of your telegram & says he sent you copies of the paper, naming which pointing out the articles he wrote—& that you did not demur to anything—but wrote “The ‘Pub.” was a splendid success” I send you enclosed the only advertisements or cards—or items—or anything else we have had inserted or used up to last Friday either in our paper or elsewhere— You will note that nothing is inserted as to your writing exclusively or in any other way for us, but simply assume you as a contributor with the rest— We have in no way intimated that you was sponsor or father to the paper or that you had any connections with it except as above in common with other authors & contributors. In what manner then had we erred, or done unjustly towards you—or “wronged” you—? Writing you as a friend I spoke freely in my last, not supposing I was writing to one who would scan every word closely as if written by a stranger— I begged excuse at the time for any seeming overpressing, assuring you I intended none— I spoke of your name as a “right bower” not intending it to be understood we had held up it you up in that form to the public— Nothing has been said outside of on the subject except what appears in five four of our advts. & ind — Should the Publisher go down tomorrow I know of no manner in which your name could be identified with it— We know of no way it is effected by your reputation, except so far as the fact of contr your contributions might aid its sale like those of any other contributor— I repeat in no moment have you been put forward of other authors, except so far as in our lists your name was properly (if at all) put first. I say up to last Friday nothing but the 3 cards & advts. marked 1. 2. & 3 had appeared or been used & no other mention made of you to our knowledge— Wishing to advertise our paper in the Country papers, however we got up the little yellow ticket enclosed—& without intending to assert that you or anyone else had agreed to write for every issue of the paper, but that you & the others named were parties engaged by us & paid, for articles, we used the word regular contributors We used it in contradistinction to voluntary, transient—unknown or unengaged contributors—whose articles are “coming in”— We did not mean to promise that an article from each of these named in the advt. would appear in each issue— I may have been unfortunate in the selection of the word, but of so little importance did I attach to the word regular that your brother & myself had forgotten it was in, until we looked it up last night to scan it We read your letter of the 9th on Friday in which you say “all right”,! I will try to give him” (Bliss) “a chapter from the new book every month or nearly every month for the Publisher” I then sent off some of the papers to the press, (the Country press or small, city papers) with the slip enclosed— I had no doubt in my own mind we had full authority to use your name in the sense we intended to— Some of these tickets have gone to N.E. papers & in to N.Y. State to some portions of the press.

I cannot imagine that that advt. is what has caused the severe tone of your letter—as I hardly think you could have seen it—when yours was written— No paper could have recd it & inserted it by Saturday—even if they had got their copy of it— Hence I am entirely in the dark as to the reasons why you fancy anything has been said or done by us to make you responsible for the success or non success of this paper. Why you feel that you are offering with staking your reputation on it—or acting as sponsor or where you get the idea we are so publishing or know of its being so published. We have seen no notice of our paper referring to you in any way, or connecting you with it, except sometimes mentioning the editor as your brother— Is it possible that some have inferred from that, you was connected with it, & have so stated—such statements meeting your eye? none have come to our notice—

Now then it seems to us, (your brother & myself) that you have seen something in the papers we know nothing about, & that you imagine we have done it—& that taken in connection with our letters you imagine that we are intending to rely on you, lean heavily on you & give out that you are virtually running this paper

This is all wrong. We supposed you would write & furnish us with some little articles—enough to give us the power to quote you as a contributor—that this would be great help to us & aside from that we expected nothing— We announced you as a contributor holding an article in our hands from you for first paper— You withdrew this after the paper had progressed & was to send something else— At the last moment it failed to come—(the excuse was amply sufficient) You telegraphed us to make excuse, we did so, stating you would give us something next number. You saw this in the paper, our list of contributors with your name in, & no demur that I am aware of. Then comes a letter saying you could not write for us. In reply, I attempted to show you our position the present one not the future & how it would effect us to not have an article next issue— People are so ready to believe all to be humbugs. We wanted to avoid this reputation for our paper! As to the future we took occasion to name our wishes—pointed out advantages &c. stating I did not wish to overpress the matter & hoped you would not consider I did— Receive in reply, to the effect All right you will do one of the things I propose, in a measure at least, & I suppose all was understood—this was followed by one written the 10th stating something very similar—when on the 11th your tone changes & your last is written, & endorsed on the 13th We show you fairly all that we have done— What is wrong in it? Please point it out to us, & say in what instance or in what manner we have disconnected you from the other authors & contributors, or made you more prominent—or in any way thrown any responsibility of the paper, or its success on you—except so far as the first forthcoming number is concerned & that seems in in a position when aid from you is almost necessary for our reputation & character—whether we are entitled to that aid we leave for you to judge— As to remuneration for what you should do, I have told your brother which I suppose he has told you that we would pay you well for all you wrote for us. , & I so stated to you in N.Y. I should expect you to set your own price & should pay it— I have asked all to put their own price on articles, wherefore & all have done so & been paid promptly. Your brother may have been so influenced by my seeming distress at the position of affairs—that he wrote more strongly than absolutely necessary. He read the letter to me & I suggested no changes, paying but little attention except to its general tenor— I did not mean him to convey any idea to you that our paper’s success absolutely depended upon your future writing for us, but that that it was in a manner the condition of affairs so far as an article for next issue was concerned as it involved a promise from us, made as your brother & I both supposed, fairly—

The monthly contributions—was a matter to furnish far ahead—on which the public had no powers as we have solicited no subscribers yet, & for 3 months we wish to do all we promise. In this next issue, we shall show our plans., we shall mention the fact that after another issue we shall charge for the paper, that we shall have for contributors such & such writers &c &c Our present advts. are only for the 3. months nothing more— We can honorably place your name before or behind as you may desire & wish—& this brings me to the Card you send. from transcription of missing page 10 The insertion of that conveys the idea of misunderstanding & antagonistic feeling between us. Is it wise to give birth to this? It insinuates also an unfairness in what has been said If you wish anything said after they have read it, it requires up on our part a direct assertion as to what we have said & done Would it not be best to say ourselves that “Mark Twain retires from the Galaxy & his monthly contribution in the “Memoranda” and also from most other periodical literary tasks to devote his time to the publication of his forthcoming book. He will appear in & will write for the Publisher as an occasional contributor.”

Would not this place you right before the public & do us no harm as the advs. of the public paper will be seen only in small Country papers as they were intended only for such & the word regular if not proper there will do you no damage if you do not wish. We can insert your name among contributors as now or add MS continues occasional if it adds anything to it—in meaning—or we can after 3 mos strike your name out altogether if you wish it, although we should much regret to do so, & hope you will not require it—

We think, that as in our paper you never have been never announced in anyway other than as the others have, under the head of contributors no explanation or correction is required— Any items as to your future movements in other papers are hardly worth replying to so long as they are not dishonorable to you— They are read & pass out of sight— Nothing we have said, or done imposes on you any monthly contributions or on us the obligation to furnish them— You are on the same platform with the other authors—have not been claimed as our writer exclusively—have not in any way by us been identified with the paper except as a contributor, same as the rest. Then why the necessity of stirring it up. ? It injures us without doing you any service whatever— If you do not wish to write for us dont do it—we shall endeavor to get on as without your name—& think we shall—but we do think you should at least lift us from the awkward position we are in about our promise for next number—& if you will say whether you are willing your name should stand as a contributor—in the list among others as it does now in the paper, or in what shape you want it—we will arrange it to suit—or & if you wish any explanation of anything said by us, will not such as are properly written out & arranged answer all purposes.

Please excuse my lengthy epistle—I will be brief hereafter as possible—& let me hear from you in reply.