23 June 1870 • Elmira, N.Y. (Paraphrase: Dawson, UCCL 11807)
The other day he did some “tall telegraphing,” as he rightly terms it. His brother-in-law traveling, nobody knew where, in Europe, was wanted home immediately. Mark telegraphed to Monroe & Co., the American bankers in Paris, to telegraph all over Europe and ascertain his where-abouts. In eight hours after sending the dispatch to Monroe & Co. a reply was received here that the brother-in-law was in Bavaria.1explanatory note
The Clemenses had returned to Elmira on 22 June. On 25 June Clemens wrote Mary Mason Fairbanks that “Charley was telegraphed for, day before yesterday.” Clemens sent his telegram to John Munroe and Company, the Wall Street bankers, whose Paris office was at 7 Rue Scribe. The telegram itself has not been found. This paraphrase of it was based on Clemens’s own recollection, on 5 July, in an interview with the Washington correspondent of the Sacramento Union, George F. Dawson (25 June 70 to JLC and familyclick to open link; Wilson 1870, 878; Dawson; Poore 1870, 121).
References
- Dawson, George F. “Letter from Washington.” Sacramento Union, 19 July, 1. 1870
- 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 4: 1870–1871. Edited by Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, and Lin Salamo. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1995
- Wilson, H., comp. Trow’s New York City Directory, . . . Vol. LXXXIV For the Year Ending May 1, 1871. New York: John F. Trow. 1870
- Poore, Benjamin Perley, comp. Congressional Directory for the Second Session of the Forty-First Congress of the United States of America. 2d ed. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1870
Paraphrase in George F. Dawson, “Letter from Washington,” Sacramento Union, 19 July 1870, 1.
L4 , 155.