13 November 1874 • New Boston, Conn. (Boston Advertiser, 14 Nov 74, UCCL 01151)
We have made thirty-five miles in less than five days. This demonstrates the thing can be done. Shall now finish by rail. Did you have any bets on us?
In addition to pasting a clipping of this telegram in his journal, Twichell saved the following somewhat inaccurate paraphrase of it from the Boston Globe of 14 November:
Mr. Redpath read a despatch from Mark Twain at Wesleyan Hall, last evening, stating that the humorist and his companion, the Rev. J. H. Twichell, having been five days on the road, were now thirty-five miles from Hartford. This, says Mr. Clemens, satisfactorily demonstrates that the thing can be done. The rest of the distance will be traversed by rail. Tell those who bet on us that they have lost. (“Table Gossip,” 4; Twichell, 1:19)
The audience, which was amused by the telegram, was at Wesleyan Hall to hear actor James Morrison Steele MacKaye lecture on the “Language of Gesture.” The Boston Advertiser, below its printing of the telegram text, mistakenly announced that Clemens and Twichell had been present: “They arrived last night and were seen at Mr. James Steele Mackaye’s lecture, after which Mr. Clemens rested from his pedestrian triumph at Mr. Young’s hotel.” Next to the clipping in his journal, Twichell wrote, “a mistake” (“About Town,” Boston Advertiser, 14 Nov 74, 1; Twichell, 1:18; “Amusements,” Boston Evening Transcript, 13 Nov 74, 5).
References
- 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
- Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, New Haven, Conn.
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 6: 1874–1875. Edited by Michael B. Frank and Harriet Elinor Smith. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 2002
- Paine, Albert Bigelow. “Mark Twain: Some Chapters from an Extraordinary Life. Ninth Paper.” Harper’s Monthly Magazine 125 (July): 249–63. 1912
- Paine, Albert Bigelow. Mark Twain: A Biography. By Albert Bigelow Paine. 3 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers. [Volume numbers in citations are to this edition; page numbers are the same in all editions.] 1912
- Twichell, Joseph H. “Personal Journal.” MS of 12 volumes, Joseph H. Twichell Collection, CtY-BR[bib10615]. 1874–1916
“Town Topics,” Boston Advertiser, 14 Nov 74, 1, clipping in Twichell, 1:18, Joseph H. Twichell Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University (CtY-BR).
L6 , 281; “The Following Despatch,” Boston Evening Transcript, 14 Nov 74, 2; Paine 1912, 250; MTB , 1:528.
Twichell’s papers were passed on to his children. Although CtY received some items in 1951 from Joseph H. Twichell and Mrs. Charles Ives, his son and daughter, the main collection was donated in 1967 by Charles P. Twichell, his grandson.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.