To John L. RoBards
2 August 1882 • Elmira, N.Y. (MS, in pencil: MoHM, UCCL 02248)
2 August 1882 • Elmira, N.Y. (MS, in pencil: MoHM, UCCL 02248)
Elmira, N.Y., Aug. 2.
Dear John—
What promise? I hardly ever make one—and never make one that it is any trouble to keep. Tell me about this one (for I have forgotten it utterly) & if it isn’t any trouble to keep it, I’ll keep it, as sure as you live—otherwise I’ll add it, without a twinge of conscience, to the million of the ◊◊ same kind that went before it.
These be damnable morals, I grant it, but they are the only kind for a man with a bad memory who is called upon every week to fulfill some long forgotten old promise long since debarred by the statute of limitations.
Erzähle!
Truly Yours,
S. L. Clemens
References
- Mark Twain Museum, Hannibal, Mo.
- 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
- Microfilm Edition of Mark Twain’s Previously Unpublished Letters. Prepared by Anh Quynh Bui, Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, Robert H. Hirst, Lin Salamo, and Harriet Elinor Smith. 8 vols. Berkeley: The Bancroft Library. 2001
MS, in pencil, MoHM.
MicroPUL, reel 2.