4–5 September 1863
On 13 September 1863 the San Francisco Golden Era reprinted this spirited sketch from the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise of unknown date. In a brief prefatory remark the Era noted: “In the Territorial Enterprise appears a ‘Letter from Lake Bigler,’ signed ‘Grub’ and addressed personally to ‘Mr. Twain’—and that rough and ready writer last named, who does the humorous local columns of the aforesaid journal, discourses his friend ‘Grub,’ thus wise.” Clemens' remark in the last sentence (“I mean to start to Lake Bigler myself, Monday morning, or somebody shall come to grief”) may indicate that the piece appeared as early as August 10 or 11, just before he did in fact go there to try to cure his cold (see “Letter from Mark Twain,” no. 58). Yet it seems unlikely that the Era waited for more than a month to reprint such an item, and in fact Mark Twain's cold persisted into early September. Although he may have been contemplating another trip to Tahoe, he evidently decided to go to San Francisco instead, leaving Virginia City on September 5 (see the headnote to “Letter from Mark Twain,” no. 62). This suggests that the piece probably appeared sometime late in the first week of September, while he was still writing the local columns for the Enterprise.
Clemens' enduring admiration for Lake Tahoe's beauty dated from his first visit to the lake in the late summer of 1861.1 The lake was discovered in 1844 by John Frémont and Charles Preuss. It was named Bigler in 1852 after Democrat John Bigler, California's third governor (1852–1858). Bigler's southern sympathies led Union supporters in 1861 to question the propriety [begin page 289] of naming the lake after him. The name “Tahoe” was suggested in 1862 and gradually won public acceptance.2
In chapter 20 of The Innocents Abroad Clemens asserted that “Tahoe” meant “grasshopper soup, the favorite dish of the Digger tribe—and of the Pi-utes as well.” The word actually comes from the Washoe Indian dialect and is usually translated “big water” or “lake water.”3
Hope Ⓐemendation some early bird will catch this Grub the next time he calls Lake Bigler by so disgustingly sick and silly a name as “Lake Tahoe.” I have removed the offensive word from his letter and substituted the old one, which at least has a Christian English twang about it whether it is pretty or not. Of course Indian names are more fitting than any others for our beautiful lakes and rivers, which knew their race ages ago,Ⓐemendation perhaps, in the morning of creation, but let us have none so repulsive to the ear as “Tahoe” for the beautiful relic of fairy-landⒶemendation forgotten and left asleep in the snowy Sierras when the little elves fled from their ancient haunts and quitted the earth. They say it means “Fallen Leaf”—well suppose it meant fallen devil or fallen angel, would that render its hideous, discordant syllables more endurable? Not if I know myself. I yearn for the scalp of the soft-shell crab—beⒶemendation he injunⒶemendation or white man—who conceived of that spoony, slobbering, summer-complaint of a name. Why, if I had a grudge against a half-price nigger, I wouldn't be mean enough to call him by such an epithet as that; then, how am I to hear it applied to the enchanted mirror that the viewless spirits of the airⒺexplanatory note make their toilets by, and hold my peace? “Tahoe”—it sounds as weak as soup for a sick infant. “Tahoe” be—forgotten! I just saved my reputation that time. In conclusion, “Grub,” I mean to start to Lake Bigler myself, Monday morning,Ⓐemendation or somebody shall come to grief.
Mark Twain.Ⓐtextual note Ⓐemendation
The first printing in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, probably on 4 or 5 September 1863, is not extant. The sketch survives in the only known contemporary reprinting of the Enterprise, the San Francisco Golden Era 11 (13 September 1863): 3, which is copy-text. Copy: PH from Bancroft.