24 May 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CtB, UCCL 01236)
I was delighted, yesterday morning, at breakfast, to learn that Mr. Barnum was in the library. When I got there it was a Mr. Barnard 1explanatory note—a stranger who had come to put in his time & put out mine. I ought to have killed him, but as it was Sunday I let him go.
Many, many thanks for the last instalment of ltt letters. I am learning to play on the pig-tail whistle.2explanatory note
letter docketed by Barnum: Mark Twain | May 24.
Unidentified.
Nothing is known of this batch of peculiar letters. Previously, on 23 March, Barnum had forwarded a little girl’s request for a musical instrument and an offer of a petrified fox. And on 24 March, he wrote that “your package of ‘queer letters’ is again increasing” (CU-MARK).
References
- Bridgeport Public Library, Bridgeport, 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 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
- University of California, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, Berkeley
MS facsimile. The editors have not seen the MS, which is in the Bridgeport Public Library, Bridgeport, Conn. (CtB).
L6 , 486.