per
Telegraph Operator
18 February 1869 • Franklin, Pa. (Paraphrase: Geneseo N.Y. Genesee
Valley Herald, 24 Feb 69, UCCL 04736)
The Y. M. A. had nearly completed arrangements for his lecture, and were still at work, about 10 o’clock on Thursday forenoon, when a telegram was received saying that he was “unavoidably detained,” and could not reach here that evening. Telegrams were sent him, and all possible means employed to get him here that evening, if possible, but, of course they were of no avail. He having said that he would be in Elmira until the 22d inst., telegrams and letters were sent him there,1explanatory note
According to the Rochester (N.Y.) Chronicle, Clemens sent a dispatch to Geneseo “to say that he had been delayed somewhere in Pennsylvania and missed the train” (“‘Mark Twain’ disappointed . . . ,” 20 Feb 69, 3, TS in CU-MARK). He later implied that he telegraphed from Franklin: “while I could have made Geneseo easily enough from Titusville, I couldn’t do it from Franklin. So I telegraphed them to stop the lecture & send my bill, which they did. I paid it—$22.25” (27 and 28 Feb 69 to Fairbanksclick to open link). The Genesee Valley Herald, whose account of Clemens’s communications is preserved verbatim in this and the next three letter texts, called his “non-arrival” a “sore disappointment, not only to the Young Men’s Association, but to many in this and surrounding towns” (“Mark Twain’s Lecture,” 3). The Young Men’s Association of Geneseo Academy sponsored various extracurricular programs, chief of which was “engaging prominent lecturers of the time to speak in Geneseo” (La Vigne, 1). Geneseo Academy (originally called Temple Hill Academy) was erected in 1826 and was an affiliate of the Buffalo Synod of the Presbyterian church (French, 141–42, 383 n. 9). For Clemens’s own account of his experience with the Young Men’s Association, see 2 Mar 69 to OLLclick to open link.
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
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 3: 1869. Edited by Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, and Dahlia Armon. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1992
- LaVigne, Gary W. “Mark Twain’s Visit to Geneseo.” Livingston (N.Y.) Republican, 7 September, 1, 6. Reprinted in Twainian 20 (November–December): 1–4. 1961
- University of California, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, Berkeley
- French, John Homer. Gazetteer of the State of New York. Syracuse, N.Y.: R. Pearsall Smith. Citations are to the 1980 reprint edition, Interlaken, N.Y.: Heart of the Lakes Publishing. 1860
Paraphrase, “Mark Twain’s Lecture,” Geneseo (N.Y.) Genesee Valley Herald, 24 Feb 69, 3, PH of newsprint in the History Research Office, County of Livingston, Geneseo, N.Y.
L3 , 109–110; see Copy-text; LaVigne, 6, paraphrase.
The original telegram is not known to survive.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.